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Mary Shelley's Influence On Frankenstein

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The success of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, established the idea that women could be successful in fields dominated by men, such as writing. Mary Shelley’s mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, had been an advocate for women’s rights while she had been alive, and the idea that women could compete and surpass men in their own field continued that work, establishing respect for women as writers. The novel also helped to create the genre known as science fiction, as it was the first widely successful novel that showcase the genre’s themes, and as such, was influential in the writing of countless other writers, who mimicked the themes present in the novel. Without Mary Shelley’s influence in the field of writing, science …show more content…

Mary Shelley’s mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, had been an advocate for women’s rights while she had been alive, and the idea that women could compete and surpass men in their own field continued that work, establishing respect for women as writers. The novel also helped to create the genre known as science fiction, as it was the first widely successful novel that showcase the genre’s themes, and as such, was influential in the writing of countless other writers, who mimicked the themes present in the novel. Without Mary Shelley’s influence in the field of writing, science fiction would likely not exist, or at least not be as popular a genre as it is today. She also blazed the way for other female writers to publish their works, helping to form the literature that is popular around the world, today.
Science Fiction is a genre grounded in valid scientific research, it predicts what the future could look like given new scientific discoveries and it offers a humanistic critique of specific technological inventions or the nature of scientific thinking.1.
The novel presented a biting critique of the science of Mary’s day, which was anti-family and anti-female. 2.
The science presented in the novel, which brings Frankenstein’s monster to life, was based off of a real science experiment done by Luigi Galvani, who proposed that electricity flowed through the nerves, and showed that a dead frog, when shocked with electricity, would jerk and move as if alive because of the stimulation to its

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Society today is greatly affected by science. Cell phones, computers, and social media are just some of the many facets of technology that we use in our everyday lives. To most people, this technology is wonderful, but Mary Shelley provides us with a caveat. In her novel Frankenstein, science and the pursuit of knowledge are recurrent themes. The novel starts off with Walden trying to make a discovery in the North Pole, and follows with a story about how Victor Frankenstein deals with his creation.

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In the award winning article, “Passages in Mary Shelly's Frankenstein: Towards a Feminist Figure of Humanity?” Cynthia Pon addresses masculinity and feminism in terms of conventions, ideals, and practices (Pon, 33). She focused on whether Mary Shelly's work as a writer opened the way to a feminist figure of humanity like Donna Haraway argued. The article has a pre-notion that the audience has read Frankenstein and Haraway's article. Pon has a slight bias, due to her passion as a feminist writer.

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Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein criticizes the human quest for knowledge through science and it highlights the moral implications of such undertakings. By following the story of the “mad scientist”, Victor Frankenstein, we see how a man’s ambition can be his downfall. However, Shelley notes that although it is dangerous to partake in immoral science, this curiosity to know more about the world around us and who we are is human instinct. This essay will consider Hindle’s premise that Frankenstein is a criticism of the “lofty ambition of man”. One could argue that by writing Frankenstein, Shelley was “loftily ambitious”, just like the characters in her novel.

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The classic novel Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley in 1818, displays the use of literary devices, foreshadowing, allusions and figurative language, which aid the reader in understanding the authors opinion on scientific exploration. These techniques are used to arouse anticipation within the reader, therefore engaging them throughout the text. Along with providing a greater understanding of the novel, by referring to other books, and using the novel to portray the authors own perspective on scientific exploration. All these devices are effectively used within the novel to provide a deeper understandings of Mary Shelley’s work. Add scientific exploration here-

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During the Romantic era, Mary Shelley wrote one of her famous book called Frankenstein, which became respected literature of Romantic era. Even though Frankenstein was created mainly to emphasize horror, it rather developed different point of views; it captured many audiences who sought for ideas of science and nature. Throughout the story, Mary Shelley mingled science, human emotions, and nature in order to create supernatural tale that can be understood despite specks of illogical ideas. To make the story as much as smooth as possible without any disbeliefs, Mary Shelley incorporated science and morality in order to enhance her story to be easily absorbed and felt.

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Representation of Scientists in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Towards the end of the 19th century, the portrayal of science in literature became more frequent than before; science has been progressing and it began to spark the interest of the readers of fiction. Supernatural elements in stories have been ascribed to scientists and experiments rather than God and miracles. However, since science still covered much of the unknown and inexplicable, the characters of scientists have occasionally been given almost godlike powers, thus prompting the readers to consider the question of morality. The scientist characters in both Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde have initially been successful with their scientific experiments and achieved groundbreaking discoveries, but have ultimately been punished for having gone too far with their experiments on humanity.

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Science and knowledge are two important factors in society around the 19th century. Mary Shelley supports the connection of these two key topics throughout her writing in the novel, Frankenstein. With her style, structure, and Romantic elements portrayed in the novel, she discusses that scientific progress/knowledge is dangerous and harmful as it places man above God and destroys his morals. This is done by examples of appeals to emotion, imagery, and figures of speech that convey her style and ultimately ends up as support of the previous statement.

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Chapter I Introduction Author Mary Shelley was on August 30, 1797, in London, England. She was the descendant of theorist and political writer William Godwin and renowned feminist Mary Wollstonecraft the author of The Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). Shelley unfortunately didn’t know who her mother was as she died after a short time of her birth. William Godwin who was Shelley father was the only one left to take care of her.

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