Frankenstein
15:00 Share

In 1816, a group of friends who were writers were stuck indoors in Geneva, Switzerland, and were bored. So, they created a challenge for themselves. They were to each come up with a unique ghost story. After several days of being unable to come up with a story, one of the women in the group was struck with an idea for her ghost tale. Her story became the basis of one of the most influential novels in the history of the English language, one of the greatest characters of all time, and arguably spawned an entire form of literature.

Learn more about Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, and the legacy of her creation on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Shopify doesn't just meet you where you are. We meet you where you're going. Shopify is the only commerce platform relentlessly focused on one thing and one thing only, commerce. We challenge the status quo so that your business can do bigger, better, and focus on building what's next so that you're always moving further, faster. For enterprise brands that believe there's a better way, there's Shopify.

Learn more at shopify.com slash enterprise. Decisions, decisions. Wait a minute. Are you still looking for cars on Carvana? Yeah. Decisions, decisions. When I used Carvana, I found the exact car I was looking for in minutes. Bought it on the spot. Electric or full diesel?

Decisions. Come on, you've been at it for weeks. Just buy it already. You're right. Crossover it is. Decisions decided. Whether you know exactly what you want or like to take your time, buy your car the convenient way with Carvana. I've done a few episodes now on the origins of certain monsters which have become popular in fiction. Many monsters, such as zombies and mummies, have their origins in ancient religions and cultural practices.

The modern version of these monsters are often a far cry from their origins in places such as Egypt or Haiti, but they did at least originally stem from those places. In the case of Frankenstein, this is not the case at all. Frankenstein was the creation of a single woman. And before I go any further, let me say that I am aware that Frankenstein is not technically the name of the monster in the novel, but of its creator.

That being said, over the course of 200 years, referring to the unnamed monster as Frankenstein has become the norm, and because it has no name, I will be using that convention for the remainder of the episode. But more on naming in a bit. The story of Frankenstein begins with a woman who was born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, and who the world knows as Mary Shelley.

Mary was born in 1797 to two very notable parents, who in the late 18th century were considered to be radicals. Her father, William Godwin, was a prominent English philosopher, writer, and political theorist, widely regarded as one of the first proponents of anarchism. Known for his radical ideas, Godwin believed in the perfectibility of human beings and advocated for society governed by reason and free from government interference.

Her mother was Mary Wollstonecraft, an influential English writer, philosopher, and advocate for women's rights, often considered one of the founders of modern feminism. Her most notable work, A Vindication of the Rights of Women, argued passionately for women's education and equality, challenging the traditional roles and limited opportunities available to women in the 18th century. Unfortunately, during the birth of Mary, her mother developed an infection and died 11 days after she was born.

Mary was not given a formal education, but she was tutored by her father on a wide range of subjects. She was taken on many educational trips with her father and was given access to his extensive library. Perhaps most importantly, she was able to meet the many influential people who came to their home to visit her father. Her education was unorthodox, but it was definitely more advanced than almost any other girl of her era.

When she was 15, her father described her as, quote, singularly bold, somewhat imperious, and active of mind. Her desire of knowledge is great, and her perseverance in everything she undertakes is almost invincible, end quote. Her interests turned towards writing as she became acquainted with several prominent British writers of the period, in particular, writers who were part of the Romantic movement.

Romanticism focused on individual expression, emotion, and the sublime beauty of nature, and the mysteries of the human soul. Writers and poets of the Romantic era like Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge heavily influenced Mary, all of whom she had personal connections with. When Mary was 16, she began a relationship with Percy Shelley, who was 21. Shelley was married at the time, but was estranged from his wife.

The two fell in love and traveled to continental Europe where they had two children, one of whom died soon after birth. The relationship between Mary and Percy was extremely complicated, but for the purpose of this episode, by the summer of 1816, the two had married and they found themselves in Geneva, Switzerland, along with Lord Byron, her stepsister, Claire Claremont, and Byron's physician, John Polidori.

1816 was referred to as the year without a summer due to the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia, a subject that I covered in a previous episode. It was cold and raining almost all the time, so the group spent most of their time indoors. To entertain themselves while stuck inside, Byron suggested that each of them write a ghost story, as the group had been reading German ghost stories to each other over the previous days.

For several days, Mary struggled to come up with an idea, until after days of brainstorming, she had a vivid waking dream that became the core of Frankenstein. She was 18 years old. No 18-year-old will ever come up with a college application essay as good as Mary Shelley. The novel, which was eventually written from her story, had the full title of Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus.

It was published two years later in 1818. The book tells the tragic story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who becomes obsessed with uncovering the secrets of life and death. Driven by ambition, he creates a living being from assembled body parts, but horrified by the creature's monstrous appearance, he abandons it. The creature, intelligent and sensitive, suffers rejection and loneliness, eventually seeking revenge on Victor for creating and then neglecting him.

As the creature's anguish turns to rage, he pursues Victor across Europe, leading to catastrophic consequences for both creator and creation. The novel explores themes of unchecked ambition, the ethics of scientific discovery, isolation, and the dangers of playing God, ultimately questioning the responsibilities we bear for our actions and the beings we bring into existence. The themes in Frankenstein didn't come out of nowhere.

