“Mothering Monsters: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” by Anne K. Mellor (YouTube Video Transcript)

(00:00:00) Your YouTube transcript will appear here (00:00:15) welcome to the in Fletcher Memorial (00:00:19) Lecture an annual event honoring in (00:00:22) honor of ends focus on the fields of (00:00:25) Victorian and 19th century studies I'm (00:00:29) one of my small regrets about being at (00:00:31) ASU and I have a few of those furloughs (00:00:34) notwithstanding is that I never got a (00:00:37) chance to actually meet in and in (00:00:40) talking with Alan and others who talked (00:00:42) with him he sounded like just a (00:00:44) positively marvelous man and everybody (00:00:47) that practically everybody that I've (00:00:49) that has ever come in to do this lecture (00:00:51) knows his work well so anyway so I thank (00:00:55) you for finding time to attend this (00:00:57) event at the end of a busy and rather (00:00:59) complicated semester for everybody I'm (00:01:02) truly honored to introduce this evening (00:01:04) speaker and Kaimal or distinguished (00:01:07) professor in Romantic literature Women's (00:01:09) Studies and art and literature at UCLA (00:01:13) and received her BA from Brown (00:01:15) University and her MA and PhD in comp (00:01:19) lit from Columbia University I first (00:01:22) encountered and work while writing my MA (00:01:26) thesis on William Blake through her a (00:01:28) groundbreaking study entitled Blake's (00:01:30) human form divine which served to (00:01:34) actually reorient Blake studies and that (00:01:37) work cast long shadows over my own (00:01:39) Blakey and efforts and still reads as (00:01:42) fresh today as when it first emerged in (00:01:44) spite of your claims to the contrary (00:01:46) earlier today in for example whenever I (00:01:49) write on Blake I returned to my heavily (00:01:52) annotated copy of her stunning book (00:01:54) first (00:01:56) it is a real stunner after the Blake (00:02:00) book she published a wide range of works (00:02:02) that have literally revolutionized (00:02:04) romantic studies including English (00:02:07) romantic irony romanticism and gender (00:02:11) romanticism and feminism and mothers of (00:02:14) the nation women's political riding in (00:02:16) England 1780 (00:02:18) to 1830 Anne's work more than any other (00:02:22) scholar led to the resurrection and (00:02:25) subsequent resurgence of importance (00:02:28) studies of neglected women riders and (00:02:30) broke forever the big six approach to (00:02:33) the field that dominated before her (00:02:36) emergence and this effort peaked with (00:02:39) the production of the best anthology of (00:02:41) romantic studies currently available (00:02:43) British literature 1780 to 1830 and for (00:02:49) those of you that are actually taking my (00:02:50) class this summer it's the textbook that (00:02:52) I'm using so other important works (00:02:55) followed as her scope widened including (00:02:59) forging connections women's poetry from (00:03:02) the Renaissance to romanticism and (00:03:04) passionate encounters in a time of (00:03:07) sensibility she also edited Mary (00:03:11) Wollstonecraft's a vindication of the (00:03:12) rights of women and Mariah or the wrongs (00:03:14) of woman as well as other works of (00:03:17) course what I've neglected thus far are (00:03:21) the works that that intersect the topic (00:03:24) of today's talk on Mary Shelley she (00:03:27) authored Mary Shelley her life her (00:03:29) fiction her monsters and she co-edited (00:03:32) approaches to teaching Shelley's (00:03:34) Frankenstein and the other Mary Shelley (00:03:37) Beyond (00:03:38) Frankenstein she has also produced (00:03:40) editions of Frankenstein and the last (00:03:43) man through this work she established (00:03:46) herself to state the matter directly as (00:03:49) the world's leading authority on the (00:03:51) life and work of Mary showing ants (00:03:54) efforts in the profession could function (00:03:57) as the prototype for an exemplary career (00:03:59) she serves on the editorial boards on (00:04:02) the most important journals in my field (00:04:04) and Beyond including PML a European (00:04:08) romantic review nineteenth-century (00:04:09) contexts 19th century literature and (00:04:12) women's studies (00:04:13) she has directed three neh summer (00:04:17) seminars and received two Guggenheim (00:04:19) fellowships (00:04:20) she has also garnered fellowships from (00:04:22) the American Council of learned (00:04:24) societies Vienna Gage and the (00:04:26) Rockefeller in recognition of her (00:04:29) energetic recasting of the field of (00:04:31) romantic Studies she received in 1999 (00:04:35) the highest award offered in my field (00:04:38) the keats-shelley Association's (00:04:41) distinguished scholar (00:04:43) however and most important achievement I (00:04:48) would argue actually doesn't appear in (00:04:51) any of our publications and awards and (00:04:55) they are impressive but she has been a (00:04:59) tireless champion of emerging scholars (00:05:03) and has mentored two generations of (00:05:06) students into our profession with an (00:05:09) energy and intensity that continues to (00:05:13) ripple through her diverse fields of (00:05:15) endeavor a brief side note when I was (00:05:17) looking up stuff just to make sure I had (00:05:20) everything right and of course the (00:05:23) inevitable Google search must ensue and (00:05:26) it goes on forever because after the (00:05:29) first four or five pages (00:05:30) it's simply books by young scholars (00:05:33) established scholars older scholars in (00:05:35) which she's got essays or in which (00:05:38) people are citing her relentlessly I (00:05:41) finally gave up at 14 pages he and I (00:05:43) hope you don't mind um (00:05:46) actually and I mean this sincerely she (00:05:49) is beloved