this video is sponsored by The Book. When Mary Shelley initially conceived the plot of Frankenstein she was still only 18 years old, but she had already lost a child, a daughter who died just 2 weeks after she was born. Not long after her baby died, Shelley wrote in her journal "Dream that my little baby came to life again - that it had only been cold - and that we rubbed it by the fire and it lived - I awake and find no baby - I think about the little thing all day". The loss of her child induced acute depression in Shelley and evidence suggests that the grief over the loss as well as the death of her own mother when she was only 10 days old, may have been not only part of the inspiration for the novel, but also responsible for the novel's themes and preoccupation with ideas about abandonment death and reanimation. The desire perhaps to revive her deceased daughter. Mary's own biography as we shall see, teams with touchstone experiences of childbirth, motherhood, and mourning. Like the scientist Victor Frankenstein who would bury himself in his experiments to deal with the grief over the death of his mother, Shelley would put all feelings aside and channel her energies into the writing of her first - novel "Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus". In 1818, the year Shelley published Frankenstein, science was making huge advancements. The study of electricity's effect on animal and human bodies or galvanism, had transfixed the nation, raising questions about the nature of life and death. Knowledge of human anatomy was also progressing, through dissection and medical studies, as grave robbers up and down the country traded in dead bodies. Chemical discoveries intersected with philosophical debates on vitalism versus materialism. Advances in blood transfusions, early plastic surgery, lingering beliefs in the ancient practice of alchemy, and early theories of evolution from Arasmus Darwin, combined with growing concerns over medical ethics. All of this profoundly influenced Shelley's exploration of the moral and existential consequences of scientific ambition. Today we may see Frankenstein as supernatural but readers at the time saw it as a reflection of what was happening in science. At the same time the spectre of unrest hovered at the edges of the British Empire's stability. The Napoleonic Wars had only recently ended, and Britain had been defeated in the War of 1812 on American soil. The enslavement of Africans, while abolished in Britain proper by 1807, continued legally on plantations in the numerous British colonies. A practice that led to intense debates about the nature of humanity and the moral responsibility of society. Women and children had no legal identity, and rapidly industrialising England needed workers who would labour in poor conditions and lack any form of civil rights. It was a time of great unrest. it was within this rapidly changing milieu that 15-year-old Mary Godwin first met the 21-year-old poet Percy Shelley, at the home of her father William Godwin, the social philosopher, famous for advocating anarchism, atheism, and the value of personal freedom. Godwin had married Mary Jane Claremont after Mary's mother, the writer and philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft, died from childbirth complications giving birth to her. Despite Wollstonecraft's early death, her intellectual legacy deeply affected her daughter, as did her father's. Raised among writers and thinkers, she had no formal education but read widely from her father's extensive library. Percy Shelley, a radical from the landed gentry, was already married with a child when he met Mary. They bonded over literature and philosophy, creating an ambitious reading plan. As their romance grew, Percy suggested to his pregnant wife Harriet that they all live together in "free love". She refused. Soon after, he and Mary eloped, despite the fact he was already married. Even within her progressive circle this defied social norms, and despite her father's radical views, she was ostracised from her family. Mary's first daughter, Clara, was born in 1815 when she was 17 years old. and she spent much of the next 9 years pregnant or breastfeeding. They remained unmarried until she and Percy wed in 1816 - after Harriet drowned herself in despair. Still only in her teens, Mary had already lived a shocking, tempestuous, life when she began writing one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. It cannot be stressed enough just how groundbreaking It was in 1818 for a woman to write such a controversial book on such a monstrous topic, let alone a 19-year-old woman. Women in the UK had very limited rights, facing legal restrictions, and expectations that confined them primarily to the domestic sphere. With no right to vote, limited property ownership, and next to no legal protection. Women who dared to write, subjected themselves to the scrutiny of society, who often reacted to female writers in extreme terms. Thinking