Concepts of the Body, Medicine and Madness in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

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I intend to examine to what effect concepts of the body, medicine and madness are presented in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818). I shall perform close analysis to parts of the text referring to explorations in new technologies, advances in medical science, and there psychological impacts. I shall discuss social implications of the growth of man’s technological evolution during the eighteenth and nineteenth century.

Mary Shelley’s Gothic science-fiction novel Frankenstein (1818) was written and published between two major historical events. It followed The French Revolution (1789-1799) a period of radical social and political upheaval, and was written during The Industrial Revolution between the eighteenth and nineteenth century, a time of great socioeconomic and cultural effects. The French Revolution acted as ‘the single most crucial influence on British intellectual, philosophical, and political life in the nineteenth century.’ (David Cody, French Revolution: 2010). The Industrial Revolution marked ‘the transition from a world of artisan manufacture to a factory system.’ (Shirley Burchill et al. The Industrial Revolution: 2010). The advancements in machine based manufacturing brought social implications of anxiety. Frankenstein can be viewed as a reflection of the turmoil and change seen within society during the eighteenth and nineteenth century, through the explorations and growth in man’s technological evolution.

Frankenstein is an epistolary novel, comprised of letters, journals and diary entries, allowing the reader a sense of verisimilitude – a sense that it might have actually occurred, enabling the author to change points of view when required to further the plot. The story follows a young grief stricken ...

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....com. Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 2011. Available from www.dictionary.reference.com/browse/Prometheus, [accessed 12th January 2011].

Russell A. Potter, A Chronology of Frankenstein. Available from www.ric.edu/faculty/rpotter/Frank-chron.html, [accessed 12th January 2011].

Robert W. Anderson, Body Parts That Matter: Frankenstein, or The Modern Cyborg, 1999. Available from www.womenwriters.net/editorials/anderson1.htm, [accessed 12th January 2011].

Shirley Burchill, Nigel Hughes, Peter Price & Keith Woodall, The Open Door Website, The Industrial Revolution, 2010. Available from www.saburchill.com/history/.../001.html, [accessed 12th January 2011].

U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Frankenstein Penetrating the Secrets of Nature, 2010. Available from www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/frankenstein.html, [accessed 12th January 2011].

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