by literally everyone in my (00:05:53) field as no other scholar before her so (00:05:57) please join me in welcoming professor (00:05:59) animal or who's worked who sparked this (00:06:02) evening is entitled mothering monsters (00:06:05) Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (00:06:07) [Applause] (00:06:17) and lights off and the slide machine on (00:06:23) and the first image I just want to show (00:06:27) you a few images of some of the people (00:06:30) I'm going to be talking about tonight so (00:06:31) you'll have some visual record of them (00:06:33) and then we'll come to the text of (00:06:36) Frankenstein itself can you all hear me (00:06:38) in the back yes even way back over there (00:06:42) okay but let me know if you can't there (00:06:45) is a mic here but I just assumed this is (00:06:49) William Godwin William Godwin was the (00:06:52) leading philosopher in the late 18th (00:06:55) century of political theory he is the (00:06:57) man who invented the concept of (00:06:59) anarchism he also was the man who argued (00:07:03) that human beings could become perfect (00:07:05) could become gods if they followed (00:07:08) reason above all he is of course the (00:07:11) father of Mary Shelley her mother Mary (00:07:19) Wollstonecraft author of the vindication (00:07:22) of the rights of women leading feminist (00:07:24) of the day the woman who argued really (00:07:27) for the first time that boys and girls (00:07:29) should receive exactly the same (00:07:31) education that women were as capable of (00:07:34) rational thought as were men and that (00:07:37) the ideal of marriage which she entered (00:07:39) into with William Godwin would be based (00:07:42) on compatibility affection perhaps not (00:07:46) quite as much sexual desire as good will (00:07:51) in fact Mary Wollstonecraft's notion of (00:07:53) the perfect marriage is first you find (00:07:55) the perfect roommate and then after that (00:07:59) sex can be really exciting but you got (00:08:02) to find the good roommate first okay (00:08:04) next one this is the most famous (00:08:09) portrait of Mary Shelley daughter of (00:08:12) Godwin and Wollstonecraft christened (00:08:14) Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin done when she (00:08:17) was in her late 40s then the next one at (00:08:21) the age of 16 (00:08:23) she elopes with the married poet Percy (00:08:28) Shelley he abandons his wife and two (00:08:31) children to go off to Europe with her (00:08:33) next one this is an image of her at (00:08:38) about the age I think she's about early (00:08:40) 20s a little after she's completed (00:08:44) Frankenstein which of course she starts (00:08:45) writing when she's only 18 years old (00:08:47) completes when she's 19 so those of you (00:08:50) who are over 18 got a catch up here okay (00:08:55) and then the last this is the only and (00:09:01) that's your head down just for a minute (00:09:06) this is the only image of the creature (00:09:10) in Frankenstein that we know Mary (00:09:13) Shelley herself saw so as I talk about (00:09:17) Frankenstein tonight I want you to think (00:09:20) about this image not Boris Karloff with (00:09:25) bolts coming out of his head not Robert (00:09:27) Niro De Niro with a face that looks like (00:09:29) a sutured baseball not a green creature (00:09:33) he's actually a pretty handsome guy and (00:09:37) the engraver of this image was clearly (00:09:40) thinking of Michelangelo's atom from the (00:09:43) Sistine Chapel ceiling okay let's leave (00:09:48) that there just for a minute so to turn (00:09:50) to the text now Frankenstein is usually (00:09:56) historically anyway has been read as (00:09:59) primarily a story about a scientist who (00:10:03) gives birth to a monster that ends up (00:10:07) creating a Masari ends up destroying its (00:10:10) maker and I want to come back this talk (00:10:12) is actually in four parts I want to come (00:10:14) back to the whole way in which he's (00:10:16) thinking about science in this novel but (00:10:19) I want to start talking about the novel (00:10:20) first from a feminist perspective from (00:10:25) my perspective as a feminist this is (00:10:27) fundamentally a novel about what happens (00:10:30) when a man tries to have a baby without (00:10:34) a woman and clearly it all (00:10:37) those wrong so I'll start first with (00:10:41) that passage which this actually (00:10:43) illustrates the passage in Frankenstein (00:10:46) when Victor Frankenstein after having (00:10:48) gathered together all the pieces of (00:10:50) bodies both from cemeteries and Charnel (00:10:54) houses human pieces but also from (00:10:56) slaughterhouses animal pieces has put (00:10:59) them together has finally created a (00:11:02) creature it was on a dreary night of (00:11:07) November that I beheld the (00:11:09) accomplishment of my toils with an (00:11:11) anxiety that almost amounted to agony I (00:11:14) collected the instruments of life around (00:11:16) me that I might infuse a spark of being (00:11:19) into the lifeless thing that lay at my (00:11:22) feet it was already 1:00 in the morning (00:11:25) the rain pattered dismally against the (00:11:27) panes and my candle was nearly burnt out (00:11:30) when by the glimmer of the (00:11:32) half-extinguished light I saw the dull (00:11:34) yellow eye of the creature open it (00:11:37) breathed hard and a convulsive motion (00:11:40) agitated its limbs let me just pause (00:11:44) there and I want you to hear in Mary (00:11:45) Shelley's language here but this is the (00:11:47) imagery of giving birth this is what (00:11:50) happens after you give birth if the (00:11:52) child doesn't start breathing (00:11:53) immediately you infant you spank it so (00:11:56) that it will breathe hard a convulsive (00:11:58) motion will agitate its limbs and here's (00:12:01) Victor Frankenstein's response how can I (00:12:04) describe my emotions at this catastrophe (00:12:06) or how delineate the wretch whom with (00:12:10) such infinite pains and care I had (00:12:11) endeavored to form his limbs were in (00:12:14) proportion and I had selected his (00:12:16) features as beautiful beautiful great (00:12:20) God his yellow skin scarcely covered the (00:12:23) work of muscles and arteries beneath his (00:12:25) hair was of a lustrous black and flowing (00:12:28) his teeth of a pearly whiteness but (00:12:31) these luxuriant has only formed a more (00:12:33) horrid contrast with his watery eyes (00:12:36) that seemed almost of the same color as (00:12:38) the dumb white sockets in which they (00:12:40) were set his shriveled complexion and (00:12:43) straight black lips and at this point (00:12:46) those of you who read the novel know (00:12:48) that Victor Frankenstein having taken (00:12:50) one look at this (00:12:51) Kreacher and instead of finding it (00:12:53) beautiful and this is a kind of parody (00:12:56) of the myth of Pygmalion and Galatea (00:12:58) remember in classical mythology (00:13:01) Pygmalion set out to create a sculpture (00:13:03) of the most beautiful woman possible and (00:13:06) took pieces of different women a nose (00:13:08) from here living from there and then (00:13:11) after he put her all together fell in (00:13:13) love with the sculpture and then the (00:13:15) gods intervene and she comes alive and (00:13:17) loves him back Victor Frankenstein has (00:13:20) done the same thing tried to create a (00:13:22) beautiful superior version of a human (00:13:26) species but takes one look at it is (00:13:30) terrified runs away runs to his bedroom (00:13:33) literally falls asleep has a dream I'm (00:13:37) going to come back to that dream later (00:13:39) and then suddenly is awakened because (00:13:42) the creature has gotten up followed him (00:13:44) into the bedroom pulled apart pulled (00:13:46) aside the bed curtains so then we hear I (00:13:49) beheld the wretch the miserable monster (00:13:52) whom I have created he held up the (00:13:55) curtain of the bed and his eyes of eyes (00:13:57) they may be called were fixed on me his (00:14:00) jaws opened and he muttered some (00:14:02) inarticulate sounds while a grin (00:14:05) wrinkled his cheeks he might have spoken (00:14:08) but I did not hear one hand was (00:14:10) stretched out seemingly to detain me but (00:14:13) I escaped and rushed downstairs and what (00:14:16) I'd like to observe here is that what (00:14:18) the creature does is what you would (00:14:20) expect an infant to do toward its parent (00:14:22) reaches out to embrace it inarticulate (00:14:26) sounds baby-talk smiles even a grin (00:14:29) wrinkled his cheeks but Victor (00:14:31) Frankenstein is horrified runs away and (00:14:34) so the first question I wanted to (00:14:36) explore with you is why why is it that (00:14:40) Victor Frankenstein after he's after all (00:14:42) he spent nine months literally looking (00:14:45) at this creature (00:14:46) we're told that winter spring and summer (00:14:50) passed away in order quote to a new life (00:14:53) where death had apparently devoted the (00:14:55) body to corruption so why is he so (00:14:59) terrified one of the first things you (00:15:02) observe of course is that (00:15:03) Victor Frankenstein has no sense of (00:15:07) identification with his creature no (00:15:09) maternal instinct no sense of bonding (00:15:12) with his creature never once during the (00:15:15) nine months in which he's been putting (00:15:16) it together (00:15:17) has he ever stopped to ask himself would (00:15:20) this thing want to be created would it (00:15:23) want to be born and the real problem of (00:15:27) course is that he's made this creature (00:15:30) eight feet tall because as he says (00:15:34) bigger pieces are easier to work with (00:15:36) than little pieces now to understand the (00:15:40) horror of that for Mary Shelley's (00:15:41) readers nowadays I think we may even (00:15:44) have eight feet tall basketball players (00:15:46) they're getting up at least into the (00:15:48) high seven plus a really tall man in (00:15:52) Mary Shelley's day was 5 foot 9 inches (00:15:54) tall so you have to extrapolate up so (00:15:57) this creature would be today the (00:15:59) equivalent of somewhere between 11 and (00:16:01) 12 feet tall so we're talking about a (00:16:02) huge giant you would be looking up at (00:16:05) this thing if you were here beside me (00:16:07) right up to the ceiling so keep that in (00:16:10) mind okay what I want to suggest first (00:16:14) about this novel is that the novel grows (00:16:18) out of the immediate origin of the novel (00:16:22) comes out of Mary Shelley's own (00:16:25) anxieties about giving birth (00:16:28) we know that the novel emerged from a (00:16:31) dream that she herself had she tells us (00:16:37) this in the introduction to the 1831 (00:16:41) edition of the novel the origin of the (00:16:45) novel is perhaps as famous as the novel (00:16:47) itself Percy Shelley marry her (00:16:51) stepsister Claire Clairmont the poet (00:16:53) Byron and Byron's doctor we're all in (00:16:58) Geneva in Switzerland in the summer of (00:17:00) 1816 and this is perhaps the one time (00:17:03) when we can actually date a major (00:17:05) literary event - a geological event for (00:17:10) those of you who are scientists you may (00:17:12) be interested to know that it was (00:17:13) because the volcano tambour (00:17:17) erupted in the indonesian archipelago in (00:17:20) april of 1815 it through so much ash (00:17:24) into the air 40 tons of cubic material (00:17:27) into the air which then blew west over (00:17:30) europe it was so cold in europe that (00:17:33) summer the Sun never shone it's snowed (00:17:36) in England and it was freezing in (00:17:39) Switzerland so these five young people (00:17:42) gathered together