On this day way back in 1818, the 1st publication of Frankenstein aka The Modern Prometheus was printed in London (although the most commonly read is the 3rd ed., 1831).
This was a particularly interesting time, the Industrial Revolution was just getting started. Kinda like the same situation now with the advent of the internet (at least I think so). Look what happened to the world just under 100 years later... Wait a sec, This is turning into a completely different topic. I appologize, there are a great number of random thoughts being associated amongst each other within my cerebral cortex (sleep deprivation again).
Back to Frankenstein, during this time there where a lot of superstitions regarding occurances that couldn't be explained, so the notion of bringing someone back to life by means of electricity was certainly a believable concept. But the novel also fuses the Romanticism of the era into this almost sci-fi story. So basically, the overall themes of the saga is the world's acceptance of the creation, because he isn't 'born' evil, people made him evil. His own creator thinks he's a freak. That would wreck your second chance at self-esteem!
The genesis of this writing is an interesting topic as well. Back in 1816, it was the "Year Without A Summer," comically called at the time eighteen hundred and froze to death. A really big volcano called Mt. Tambora erupted and spewed a alot of crap into the atmosphere, causing chaotic climatic changes. Quebec City for example, had a foot of snow in June. And, in PA, lake & river ice was observed in August! But it gets better. On top of being absolutely close to absolute zero (hehe) in the Summer, the temps would flux voilently up to 100 degrees within hours. So, as you could imagine, it was pretty hard to grow crops. I assume lots of people were very hungry.
Drifting again... Mary Shelly was nineteen, and her fiance was a friend of Lord Byron (big wig noble dude & a tru playa). So they're all chillin' in Switzerland in the Lord's castle with Byron's personal doc, and its too cold to go out and enjoy the outdoors. Lord Byron reads a compilation of ghost stories from Germany (written in French), and challenges the group to write the scariest story. Mary got the idea when she has a waking dream, and Byron wrote a little about vampires from his experience over in the Balkans. The doc, John Polidori, took his idea and then wrote The Vampyre in 1819. So essentially, vampires and frankenstein themes are derived from the same point in time. See, see, associations are everywhere!
I was suppost to read this story back in my senior year in high school, but only got to chapter seven. So I can't give you an indepth insight on the entire plot, but I must say I respect the writing and wish to read it in full at some point.
One final point, the creation is never referenced by a name. It is refered to words such as my hideous progeny, monster, creature, daemon, fiend, and wretch. The used so cool words back then, the commonplace English language these days just isn't just what it used to be.
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