of them as unnatural or even mentally unwell. Mary Shelley sought to avoid this type of negative attention by publishing Frankenstein anonymously, following the common practice of women writers who sought recognition while avoiding public scrutiny. Writing itself was seen as a direct challenge to a male-dominated literary world. Although most readers assumed that if no author was listed, it was written by a woman, the anonymous publication of Frankenstein in 1818 allowed Mary to present a story contrasting human nobility with the dehumanising effects of industrialisation on family. marriage. and gender roles. Through Victor's unnamed creation, she evokes sympathy for the weak and the marginalised. The themes and concerns of the novel, show how she anticipates and even lays the groundwork for social reform novels published later in the century by women like Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell. and George Elliot. In spite of its critics, Frankenstein was published to great acclaim. But what should have been a time for celebration was marred by further tragedy for Mary. Death seemed to follow her, and in that year her second daughter passed away at the age of one, and the following year her son William also died. Then only 3 years later, her husband Percy would drown in Italy. Novels were the Netflix of the 19th century. They sparked discussion and debate just like hit shows today. People would talk about plot twists, characters, and moral lessons. It was an intrinsic part of the social conversation, and Shelley knew that her principal objective was to entertain her audience. To do that she leans heavily on the genre tricks and conventions of the Gothic novel; chance meetings, the betrayal of innocent ladies, tortured heroes and heroins, and gestures to the occult. What sets the novel apart from other Gothic tales is its use of 19th century scientific ideas and hypotheses, she had studied and discussed with the ad hoc intellectual and literary community that had formed when she and Percy traveled to Geneva in 1816, with her baby William. Still grieving over the death of her first child. The infamous night where the idea for Frankenstein first took shape, is linked to the summer of 1816, often referred to as "the year without a summer", due to the eruption of Mount Tambora the previous year, volcanic ash in the atmosphere caused a global temperature drop resulting in freezing temperatures and dark cold and stormy weather across Europe. The novel's bleak landscapes, references to icy wastelands, and the overall atmosphere of gloom reflect this environmental catastrophe. Mary and Percy were staying at the villa Diodati by Lake Geneva with Lord Byron, John Polidori, and Clare Claremont, Mary's stepsister. Trapped indoors with the terrible weather they began reading German ghost stories to entertain themselves, leading Byron to propose a contest to write their own. After days of struggling for inspiration, Mary had a vivid waking dream of a scientist horrified by the monster he created. This haunting vision became the foundation for Frankenstein Frankenstein tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a living creature by reanimating dead tissue. It begins with a bold question: And he talks about his hope to become a father, but not just any father instead he wants to be like God in the Bible. But Victor's idealised vision of scientific achievement, is shattered by the grotesque reality of his creation. When he sees his creature for the first time, he is repulsed Victor abandons the monstrous creature who then seeks revenge on him and his loved ones. Ultimately, creator and creation are destroyed by their mutual pursuit of vengeance, leaving a tragic tale about the dangers of unchecked scientific ambition, and the consequences of playing God Shelley's characters raise questions, rather than provide answers, pushing readers to confront their own ethics. She crafts characters who exist in the gray area of ethics. This ambiguity, forces us to confront our own values and assumptions, making Frankenstein not just a Gothic novel but an ethical exploration that continues to resonate. **Victor Frankenstein, a scientist obsessed with creating life, is a modern Prometheus playing God. His disastrous experiment poses the question, "who is the real monster?" He reflects Mary Shelley's own inner conflicts: grief, creation, and the complex burden of the power to create life. **The unnamed creature, abandoned at birth, is shunned for his appearance. Unlike Hollywood versions, Shelley's creature is intelligent, teaching himself to read and speak. Despite this, he is rejected by society, and then kills Victor's brother, friend, and wife. And yet, we empathise with HIM. He is an outsider, judged solely on appearance. A theme close to Mary, who felt like an outsider in her family and society. Like the creature, she herself was a lost motherless child, alienated by her father and stepmother. As a child, Mary longed