had thought they would (00:17:44) spend the summer swimming playing out on (00:17:46) the lake being outdoors instead they (00:17:49) were confined to the house they were (00:17:51) amusing themselves by reading ghost (00:17:53) stories to each other they decided when (00:17:55) they finally ran out of ghost stories to (00:17:56) have a competition that they would each (00:17:59) try to write the most frightening ghost (00:18:01) story possible Percy Shelley goes off (00:18:04) and writes a paragraph and then gives up (00:18:08) and writes a few lines of the poem and (00:18:09) gives that up (00:18:10) Byron doesn't even bother Claire (00:18:12) Clairmont doesn't bother the other (00:18:15) person who really took the competition (00:18:17) seriously was Byron's dr. John Polidori (00:18:20) who actually wrote a short story called (00:18:23) the vampire which was published under (00:18:25) Byron's name and is the origin of (00:18:28) Dracula (00:18:29) so both Dracula and Frankenstein come (00:18:33) from this night okay Mary Shelley tells (00:18:36) us they had been talking about the (00:18:38) competition night waned upon this talk (00:18:42) and even the witching hour had gone by (00:18:44) before we retired to rest and this is (00:18:48) now the origin the germ of the novel (00:18:50) when I place my head on my pillow I did (00:18:53) not sleep nor could I be said to think (00:18:56) my imagination unbidden possessed and (00:19:00) guided me gifting the successive images (00:19:02) that arose in my mind with a vividness (00:19:05) far beyond the usual bounds of reverie I (00:19:07) saw was shut eyes but acute mental (00:19:10) vision I saw the pale student of on (00:19:13) Howard Arts kneeling beside the thing he (00:19:16) had put together (00:19:16) I saw the hideous phantasm of a man (00:19:19) stretched out and then on the working of (00:19:22) some powerful engine show signs of life (00:19:24) and stir with an uneasy half vital (00:19:27) motion frightful must it be (00:19:30) we're supremely frightful would be the (00:19:32) effect of any human endeavor to mock the (00:19:35) stupendous mechanism of the creator of (00:19:37) the world his success would terrify the (00:19:40) artist he would rush away from his (00:19:42) odious handiwork horror-stricken he (00:19:45) would hope that left to itself the (00:19:47) slight spark of life which he had (00:19:49) communicated would fade that this thing (00:19:52) which had received such imperfect (00:19:53) animation would subside into dead matter (00:19:56) and he might sleep in the belief that (00:19:58) the silence of the grave would quench (00:20:00) forever (00:20:01) the transient existence of the hideous (00:20:03) corpse which he had looked upon as the (00:20:05) cradle of life he sleeps but he is (00:20:08) awakened he opens his eyes behold the (00:20:12) hard thing stands at his bedside opening (00:20:15) his curtains and looking on him with (00:20:17) yellow watery but speculative eyes I (00:20:21) opened mine in terror and the question I (00:20:25) want to ask first is what terrified Mary (00:20:29) Wollstonecraft Godwin at this point (00:20:32) she's not even married to Percy what (00:20:35) terrified her so much about this image (00:20:38) and to answer that question I need to (00:20:41) tell you a little bit about her (00:20:43) biography two years well 1618 months (00:20:50) year and a half year and a half before (00:20:53) she has this dream Mary Wollstonecraft (00:20:56) Godwin having a loked with Percy at the (00:20:59) age of 1816 sorry gets pregnant (00:21:03) immediately and eighteen months before (00:21:07) this June 16th 1816 she has a little (00:21:12) baby girl gives birth prematurely to a (00:21:14) little baby girl who she christened (00:21:16) Clara and who dies two weeks later and (00:21:21) after that little girl dies mary has a (00:21:25) recurrent dream that Sheila chords in (00:21:28) her journal quote dream that my little (00:21:32) baby came to life again that had only (00:21:35) been cold and that we rubbed it before (00:21:38) the fire and it lived (00:21:40) awake and find no baby so already in her (00:21:45) dreams she's associating bringing the (00:21:47) dead back to life with fire a spark of (00:21:50) life now six months before she has the (00:21:54) dream she gives birth a second time this (00:21:58) time to a little boy who's christened (00:22:00) William he's born in January 1816 and (00:22:03) then while she's writing out the (00:22:06) manuscript of Frankenstein she's (00:22:09) pregnant for a third time from June (00:22:12) until May 1817 that's when she's writing (00:22:15) the manuscript she finally gives birth (00:22:16) to a third child a little girl (00:22:18) christened Clara ever Rena after the (00:22:21) dead little girl and that daughter is (00:22:24) born (00:22:24) September 21st 1817 okay we can actually (00:22:28) kill the slides now for a moment I'll (00:22:32) come back have some more images that (00:22:33) begin but what I wanted to suggest at (00:22:35) this point is that this dream and the (00:22:39) origin of Frankenstein grows out of Mary (00:22:43) Godwin's own deepest anxieties about (00:22:47) giving birth remember she's very young (00:22:50) she's only 18 years old she's not (00:22:53) married she's been pregnant three times (00:22:56) as she's writing and she's experiencing (00:22:59) I think the questions that any very (00:23:02) young unmarried frequently pregnant girl (00:23:05) would be asking yourself questions like (00:23:07) what if my child is born deformed a (00:23:11) freak will I be able to raise a normal (00:23:16) healthy child will I be able to love my (00:23:20) child what if my child dies how would I (00:23:25) feel then because not only of course had (00:23:28) her first daughter died but this was a (00:23:30) time when there was an incredibly high (00:23:31) infant mortality rate in Europe