Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; An explication of Shelley's view on science and society through fiction

Early in the nineteenth century, Mary Shelley composed her novel Frankenstein during an epoch of European cultural development known for its influence on poetry, the novel, drama, and innumerable other media of art in which peoples’ hopes, fears, and aspirations were impressed into the echo of their creator’s message. Frankenstein is no exception to this stereotype. The plot of Frankenstein is deeply entrenched in the voices of Christian allusion, feeding on the fears and curiosity of the reader. Unique to Frankenstein at the time of its first publication was its usage of contemporary scientific breakthroughs to establish believability and highly vivid imagery. Manifested in the accounts of Shelley’s characters resonates the voice of her social, scientific, and religious ideology; Frankenstein is merely the vessel of her contrivance.
The creature in Frankenstein is a grand example of Shelley’s view on the social condition of the early 1800’s. Depicted by the creature’s in...