for their acceptance, but was sent away to boarding school before finally eloping with Percy Shelley. ** Elizabeth Levenza, Victor's fiancé and cousin embodies passive feminine virtue. Kind, compassionate, and loyal, yet essentially a victim of the choices of a man. **William, Victor's younger brother is the creature's first victim, marking a key turning point and deepening Victor's guilt. **Justine Meritz, a poor girl adopted by the Frankenstein family, embodies the themes of injustice and society's failure. Falsely accused of Williams murder, her execution reflects both Victor's irresponsibility and society's mistreatment of innocent, marginalised women, an issue Shelley's parents championed. Then there is **Captain Robert Walton, the Arctic explorer, who on the surface acts simply as the frame narrator. Like Victor, he's fiercely ambitious and driven by a thirst for knowledge, but his interaction with Victor gives him a chance to reflect on the dangers of unchecked ambition. By the end of the novel, he chooses to turn back and save his crew, rather than push forward recklessly. Showing that he learns from Victor's tragic story. In short, Walton is not just a messenger he's a mirror, a moral commentator, and a second chance at redemption that Victor never got. The emotional relatability of the novel extends to its epistolary form, in other words, told through a series of letters. By using this format, Shelley lends legitimacy to the novel, drawing on respected 18th century works like Samuel Richardson's "Pamela" and "Clarissa", and Goethe's "The Sorrows of Young Werther". Other techniques like literary illusion, further adds credibility, showcasing her knowledge of philosophy, history, literature, and science. She references the book of Genesis, Greek mythology, romantic poets like Coleridge, as well as Milton's "Paradise Lost" which she makes several references to. In the novel, Victor's initial noble intentions in creating life, led to his downfall, much like how the fall of Adam and Satan lead to the downfall of humankind and the corruption of innocents in Milton's epic. These references earned respect from her 19th century audience, who assuming the anonymous author was female, would recognise her intellectual authority to handle profound themes. The novel also uses "nested narration", a clever structure of stories within stories, to present multiple perspectives It begins and ends with Captain Walton, a romantic explorer who meets Victor Frankenstein at the North Pole, and records his story in letters to his sister. Within Victor's Tale, the creature tells his own story, giving readers not just one but three viewpoints: Victors, The Creatures and Walton's. There have been many film adaptions of Frankenstein, each reflecting the cultural anxieties of its time. Often Victor Frankenstein is shown more sympathetically, as a tortured genius, rather than the arrogant and reckless scientist of the novel. Likewise, the creature is frequently reduced to a mute monster, losing the novel's themes of injustice, alienation, and societal rejection. The early 1930s films directed by James Whale, "Frankenstein" and "The Bride of Frankenstein" had perhaps the greatest impact on how we imagine the story today. Other adaptions have continued to reshape Frankenstein to reflect changing cultural concerns. Hammer Horror films of the 1960s leaned into graphic violence and Gothic spectacle, highlighting the horror of scientific transgression. Kenneth Branagh's 1994 film aimed to recapture the novel's emotional and philosophical depth, giving Victor and the creature greater psychological complexity. Contemporary retellings from science fiction to comedies to art-house cinema, explore themes of artificial life, ethics and society in a way that offer a fresh perspective on Shelley's enduring questions about creation, responsibility and humanity. This is a novel about what it means to be human, but also what it means to NOT be human. The novel forces us to consider the meaning of our humanity. Shelley's exploration of these themes and her understanding of the complexities of moral responsibility would be remarkable for any writer, but for an 18-year-old in the early 19th century, Frankenstein is simply astonishing. The creature is such a brilliantly complex creation. While made from parts that could be considered "less than human", he exhibits emotions, intellectual capacity, and a desire for connection that we can all relate to. His downfall stems not just from his abandonment by Victor, but also from society's failure to nurture him, leading to his growing anger and sense of injustice. Mary Shelley inherited her parents' deep empathy for social justice, and THAT, combined with her own personal experiences with gender limitations, society's judgment, and family expectations, gave her an uncanny understanding of a creature that wanted one thing... to be accepted. And now for a quick ad. 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