that at (00:23:36) least 70% of infants did die within the (00:23:40) first year of birth and in fact of the (00:23:41) five pregnancies that Mary Shelley has (00:23:44) in her lifetime only one child survives (00:23:47) to adulthood (00:23:51) this question could I ever want my child (00:23:54) to die could I ever want to kill my (00:23:57) child this I think is something that is (00:24:03) very hard for us to hear through the (00:24:06) novel but young women giving birth for (00:24:11) the first time don't always fall (00:24:15) powerfully in love with their newborn (00:24:17) infants (00:24:18) we've now medicalised this condition we (00:24:22) call it postpartum depression (00:24:24) there are many young women who simply do (00:24:26) not bond with their newborn children (00:24:29) I think Mary Shelley is the only writer (00:24:32) who actually understood that phenomenon (00:24:34) may even have experienced it herself and (00:24:37) unfortunately we don't have much in the (00:24:39) way of support for such young women we (00:24:41) just say oh you'll get over it it's a (00:24:43) phase you'll come to love your child if (00:24:45) you rest feed it if you spend enough (00:24:46) time with it some women never do come to (00:24:50) love their children and I think Mary (00:24:52) Shelley is registering that possibility (00:24:55) in this dream in which the creator is (00:24:57) horrified by his creation and then the (00:25:02) last question that she's got to be (00:25:03) asking herself with each of her (00:25:05) pregnancies could my child kill me (00:25:09) because I killed my mother Mary (00:25:14) Wollstonecraft died giving birth to Mary (00:25:17) Wollstonecraft show it so Victor Jara (00:25:21) Victor Frankenstein's immediate (00:25:23) horrified rejection of his child at this (00:25:27) psychological level expresses the (00:25:30) hostility that some mothers either feel (00:25:34) or are afraid of feeling toward their (00:25:37) newborn infants however in the novel as (00:25:43) you know if you've read it the author's (00:25:45) sympathies identification she starts out (00:25:47) clearly identifying with Victor (00:25:49) Frankenstein she looks up in terror he (00:25:52) looks up in terror at the creature but (00:25:55) as the novel develops her sympathies for (00:25:58) identification shift shift away from the (00:26:01) Creator (00:26:02) to the creature and of course what (00:26:05) happens to this creature after Victor (00:26:07) Frankenstein runs away he stands up he (00:26:10) goes out into the world alone seeking (00:26:14) comfort seeking some sort of family of (00:26:18) course being eight feet tall being a (00:26:21) huge giant everywhere he goes people (00:26:23) take one look at him are terrified run (00:26:26) away at one point he's trying to save a (00:26:28) drowning girl and her boyfriend comes (00:26:31) along and shoots him because he's (00:26:33) convinced he's trying to drown her (00:26:35) rather than to save her so what we're (00:26:38) getting at this level in the novel I (00:26:41) would suggest is again deeply (00:26:43) autobiographical after Mary (00:26:48) Wollstonecraft Godwin's birth and her (00:26:51) mother's death William Godwin is left (00:26:54) with not only a newborn infant baby girl (00:26:58) to raise but also a little girl three (00:27:01) years old who's the daughter of Mary (00:27:04) Wollstonecraft (00:27:04) and a previous lover Gilbert Imlay (00:27:06) little girl known as Fanny Fanny inlay (00:27:10) so Godwin does what a bachelor widower (00:27:15) would do in England at this point he (00:27:17) rushes out and hires a nanny to raise (00:27:21) these two little girls a woman named (00:27:23) Louisa Jones and for three years (00:27:26) Louisa Jones is a devoted mother to (00:27:29) these little girls but when Mary is (00:27:31) three louisa falls in love with one of (00:27:34) Godwin's disciples man named George Dyer (00:27:37) and Godwin doesn't really approve of (00:27:40) this disciple partially because he's a (00:27:42) gambler he's an alcoholic (00:27:44) he doesn't want him hanging around the (00:27:45) house so he gives Louise an ultimatum (00:27:48) give up George (00:27:50) or leave and Louisa chooses to leave so (00:27:54) at the age of three Mary loses the only (00:27:57) maternal figure she's ever known so once (00:28:00) again (00:28:01) she's motherless she feels abandoned (00:28:03) rejected (00:28:05) Godwin then goes on a two-year search to (00:28:08) find another woman to care for these (00:28:10) children then it comes the day when she (00:28:14) marries about five year (00:28:15) so comments living in a duplex in London (00:28:18) and there's a balcony and he's out on (00:28:19) his balcony and he looks over at the (00:28:22) adjoining balcony and there's a mature (00:28:24) woman standing there and she looks at (00:28:28) him and she says is this the divine (00:28:31) Godwin (00:28:33) that I behold to which she says well yes (00:28:36) it is are you married and it turns out (00:28:41) that Mary Jane Clermont as she called (00:28:45) herself she called herself a widow (00:28:46) although in fact she was never married (00:28:49) and had two illegitimate children of her (00:28:51) own her two children were just about the (00:28:54) ages of Mary and so Godwin thinks this (00:28:57) is ideal okay they get married and Mary (00:29:02) Jane Clermont mrs. Godwin and William (00:29:04) Godwin proceeded then to have a child (00:29:06) together of their own a little boy who (00:29:08) may call William if you read Mary (00:29:12) Shelley's journals letters describing (00:29:15) this period of her life it's as though (00:29:17) she's Cinderella with a wicked (00:29:19) stepmother mrs. Dodd when clearly (00:29:22) treated her badly always favored her own (00:29:26) children at the expense of Wolfson (00:29:28) crafts children was particularly hostile (00:29:32) to Mary