Frankenstein: Context (AQA GCSE English Literature)

Context is most useful when you use it to explore how the historical, social, cultural and political background affects the overall message or purpose of the text. Remember that all contextual information should be clearly linked to the themes and characters in the story. For example, in Frankenstein, Shelley’s depiction of Victor’s experiments relate to scientific debates and developments happening at the time the novel was written.

This section will explore the following contextual angles and relate each to the themes and characters of the novel: 

• The Romantic movement
• Science developments
• Society
• Religion
• Romantic literature
• Genre

• The Romantic movement was an intellectual viewpoint in the 18th and 19th centuries, characterised by a strong interest in individualism, nature, emotion, creativity and the arts:
• This had a significant influence on Shelley:
• Through Frankenstein, she deals with issues such as human nature, society, science and the natural world
• The Romantics were concerned about inequality in society and were generally sympathetic towards marginalised people:
• For the most part, the story is narrated from the point of view of the wealthy and powerful, who are shown to control the narrative:
• Shelley’s depiction of the creature as an outcast, and of women as not listened to, are examples of marginalisation
• Romantic ideas were in part a reaction to the Industrial Revolution and its focus on commerce and urbanisation:
• Thinkers such as Rousseau suggested that people would be happy in a state of nature away from the confines of commerce and urbanisation
• In Frankenstein, Shelley depicts the creature as being happy in a natural state away from society:
• The creature says, “sorrow only increased with knowledge. Oh, that I had for ever remained in my native wood nor known nor felt beyond the sensations of hunger, thirst, and heat!”
• Like the Romantics, Shelley highlights nature as a source of reflection and restoration:
• Victor goes to the Alps after the death of Justine:
•  Here he obtains the “greatest consolation”
• Henry Clerval understands the importance of the natural world:
• He wants Victor to “love the aspect of nature”
• The creation of the creature is presented as defying and violating nature:
• Victor says he wants to “penetrate into the recesses of nature and show how she works in her hiding-places”
• The sexual imagery implies that Victor has violated the sanctity of nature
• The Romantic movement was also a reaction to the Age of Enlightenment, which stressed reason, science and structure:
• Emotion and creativity were of great importance to the Romantics, evidenced in their idealisation of love and women:
•  In Frankenstein, Elizabeth is presented as sublime and a route to happiness for Victor, suggesting that emotion and relationships should be given more importance by society
• The Romantic reader placed more stress on emotion:
•  The creature’s sadness leads to a deeper sense of empathy for his plight
• The Romantics argued that people were born good, and that evil was a result of a lack of nurture and the negative aspects of society:
• Rousseau believed that children had innate goodness and needed to be nurtured and taught to have good morals
• He argued that children without guidance would be corrupted by society:
• The creature is portrayed as “benevolent and good” before he is corrupted by society’s prejudices

• Frankenstein is considered an early example of science fiction and raises a number of issues related to scientific developments at the time:
• The novel presents the pursuit of science as a threat to the order of the natural world:
• Victor says, “how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow"
• There was a fear that the focus on science was moving people further from humanity and religion:
• The consequences of Victor’s experiment are depicted as hellish through the use of language such as “breathless horror and disgust”
•  In 1780, Luigi Galvani carried out an experiment using electrical sparks to make a frog twitch. This created fears that people would try to bring organisms back to life: 
• The creature’s disgusting appearance could symbolise the horrors of this idea
• Studies of anatomy, including the use of dissection, were becoming more common during this period:
• Victor’s ambition to make a living being reflects a fascination and fear of these practices
• As scientists tried to learn more about the mysteries of life and death, there was a widespread fear of the unknown:
• Victor’s desire to understand the unknown leads to “an anxiety that almost amounted to agony”

• The Industrial Revolution was a period of rapid expansion of industrialisation and scientific knowledge between 1760 to 1840:
  • Victor’s prioritisation of science over nature is what leads to his downfall
• This led to the Romantic emphasis on nature and emotion:
• Social disparities were prevalent during the time Shelley was writing – there was an economic slump and high unemployment after the Napoleonic wars of 1815:
  • The creature symbolises the marginalised
  • He describes himself as "I the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on"
• The Romantics were concerned about inequalities in terms of wealth and power:
• After the French Revolution, there was political turmoil as people began to question their rights and the old order:
  • Victor’s sole focus on himself and his individual actions are shown to have a negative impact on those around him
• The French Revolution led to discussions about individual responsibility:
• During the 19th century, women were discriminated against and not considered equal to men:
  • The portrayal of Justine, Elizabeth and Catherine reflects some of the gender injustices at the time
  • The self-centred actions of the male characters, such as Victor and Walton, can be seen as a criticism of men putting themselves first
• Shelley’s mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, argued for women’s rights:

• With an increase in scientific developments, the 19th century was a time when people began to question how far humans should explore the unknown:
• Victor is shown to aspire to have God-like powers through his creation:
• He says he will “pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation”
• Through a religious lens, the mysteries of life and death were believed to be controlled by divine forces:
•  By attempting to understand these mysteries, Victor is portrayed as going against God and the natural order:
• Victor says, “It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn”
• Shelley uses a lot of religious imagery:
• The creature could be said to represent the devil:
• He says, "But it is even so; the fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone”

• Shelley uses multiple allusions to Romantic literature to create an effect on the reader:
• Both Frankenstein and the creature allude to Paradise Lost at points in the text:
• The creature says, “many times I considered Satan as the fitter emblem of my condition”
•  Victor suggests that he is “like the archangel who aspired to omnipotence, I am chained in an eternal hell”
• There are also references to The Rime of the Ancient Mariner:  
•  Frankenstein recites this poem in Chapter 5 after creating the creature:
• This could imply that Victor is cursed and, like the mariner, should be kind to his creature
• It could also be intended to warn that, like the mariner, he will be cursed for defying God’s natural order
•  Walton says that he hopes not to come back to England like the ancient mariner
• This may suggest that, like the mariner, Walton should learn the lessons of the past

• Frankenstein is considered a very early example of science fiction:
  • Victor’s experiments are the result of his obsession with scientific developments:
    • He admits “how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge.”
• The novel is also a work of gothic fiction:
  • As with other gothic writers, Shelley explores the results of transgressions against societal norms:
    • Victor says he "worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body”
• Featuring a doppelgänger was typical of gothic texts – it could be argued that Victor, the creature, and Walton have similar traits:
  • All characters have intense ambition and a desire for connection
• Along with other gothic novels, Shelley includes innocent victims:
  • The death of Justine (due to Victor’s actions) could be said to symbolise the death of innocence
• Shelley includes an anti-hero, as is often the case in gothic stories:
  • Frankenstein lacks heroic qualities 
• The aristocrat in gothic fiction often tends to be isolated and mysterious: 
  • Victor comes from one of the “most distinguished” families in Geneva
• Uncertainty about the story is a common theme of gothic texts:
  • Victor’s alteration of the text makes the reader have a lack of trust about how the events and the creature are presented
• Gothic tales often depict isolated settings:
  • This can be seen by the description of the “cell” where Victor makes the creature
• It can also be argued that Frankenstein is a work of parabolic fiction:
  • The novel comments on the importance of family, the dangers of unmitigated scientific knowledge and the problems of intense ambition