Contrary to what people may think, the origin of the FRANKENSTEIN story is almost, if not more intriguing than the novel
itself. The story deals with man’s pursuit for
knowledge and the extent to which he is prepared to go in order to attain it, and it is true, as someone once said, “man’s pursuit for knowledge is at the heart of his greatest achievements…and darkest.” So, what is so special about this story that it became the icon of gothic literature of the modern age? To understand, you have to go back to the time and the place of its inception – Lake Geneva, Switzerland.
Round about the summer of 1816, Percy Shelley & his wife Mary Shelley were touring the European countryside on their way to Geveva to spend the summer with Lord Byron. Not long before, Mary gave birth to a still-born child, and, as can be expected, found it painful and difficult to deal with this trauma. The summer vacation at the Villa Diodati
was intended to refresh her mind, even if it meant for some time. But her pain never subsided. Instead, she wished that some miracle would occur and her child would be alive again. She often had nightmares. That summer, 5 young people met at this great lakeside estate – Percy, Mary, Mary’s sister Claire Clermont, Lord Byron and Byron’s physician, Dr. Polidori. On one of the many nights spent at this location, the weather was miserable and it was a dark dreary thunder storm. The five sat huddled by the fireplace and began telling each other scary ghost stories. When it was Mary’s turn, she came up with a frightening tale which would shape the structure of the most famous horror story ever written.
In the early 19th century, the progress in science, medicine and natural philosophy was phenomenal. Electricity and power generation were new concepts, and were being studied, explored and experimented with all over Europe. The understanding that the human body was a complex machine with a central nervous system that works like a giant electrical power source and sends electrical energy through our body by way of nerve impulses, was a concept being taught in medical schools at the time. These principles were well-known to Mary, as she was from a very well educated family and her family was well connected with the aristocratic elite of London, which included doctors, engineers and the like, and Mary being a bright child, was aware of such instances that an individual wrongly hanged for crime he didn’t commit was immediately removed off the gallows and secretly taken to an infirmary where he was shocked back to life.
The name Frankenstein came to Mary’s mind from a building known as Castle Frankenstein which they came across in a place not far from Darmstadt, Germany, a place they visited before coming to Geneva. It was the residence cum laboratory of a German alchemist who was, like the main character of her novel also a student of National Philosophy. The folklore of the region accuses him of body snatching, a crime not unknown amongst anatomists, and claims that he attempted to bring the dead to life by jump-starting them with electricity.
The idea of creating a new species, a new human being was something which Mary related with her knowledge of man’s creation from the Bible and the way in which literature explains it in Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’, hence she referred to her literary creation as Adam, like unto the creation of the very first human being.
Another very significant aspect of the story’s background is its subtitle ‘The Modern Prometheus’. We learn from ancient Greek mythology about their gods, goddesses, titans & nymphs and one such titan, according to Greek myth, was Prometheus . Prometheus was sub-ordinate to Zeus - king of the gods. Zeus had given Prometheus a free hand in many areas, especially when it came to the creation of the human being. But after creating it, he started to give it certain qualities which Zeus had probably not permitted him to do so. One of these was fire. Prometheus stole fire from the Olympian gods and gave it to man. For this, Zeus punished him by pinning him against a rock and letting a giant eagle peck out and chew his liver. When the day was over, the eagle would fly away, and Prometheus’ liver grew back into its former state only to be pecked and chewed again by the eagle the next day. This continued till eternity.
This idea was used by Mary in her novel in such a way that Victor Frankenstein seemingly acquired too much knowledge , that he used his medical and anatomy education to dare to make a human being by putting together body parts of freshly deceased men and then jump-starting them to life. And like Prometheus, Victor Frankenstein was cursed to live with his wretched creature and to go through the torture of watching him destroy his beautiful world and then, finally him, right before his very eyes. And of course, Victor could not find in his heart, the courage to destroy something which he himself had ‘created’.