because anytime any famous (00:29:35) person came to the Godwin household the (00:29:38) only child they ever wanted to meet was (00:29:40) the daughter of Godwin and (00:29:42) Wollstonecraft they didn't care about (00:29:43) Mary Jane Claremont's children if that (00:29:46) Coleridge came and asked to meet Mary (00:29:48) and read her the rhyme of the Ancient (00:29:50) Mariner when she was 8 years old so Mary (00:29:54) grows up feeling really rejected (00:29:57) disliked her mother won't her stepmother (00:30:00) won't let her have lessons she gives (00:30:02) special French lessons to her own (00:30:04) daughter but she won't give them to Mary (00:30:05) although Mary I have to say does get an (00:30:08) excellent education from Godwin because (00:30:11) Godwin is willing withdraws to his study (00:30:14) he's basically going to go on being a (00:30:15) major philosopher but he is willing to (00:30:19) teach his children and so he gives them (00:30:21) homework assignments and every day they (00:30:23) get two hours in his stud (00:30:25) when they go over their homework with (00:30:27) him and she learns she's clearly (00:30:30) brilliant and she learns an enormous now (00:30:32) from Godwin but emotionally she feels (00:30:34) completely rejected just like the (00:30:37) creature and in fact her rejection (00:30:40) becomes so deeply psychological and (00:30:43) psychosomatic that when she's 12 years (00:30:45) old she comes out in boils all over her (00:30:47) body and they send her down to the (00:30:50) seaside to cure her boils and as long as (00:30:56) she's away from her stepmother she's (00:30:58) fine she gets better within three weeks (00:31:00) four weeks comes back home and (00:31:02) immediately starts fighting with her (00:31:04) stepmother again and just at this point (00:31:06) Godwin gets a letter from one of his (00:31:09) fans someone he's never met a man named (00:31:12) David Baxter who lives in Dundee (00:31:15) Scotland and David Baxter writes to him (00:31:18) and says I'm a wealthy man I have a (00:31:21) large family I live in Dundee which is (00:31:24) 600 miles away from London and I read (00:31:28) your works all the time (00:31:29) I admire you enormous Lee and if there's (00:31:31) ever anything I can do for you just let (00:31:33) me know (00:31:34) Godwin immediately writes back and says (00:31:36) by the way there is something you can do (00:31:39) it for me I have a daughter who's (00:31:41) causing me a great deal of trouble can I (00:31:43) send her to you David Baxter says well (00:31:47) of course and so Mary is shipped off at (00:31:50) the age of 14 all by herself 600 miles (00:31:54) to Dundee alone to stay with the family (00:31:57) that are total strangers (00:31:58) to her she spends two years there sort (00:32:02) of looking in on this happy family from (00:32:05) which she feels and she's welcomed but (00:32:07) still they're not her family and (00:32:10) remember that in the novel the creature (00:32:13) after he leaves Frankenstein's (00:32:15) laboratory goes out wanders through the (00:32:17) woods finally finds a family the delacey (00:32:20) family living in a cottage in the woods (00:32:23) and he spends literally two years (00:32:25) looking through a keyhole at this family (00:32:29) learning how to speak because they're in (00:32:31) the process of teaching a foreign woman (00:32:33) Saffy who's joined them this is the (00:32:36) delay see (00:32:36) family teaching her how to speak French (00:32:39) so he learns how to speak perfect French (00:32:41) and brings them gifts of firewood which (00:32:45) he leaves for them but then of course (00:32:47) finally at a certain point wants to (00:32:51) introduce himself to this family let me (00:32:53) come back to that in a moment there are (00:32:56) some other parallels between the (00:32:59) creature and Mary that are recorded in (00:33:02) the novel beyond this experience of (00:33:04) rejection looking in at a happy family (00:33:07) when the creature rushes out of the (00:33:11) laboratory he's naked of course he grabs (00:33:14) up Victor Frankenstein's cloak which was (00:33:16) hanging on a hook and in this cloak (00:33:18) which was have had voluminous pockets (00:33:20) there are many books which the creature (00:33:24) then proceeds to read and these are the (00:33:27) books that Mary Shelley is also reading (00:33:30) as she writes out Frankenstein (00:33:32) so they both read Paradise Lost they (00:33:35) both read Foote arcs lives of the noble (00:33:37) Romans they both read Goethe's (00:33:39) sufferings of young Berta Bolognese (00:33:42) ruins of civilization in effect they get (00:33:44) the same education they also both read (00:33:49) about their own moment of conception in (00:33:54) Victor Frankenstein's lab coat or his (00:33:58) lab reports so the creature actually can (00:34:00) read the whole story of his creation in (00:34:03) the moment when the spark of life which (00:34:05) can be the fire or electricity brings (00:34:07) him to life Godwin kept a diary of all (00:34:13) the time that well all his life he kept (00:34:15) a diary and all the time that he was (00:34:17) dating Mary Wollstonecraft before they (00:34:20) actually moved in together and they (00:34:22) didn't get married until she was five (00:34:24) months pregnant but all the time that (00:34:26) they were interacting with each other (00:34:28) every time they spent a night together (00:34:30) he would put it in his diary Jael if it (00:34:34) was her place chez moi if it's his place (00:34:36) and we now know from the brilliant (00:34:39) detective work of Williams and Claire (00:34:41) that every time they had sex he would (00:34:43) put a little dot after chez moi or shake (00:34:46) so Mary could actually figure out the (00:34:49) exact night on which she was conceived (00:34:53) and then the other thing that she (00:34:55) clearly