Unformatted text preview: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
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Edited by Dr. Stephen C. Behrendt
George Holmes Distinguished Professor of English
University of Nebraska-Lincoln Complete Text + Commentary + Glossary Commentary by Anca Munteanu, Ph.D. HUNGRY MINDS, INC.
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Anca Munteanu earned her Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln
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Shelley’s
Frankenstein CONTENTS AT A GLANCE
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Novel Text and Commentaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
CliffsComplete Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
CliffsComplete Resource Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
CliffsComplete Reading Group
Discussion Guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 CLIFFSCOMPLETE
Shelley’s
Frankenstein TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein . . . . . . . . . 1
Introduction to Mary Shelley. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Introduction to Frankenstein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Character Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Letter 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
Letters 2–3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
Letter 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Chapter 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Chapter 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Chapter 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Chapter 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Chapter 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Chapter 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Chapter 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Chapter 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Chapters 9–10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Chapter 11. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Chapter 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Chapter 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Chapter 14. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Chapter 15. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Chapter 16. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Chapter 17. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Chapters 18–19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Chapter 20. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Chapter 21. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 vi CliffsComplete Shelley’s Frankenstein Chapter 22. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Chapter 23. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Chapter 24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 CliffsComplete Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
CliffsComplete Resource Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
CliffsComplete Reading Group
Discussion Guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN INTRODUCTION TO
MARY SHELLEY
In the introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley presents herself as “the daughter of
two persons of distinguished literary celebrity.” She
was also the lover and wife of one of the most prominent poets of the second generation of Romantics and
the author of the most disturbing novel of the period.
In her time, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley was,
and continues to be, a subject of enormous interest
and fascination. Her life and literary career give insight
into a period of radical transformations, many of them
generated by the two major revolutions of the period:
the Industrial Revolution (1780–1830) and the
French Revolution (1789–93). Mary Shelley’s turbulent life and prolific literary career reflect the hopes
and disillusions of a complex time of transition. They
also reflect the ambiguities inherent in any period—
issues that fundamentally question the old order of
things and, at the same time, envision revolutionary
ways of inaugurating a new social, economic, and
political order.
As her own words reveal, Mary Shelley’s exquisite
parental heritage played an important role in her life
and literary career. The revolutionary works and radical ideas of her parents, and the contradictions
between these ideas and their personal lives, significantly influenced Mary. Frankenstein is dedicated to
her father, and many of the ideas in the novel engage in
a very precise and often critical dialogue with Godwin’s
Political Justice (including his ideas on rationalism,
happiness, technological progress, and moral evil).
Between 1814 and 1816, Mary read almost all her
mother’s books, and Frankenstein also engages in a profound conversation with Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman (on such issues as domestic
affection, education, and the dynamics between
rational and emotional). Grasping all the implications
of Mary Shelley’s novel is difficult without having a
sense of her parents’ social, political, and philosophical ideas. Mary Shelley’s Mother,
Mary Wollstonecraft
A rebellious but sensitive child, Mary Wollstonecraft
grew into a daring and independent young woman.
At 21 years of age, she declared herself against marriage because she perceived it as nothing more than
legalized slavery for women. After her mother’s death,
Mary Wollstonecraft left her home and worked as a
governess.
With the help of Fanny Blood, a close and dear
friend, Wollstonecraft set up a school for girls, and in
1786, she wrote her first book, Thoughts on the Education of Daughters, advocating for an educational system to free women intellectually and economically. At
age 28, she went to London to become a writer. She
wrote a largely autobiographical novel titled Mary: A
Fiction (1788) and met the famous liberal publisher
Joseph Johnson, who hired her as an editor and introduced her to London’s radical intellectuals.
The French Revolution began when Wollstonecraft was 30, and its initial ideals of a new order
based on justice, equality, and freedom, made her one
of the most ardent supporters of the revolution. In
1790, she wrote Vindication of the Rights of Men in
response to a conservative attack on the revolution’s
ideology. In the work, she argues for equality and 2 CliffsComplete Frankenstein to England, but finding Imlay living with an another
woman, she again attempted suicide, this time jumping into the Thames River. Saved by boatmen, Wollstonecraft remained in a state of depression for several
months. Her scandalous affair with Imlay, her out-ofwedlock birth to Fanny, and her suicide attempts all
seriously damaged her reputation and her image in the
popular press of the time.
In April 1796, Mary Wollstonecraft met the radical philosopher William Godwin. They soon became
lovers, but being notoriously against the institution of
marriage (Godwin often described the affair as one of
“property—and the worst of properties.”), lived separately for about a year. Only when Mary became
pregnant with their child did they agree to become a
family for the child’s sake. Mary and William wed at
St. Pancras church in March 1797. The new family
then settled at 29, The Polygon, in Somers Town. Mary Wollstonecraft.
