Quando idealizou a história, Mary era uma jovem de 18 anos e em 1831, um pouco mais velha, revisou e publicou novamente o romance, dessa vez com seu crédito. Essa foi a versão que entrou para a história e foi adaptada em inúmeras produções audiovisuais e teatrais.
Ele então consegue dar vida a uma criatura enorme, animada por meio de impulsos elétricos. Ao ver que seu experimento deu certo, o cientista fica muito satisfeito, mas logo em seguida se dá conta da enrascada em que havia se metido.
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin é o nome de batismo dessa importante escritora inglesa do século XIX. Nascida em 30 de agosto de 1797 em Londres, era filha de William Godwin e de Mary Wollstonecraft, precursora do feminismo ocidental.
The novel dramatizes the clash between the eighteenth-century enlightenment and nineteenth-century romanticism. Shelley targeted the enlightenment idolatry of reason and mechanistic forces by attacking the idea that man was a predictable and rationally controllable machine. She counters this position with a quotation from Percy’s poem Mutability that rebuts her father’s mechanistic determinism and opposition to free will—“Man’s yesterday may ne’er be like his morrow; / Naught may endure but mutability.”
Entretanto, a família fica apavorada e o expulsa. A partir desse momento, a criatura desenvolve um ódio intenso pela humanidade e busca a todo custo se vingar de seu criador.
O dono da casa onde estavam hospedados era o ícone do romantismo Lord Byron. Outro escritor que também estava presente era John Polidori, o primeiro a escrever uma história de vampiros, que influenciaria depois a criação de Drácula.
Mesclando o horror, o sobrenatural, o fantástico e a busca por inovações científicas, Frankenstein se tornou um sucesso, contribuindo e influenciando para a criação do gênero de terror e sci-fi.
Mary Shelley relaciona então a figura de Prometeu à do cientista Victor Frankeinstein, que assim como o titã, ousou desafiar o divino ao descobrir como gerar a vida por meios artificiais.
The fact that these big questions still inform the social implications of science in the 21st century is a key reason that the popularity of Mary Shelley’s story has only grown over time. Since its first publication, the book has never been out of print. Stage productions of the story followed as early as 1822. In the 20th century dozens of films told and retold the Frankenstein story. The most iconic version was produced by Universal Pictures in 1931 and starred Boris Karloff in what became his signature role.
Victor se nega, mas a criatura ameaça matar as pessoas por quem o cientista tem apreço. O doutor então concorda e monta uma figura feminina para o monstro, mas antes de lhe dar vida, destrói o novo invento, com medo de dar origem a uma raça de criaturas horripilantes e perigosas.
The terrible weather kept them inside more often than not. Thunder and lightning echoed through the villa and their conversations turned to one of the big debates of the day: whether human corpses could be galvanized, or re-animated, after death. Mary, who described herself as “a devout but nearly silent listener,” sat near the men and absorbed every word of their speculation about the limits of modern medicine.
Frankenstein instilled life in his creation by some unspecified means, but hints in the novel suggest that it was probably in accord with the laws of electricity and Galvanism as they were known in his time. The creature’s appearance with watery eyes and pale yellow skin was frightening, and Frankenstein fled in horror.
Mary Shelley’s novel tells the story of a Swiss scientist, Dr. Victor Frankenstein. He attends the lectures at the University of Ingolstadt, in Bavaria, where he is fascinated to learn about the latest advances in science and resolves to “pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation.” He sets to work, feverishly studying anatomy and the processes whereby human tissue is generated and corrupted. Then one day in a sudden flash of inspiration, he believes he has discovered “the cause of generation and life” and become “capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter.”
She was also energized by a series of personal traumas that fueled her feverish story: ten days after her birth her mother died from puerperal fever, at seventeen she eloped with Percy who abandoned his wife, the following year her premature illegitimate child died shortly after being born and her half-sister Fanny Godwin committed suicide, a couple of months later Percy’s wife committed suicide, and just before the publication of the novel Mary gave birth to a daughter, indicating that during a good part of the novel’s composition she was pregnant and in mourning, overloaded with images of birth and death.
Mary não chegou a conhecer a mãe, pois esta faleceu pouco depois de dar à luz, mas teve contato com seus escritos e foi criada pelo pai, também importante filósofo. Assim, teve uma criação muito estimulante o ponto de vista da criatividade e intelectualidade, convivendo com homens de forma mais igualitária.
In response to Byron’s ghost-story game, Mary turned her nightmare into a yarn about a scientist who creates a monstrous creature. Later, back in Britain, she expanded this initial tale into a novel. “At first I thought but of a few pages, of a short tale,” she wrote later, “but Shelley [by then her husband] urged me to develop the idea at greater length.” Published anonymously at first in 1818, she titled the work Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus. Her name appeared on the second edition in 1823. In 1831 she republished the work, changing some of its more radical passages, adding a preface containing a tribute to Shelley’s late husband, who drowned in 1822. It is the version that is best known today.
O monstro, sabendo que a família de Victor vivia em Genebra, vai até lá e, por vingança, mata o irmão mais novo de Victor. A culpa recai sobre Justine, a empregada da família, que é condenada à morte.
The story took shape during the year without a summer, as 1816 came to be known. The 1815 eruption of the Mount Tambora volcano on the island of Sumbawa (part of modern-day Indonesia) had released vast amounts ash, rock, and sulfuric dust into the air, which dramatically lowered temperatures across many areas of the globe the following year. Reports of odd weather came in from all quarters in 1816: summer frosts in North America, red snow in Italy, and eight weeks of nonstop rain in Ireland.
The story has been the basis for dozens of films including the 1931 classic that erroneously has Frankenstein give his creation a criminal’s brain. The iconic horrifying face and overall story suggest that the monster is the quintessence of evil, although in the novel the creature’s vengeful turn is caused by the reaction of others to his frightening countenance that was not his fault.
Percy and Byron, who had been fans of one another’s work, soon formed an intense friendship. They abandoned their other travel plans and rented nearby properties along Lake Geneva. During the frigid evenings, they gathered with the rest of the group at the Villa Diodati, the stately mansion Byron had rented for his stay along with John Polidori, his doctor. They read poetry, argued, and talked late into the night.
Assim, apavorado, abandona o ser à própria sorte, eximindo-se de toda e qualquer responsabilidade, o que deixa a criatura desamparada e solitária, contribuindo para sua revolta e sede de vingança.