1.) When did Marry Shelly create Frankenstein?
Mary Shelly created Frankenstein in the summer of 1816. She wrote this book in Switzerland by Lake Geneva. Mary Shelly spent most of her summer there with her future husband writing this book. She completed her novel in 1817 and Frankenstein was later published anonymously in 1818.
2.) How did the idea come about?
Mary Shelly was inspired by a collection of German ghost stories. This encouraged her to start writing supernatural stories. At first, she didn’t know what to write and suffered from writer’s block. One day, she claimed to have a vision that inspired her to write Frankenstein.
Her Vision - "I placed my head on my pillow, I did not sleep, nor could I be said to think. My imagination unbidden, possessed and guided me.. I saw with shut eyes, but acute mental vision, - the pale student of unhallowed arts standing before the thing he had put together, I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion... frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world. His success would terrify the artist; he would rush away from his odious handiwork, horror stricken.... He (the artist) sleeps but he is awakened; he opens his eyes; behold, the horrid thing stands at his bedside, opening his curtains and looking on him with yellow, watery, but speculative eyes."
*http://members.aon.at/frankenstein/frankenstein-novel.htm *
3.) What changes happened in the period 1800-1850? Why might these have been significant to Shelly’s story?
There were a lot of changes that occurred in the period between 1800-1850.One was factory legalization. There was also the whole pre-civil war era where religious revivalism took place. These might be significant to Shelly’s story because she would have