Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
(Mary Shelley)

Considered one of the first- if not the first- science fiction novel, Frankenstein began as a short story by Mary Shelley, which she wrote while on a trip with P. B. Shelley in Geneva, Switzerland. She was encouraged to expand on the idea, and ended up publishing the novel in 1818. Frankenstein combines styles from both the Gothic and Romantic literary movements, with the monster’s natural tendency towards good and the peace he finds in nature examples of the latter.

Mary Shelley- born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin- was the daughter of a feminist writer and radical father. She grew up amongst such writers as Thomas Paine and William Blake and was thus primed for a literary life. She met Percy Bysshe Shelley while still a teenager and they went on a trip across Europe. After Percy’s wife committed suicide, the two married.

Settings

De Lacey Cottage

Easily the most prominent location in the novel, the De Lacey cottage in a German forest provides the first safe place for the monster to inhabit. Symbolically, there’s something womb-like about the small hovel that the monster inhabits, an experience he didn’t have as he his existence starts with an abrupt awakening in a small apartment. Once the De Lacey’s leave and the monster feels abandoned though, he burns the cottage down.

Arctic

The telling of the entire story takes place here, at the ends of the earth where Victor has finally chased the monster down. The desolation of the place serves as a perfect metaphor for what Victor’s life has become. Driven by a passionate feeling, he ends up desolate without any companions pursuing something he has wrought with his own hands.