Victor Context Flashcards
(8 cards)
Victor context point one-death and loss
Death and Loss in Mary Shelley’s Life
Victor’s obsession with reanimating the dead reflects Mary Shelley’s deep grief after losing her children and mother.
Mary Shelley’s Journal, March 19, 1815
Victor context point two-absence of mothers
Victor creates life without a mother, echoing Mary Shelley’s loss of her own mother and the absence of nurturing figures in her life.
Mary Shelley lost her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, shortly after birth, and scholars like Anne Mellor argue that Frankenstein explores the dangers of a “masculine science” that excludes women.
Anne Mellor (1988), Mary Shelley: Her Life, Her Fiction, Her Monsters.
Victor context point three-Percy Bysshe Shelley
Victor resembles Percy Shelley in his obsessive idealism and lack of emotional responsibility.
Percy Shelley’s poem Alastor (1816), often considered autobiographical, describes a lone poet destroyed by his pursuit of an unattainable ideal.
Victor context point four-romantic vs enlightenment conflict
Victor embodies Enlightenment hubris; Shelley critiques it through Romantic values like emotion and moral restraint.
In Political Justice (1793), Mary’s father William Godwin emphasized reason, but Mary diverged from his rational optimism.
Victor context point five-Mary Shelley’s interest in galvanism
Victor’s scientific experimentation mirrors Shelley’s interest in galvanism and contemporary science.
Mary heard about Giovanni Aldini’s public galvanism experiments, where dead bodies were animated with electricity.
These were discussed during the famous 1816 “Year Without a Summer” at Lake Geneva.
Victor context point six-isolation and alienation
Victor’s obsessive isolation reflects Mary’s own experience of social and emotional isolation — as a motherless woman, an exile, and a scandalous figure.
In The Journals of Mary Shelley, she repeatedly laments being misunderstood, alienated from family, and without a stable home.
Journal entry, September 14, 1815
Victor context point seven-guilt and responsibility
Victor’s guilt over the creature parallels Mary’s possible guilt over personal tragedies, such as the death of her children or estrangement from family.
Biographer Miranda Seymour, in Mary Shelley (2000), explores Mary’s internalization of guilt.
Victor context point eight-feminist heritage
Victor’s unnatural creation and rejection of women’s roles (e.g., refusing to create a female creature) reflects Mary Shelley’s critique of patriarchal control over life and creation.
Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792).