shares with the creature as he (00:34:57) goes out into the world it's the sense (00:34:59) of having no role model no one to (00:35:03) imitate no one that she belongs to no (00:35:06) that one that she can rely on the (00:35:09) argument I want to make first about the (00:35:11) novel is that at the psychological level (00:35:14) the creatures experience this experience (00:35:17) of rejection abandonment isolation (00:35:21) articulates Mary Shelley's deepest fear (00:35:25) about herself that since she was also an (00:35:29) unloved abandoned rejected child that (00:35:34) she might grow up to become a monster (00:35:39) this is what the creature keeps saying (00:35:41) through the novel quote I was benevolent (00:35:44) and good misery made me a fiend and it's (00:35:50) only of course when the creature is (00:35:52) finally rejected by the delacey family (00:35:54) if you've read the novel you know that (00:35:56) father de Lacy and this is very (00:35:58) significant is blind so the creature (00:36:01) waits for a moment two years when father (00:36:06) de Lacey is alone he's got a son Felix a (00:36:10) daughter named Agatha living there with (00:36:12) him and they are joined by Felix's (00:36:15) girlfriend Safi he waits to a moment (00:36:18) when all the children are out of the (00:36:20) house and then he goes to introduce (00:36:22) himself to father de Lacy because he (00:36:24) already knows that there's something (00:36:26) about his appearance that upsets people (00:36:29) and father de Lacy responds entirely (00:36:32) positively the creature speaks like a (00:36:34) French gentleman and father de Lacy (00:36:37) welcomes him says he's welcome to stay (00:36:40) in the family to be a guest under their (00:36:43) house but at that moment felix comes (00:36:45) back in seize this giant bending over (00:36:48) his father immediately as soon as the (00:36:50) giant is about to hurt his father grabs (00:36:53) his father races away and that's the (00:36:55) point at which the de Lacy family leave (00:36:57) and it's also the point at which the (00:37:00) creature performs his first act of (00:37:03) violence disappointed he sets fire to (00:37:07) the delacey household the lazy cottage (00:37:10) dances around it he then decides that a (00:37:17) strange family is not going to welcome (00:37:19) him he's got to go back to his own (00:37:22) parent Victor Frankenstein and demand (00:37:26) some sort of family relationship some (00:37:29) sort of companionship from his maker now (00:37:31) on the way to Geneva to finding Victor (00:37:35) Frankenstein the creature runs into a (00:37:37) little boy a little boy with blond hair (00:37:41) blue eyes who immediately calls him an (00:37:45) ogre but also announces that he is the (00:37:49) son of Alphonse Frankenstein this little (00:37:53) boy the creature then immediately (00:37:56) recognizes is a member of his own family (00:38:00) he's Victor Frankenstein's youngest (00:38:01) brother and so he reaches out and his (00:38:05) motivation in the novel is to adopt this (00:38:09) child make him a member of his family he (00:38:12) reaches out he embraces him but in (00:38:14) embracing him kills him and this is the (00:38:18) moment in the novel when for the first (00:38:20) time we lose identifications sympathy (00:38:24) with the creature and it's the moment in (00:38:27) the novel when Mary Shelley registers (00:38:29) her own deepest fear about herself that (00:38:34) she is capable of imagining herself (00:38:39) killing her own child because little (00:38:44) William Frankenstein William that name (00:38:47) is over determined it's a patricidal act (00:38:51) killing off William Godwin it's a (00:38:54) fratricidal act killing off the (00:38:57) stepbrother half-brother William Godwin (00:38:59) who had become the Nexus of the Godwin (00:39:02) household and displaced her and it's (00:39:04) also of course a matricidal act she is (00:39:09) imagining the (00:39:10) murder of her own son because little (00:39:13) William Shelley has exactly the same (00:39:16) blonde curly hair blue eyes that little (00:39:20) William Frankenstein has in the novel (00:39:21) and more to the point both of those two (00:39:24) little Williams William Shelley William (00:39:26) Frankenstein have a best friend a little (00:39:28) girl whose last name is Byron in the (00:39:32) case of William Shelley it's Claire (00:39:34) Clairmont daughter by Byron by the poet (00:39:36) Byron in the novel it's simply a friend (00:39:39) named Byron so what Mary Shelley is (00:39:43) doing at this moment is recognizing the (00:39:46) deepest fear she has about herself and a (00:39:50) case syndrome that we're now familiar (00:39:51) with that a battered child might grow up (00:39:55) to become a battering parent that if a (00:39:59) child is not loved not mother not (00:40:02) nurtured it can become a monster and (00:40:06) this after all is what the creature says (00:40:08) over and over again he says I was (00:40:10) benevolent my soul glowed with love and (00:40:13) humanity but am I not alone miserably (00:40:16) alone (00:40:17) and then he goes on my vices are the (00:40:20) children of a forced solitude that I (00:40:22) abhor and my virtues will necessarily (00:40:25) arise when I live in communion with an (00:40:29) equal but of course as you know Victor (00:40:33) Frankenstein even after the creature (00:40:35) finds him and demands that he be given (00:40:40) an EVE for his atom that Victor (00:40:43) Frankenstein create a female companion (00:40:45) for this male creature Victor (00:40:49) Frankenstein (00:40:50) after all initially is responsive to (00:40:54) this play for the first time in the (00:40:56) novel he was about halfway through he (00:40:58) acknowledges that he has some (00:41:01) responsibilities for his creature that (00:41:03) perhaps he should create a female (00:41:05) companion