For starters, there is an actual Frankenstein castle in Germany. It's located just outside the city of Darmstadt. The name Frankenstein is an actual name. It comes from the combination of Franken, which refers to the tribe known as the Franks, and Stein, which is the German word for stone. The ideas in Frankenstein had a kernel of basis in fact. Mary Shelley was familiar with a technique known as galvanism.

In the early 19th century, electricity was a known phenomenon, but it had yet to be harnessed. It had little practical purpose at this time beyond conducting experiments. One of the things that researchers discovered was that electricity could be used to make muscles twitch. A common demonstration of galvanism was to hook up severed frog legs to an electrical circuit. When electricity passed through them, the muscles would move, often dramatically.

So, at the time Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, the idea of using electricity to animate dead tissue was not out of the question. Frankenstein the novel created the archetype of the mad scientist. The mad scientist archetype embodies a brilliant but unhinged character, often driven by obsessive ambition to push the boundaries of science, regardless of ethical or moral consequences.

Everything from Dr. Octopus to Rick and Morty, Oza Det to Mary Shelley and Frankenstein. Perhaps even more importantly, there are many people who believe that the Frankenstein novel was the first ever true work of science fiction. The British science fiction writer Brian Aldiss said of Frankenstein that it was, quote, "...the first seminal work to which the label of science fiction can be logically attached."

The novel was initially published anonymously. At first, the reviews were mixed with both extremely positive and negative reviews. Over time, however, the consensus became that the book was a classic and perhaps one of the best novels of the Romantic era. Just as an aside, this was not the only book that Mary Shelley wrote. In 1826, she published the novel The Last Man, which was another landmark book in that it was the first ever post-apocalyptic novel.

Within a decade of the publication of Frankenstein, people were already referring to the unnamed creature in the book as Frankenstein. In 1823, she finally revealed herself as the author of the book, which shocked many people. Not because she was a woman, because that fact had been known since publication, but rather because she was so young when she wrote it. Stage adaptations of the book were performed as early as 1823 as well.

As important and groundbreaking as the novel Frankenstein was, it was not responsible for the public image of Frankenstein that we have today. That is due to the 1931 movie Frankenstein, starring Bela Lugosi, produced by Universal Studios.

The movie Frankenstein established most of what we think of as Frankenstein today. The film introduced key visual and thematic elements, like electrified lab equipment and the monster's now infamous appearance, that have become synonymous with the Frankenstein story. An earlier film version of Frankenstein was released in 1910. It was a 16-minute silent film that was released by Thomas Edison Studios. The 1910 Frankenstein looked very different than the 1931 version.

The 1910 monster's appearance is less menacing, with a distorted, almost ghostly look about it. The 1931 monster is what you think of when you think of Frankenstein. Its skin has a greenish hue, there are stitches on its head and body, and bolts were coming out of its neck. The 1931 Frankenstein was a huge commercial and critical success, so much so that it spawned a host of sequels.

1935's Bride of Frankenstein, 1939's Son of Frankenstein, 1942's Ghost of Frankenstein, and 1943's Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman, which was also a sequel to The Wolfman. Many of these films strayed pretty far from Mary Shelley's original novel, which was legally acceptable as the book and its characters had entered the public domain. The stories were more about horror and a spooky monster, not the ethics surrounding a scientist who brought the dead to life.

As happens to almost all characters in the horror genre, they're eventually used for comedy and parody. The 1960s TV series The Munsters was a parody of a traditional family sitcom, with The Father clearly referencing Frankenstein. 1974's Young Frankenstein, directed by Mel Brooks, was a direct parody of the 1931 film. So much so that they even used many of the original set pieces from 1931, and the film was shot in black and white.

Frankenstein stories haven't ceased. In the 21st century, television series such as Penny Dreadful and The Frankenstein Chronicles have continued the Frankenstein story. Movies such as 2014's I, Frankenstein and 2015's Victor, Frankenstein have provided a modern twist on the tale. One of the interesting modern takes on the Frankenstein story is that many of the modern versions actually give the monster a name, whereas in the original novel and the earlier adaptations, there is no name.

In Dean Kuntz's novels, he is named after the son of Prometheus in Greek mythology, Deucalion. In Penny Dreadful, the creature is given the name Caliban from William Shakespeare's The Tempest. In the novel The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter, the creature is given the name Adam. The Frankenstein monster has become a staple of popular culture, and it's certain that there will be more books, movies, and TV shows that retell the Frankenstein tale in the future.

However, it all began with one of the most groundbreaking novels in history. A novel that was written by an 18-year-old who was just trying to win a contest against her friends. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Benji Long and Cameron Kiefer. I want to give a big shout out to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon, including the show's producers. Your support helps me put out a show every single day.

And also, Patreon is currently the only place where Everything Everywhere Daily merchandise is available to the top tier of supporters. If you'd like to talk to other listeners of the show and members of the Completionist Club, you can join the Everything Everywhere Daily Facebook group or Discord server. Links to everything are in the show notes.