© Bettmann/CORBIS justice and for the supremacy of reason. Her second
political tract, Vindication of the Rights of Woman
(1792), is a passionate defense of the rights of women
to equal education. The book expresses Mary’s fundamental belief that all human beings are equal in
their capacity to reason. She insists that female inferiority is simply a way for men to justify an abusively
secured position of superiority; by perpetuating a
female image of weakness and fragility, they could
exclude women from higher understanding. The book
quickly became one of the most widely read texts of
the day and established Wollstonecraft as the prominent feminist thinker of her time.
In 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft traveled to France,
where she fell madly in love with Gilbert Imlay, a
handsome American businessman, and later, in 1794,
she gave birth to an illegitimate child, a girl—Fanny
Imlay. Abandoned by her lover, she attempted suicide
but was saved by him, and then she was sent to Scandinavia for business. In September 1795, she returned After Mary died giving birth to their daughter,
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, in 1797, her husband
published all her private love letters to Gilbert Imlay
and to Henry Fuseli, an eccentric Swiss painter with
whom she had a complicated affair in 1792. In the
introduction, he writes that the collection of letters
“may possibly be found to contain the finest example
of the language of sentiment and passion ever presented to the world.” Godwin thought that he was
paying tribute to her enormous literary talent. However, many readers disagreed; Robert Southey, another
poet of the time, rightly observed that the collection
“stripp[ed] his dead wife naked.” Godwin’s well-meant
but irresponsible gesture amplified the already strong
public perception of Mary Wollstonecraft as a
depraved woman and an inveterate atheist created by
the scandal with Imlay and the two suicide attempts.
Her reputation as a serious feminist writer, which was
established by the publication of her Vindication in
1792, was significantly injured. Introduction to Mary Shelley 3 Somers Town. Mary Shelley’s Father,
William Godwin
Educated to serve as a minister, William Godwin
renounced the ministry and became the most influential political thinker of his time. His famous book,
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793), shocked
England and won him the enthusiastic approval of
nearly all radical intellectuals of the period.
The book’s central argument is that if people were
instructed to reject emotion and social sentiments and
center their lives on reason, equality, and perfectibility, they would be able to govern themselves. As a
result, institutional authorities—nations, organized
religions, and customs—would be unnecessary, and
any form of government would be superfluous. He
maintained that education was a central factor in
training men and women to be useful, happy, and virtuous, and in helping them to become independent
and self-sufficient individuals.
Godwin hated monarchy but opposed revolution
as well, regarding it as degrading and antirational. He rejected certain values and dispositions, such as
charity and guilt, but encouraged equality, justice and
generosity. He also declared that individuals have no
inviolable rights, that private property is evil, and that
contractual arrangements (such as marriage) are harmful. Individuals should not be selfishly interested in
their own benefit and pleasure, but in the general good
of the community. He maintained that community—
a community based on egalitarian principles, discernment, and equity—is the only source of authentic
happiness and moral virtue.
True to his philosophical principles, Godwin
owned no property; he supported his family largely on
money gained from his published work and lived discreetly in the cheap suburb of Somers Town. He was
often visited by many loyal disciples, including
William Wordsworth, Robert Southey, Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, and his future son-in-law, Percy Shelley,
who claimed that he became “a wiser and better man”
after reading Godwin’s book.
After his wife’s death, however, Godwin’s popularity, impact, and visibility declined considerably. His 4 CliffsComplete Frankenstein exaggerated optimism in man’s perfectibility exposed
him to serious personal disappointments, and the publication of his unpopular wife’s love letters damaged not
only her reputation—for which he felt inconsolably
guilty—but also his book sales and his own public
image. With the exception of a few loyal friends, he
lived in solitude and became increasingly conservative.
Four years after Mary Wollstonecraft’s death,
Godwin married Mary Jane Clairmont, but the marriage was somewhat turbulent, largely due to constant
financial hardship. Following his new wife’s advice to
publish literature for children, Godwin opened the
Juvenile Library in 1805, but despite the second Mrs.
Godwin’s keen practical sense, money was always
insufficient for a large family of seven. Godwin continued to publish novels (some of them very well
received), biographies, and political writings, but the
family was never financially secure. early passion for reading as a necessary condition for
the development of imagination—a faculty that Godwin insisted must be cultivated as early as possible in
a child. “Without imagination,” he explained, “there
can be no genuine ardour in any pursuit, or any acquisition, and without imagination there can be no genuine morality, no profound feeling of other men’s
sorrow.” To excite Mary’s imagination and to reveal to
her the magical universe of literature, Godwin advised
his daughter to read books that he considered essential for all children’s early education. These books
included Mother Goose, Robinson Crusoe, Arabian
Nights, and Aesop’s Fables.
In 1801, when Mary was four years old, Godwin
dismissed Louisa Jones and married Mary Jane Clairmont, a widow and mother of two children. To Mary,
who resented her stepmot...
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