for him and he starts the (00:41:08) process he goes to England so he can (00:41:11) find out from the latest cutting-edge (00:41:14) science on midwifery there how a female (00:41:17) womb is construct (00:41:18) and then he goes to an island off the (00:41:21) coast of Scotland the Orkney Islands and (00:41:23) starts assembling a female creature a (00:41:26) companion for his male but then halfway (00:41:31) through this process he suddenly stops (00:41:34) and rips up the female that he's been (00:41:38) creating and I just wanted to read that (00:41:41) passage to you and as I read the (00:41:42) question I want to pose here is what is (00:41:45) it that Victor Frankenstein is really (00:41:49) afraid of (00:41:50) I was now about to form another being of (00:41:57) whose dispositions I was alike ignorant (00:42:00) she might become ten thousand times more (00:42:03) malignant than her mate and delight for (00:42:06) its own sake in murder and wretchedness (00:42:09) he had sworn to quit the neighbourhood (00:42:11) of man and hide himself in deserts but (00:42:14) she had not and she who in all (00:42:17) probability was to become a thinking and (00:42:19) reasoning animal might refuse to comply (00:42:22) with a compact made before her creation (00:42:25) they might even hate each other the (00:42:28) creature who already lived loathed his (00:42:30) own deformity and might not conceive a (00:42:33) greater abhorrence for it when it came (00:42:35) before his eyes in the female form she (00:42:38) also might turn with disgust from him to (00:42:42) the superior beauty of man she might (00:42:45) quit him and he be again alone (00:42:48) exasperated by the fresh provocation of (00:42:50) being deserted by one of his own species (00:42:53) even if they were to leave Europe and (00:42:55) inhabit the deserts of the new world yet (00:42:58) one of the first results of those (00:42:59) sympathies for which the demon thirsted (00:43:01) would be children and a race of devils (00:43:04) would be propagated upon the earth who (00:43:07) might make the very existence of the (00:43:08) species of man a condition for Karras (00:43:11) and full of terror had I arrived for my (00:43:14) own benefit to inflict this curse upon (00:43:16) everlasting generations okay what is it (00:43:22) that Victor Frankenstein is truly afraid (00:43:25) of here and I don't think it's that he's (00:43:29) afraid of inflicting (00:43:30) pain on others I think what he's really (00:43:35) afraid of is the fact that he might (00:43:37) create a woman who would be independent (00:43:41) refused to obey a compact made before (00:43:44) her creation a woman who would be angry (00:43:48) sadistic not just twice as malignant as (00:43:52) the male creature but ten thousand times (00:43:55) more malignant than the male creature a (00:43:57) woman who would be ugly a woman who (00:44:01) would be lustful might prefer the quote (00:44:05) superior beauty of man in which case the (00:44:09) man standing right there whom she might (00:44:12) prefer would be victor himself and since (00:44:15) she'll be eight feet tall and she would (00:44:19) be able to work her will her sexual will (00:44:23) desire upon him and finally of course (00:44:26) he's afraid of her reproductive powers (00:44:29) the fact that she can give birth to a (00:44:31) race of like creatures what I want to (00:44:36) suggest here is that what Victor (00:44:37) Frankenstein is really afraid of is an (00:44:40) independent female sexuality a female (00:44:43) sexuality that's not controlled by men (00:44:48) because remember in the 18th century (00:44:50) well in fact all the way through the (00:44:52) 19th century and most of the 20th (00:44:54) century males could never know for sure (00:44:58) that their sons were their biological (00:45:02) sons unless they controlled their (00:45:06) partners their wives sexual practices (00:45:10) now we have DNA but before DNA testing (00:45:13) they could never know and so what they (00:45:16) would do of course is to confine their (00:45:19) women confine them in the private sphere (00:45:22) not allow them to go out into public (00:45:24) keep them in effect under lock and key (00:45:27) and one of the interesting things to (00:45:29) think about is the way the women in 18th (00:45:32) 19th century Europe in the novel are (00:45:34) represented that they're all represented (00:45:36) the women of the Frankenstein family and (00:45:39) even beyond represented as (00:45:42) in effect without powerful sexual (00:45:44) desires victors Frankenstein's mother (00:45:49) marries the best friend of her father (00:45:52) Victor Frankenstein himself is engaged (00:45:55) to a woman who's been raised in his own (00:45:57) household as his sister sister named (00:45:59) Elizabeth Elizabeth lavenza and even the (00:46:03) delacey family Safi who's come across (00:46:05) thousands of miles by herself - and (00:46:08) that's the omage - Mary Wollstonecraft (00:46:10) in the novel to be with her lover Felix (00:46:13) we never even see them kiss they just (00:46:15) hold hands once so what I'm suggesting (00:46:19) here is that Victor Frankenstein's (00:46:22) anxiety about female sexuality (00:46:24) is characteristic of the entire culture (00:46:28) in which he lives and it's what (00:46:31) motivates his entire scientific project (00:46:35) because of course what Victor (00:46:36) Frankenstein really wants to do in this (00:46:38) novel is to eliminate the need to have (00:46:42) females because if males can produce (00:46:46) males generation after generation you (00:46:50) simply don't need women females and that (00:46:56) aspect of Victor Frankenstein's project (00:46:58) I think is something that Mary Shelley (00:47:00) is acutely aware of because when Victor (00:47:03) Frankenstein runs away from his creature (00:47:06) runs back to his bedroom falls asleep (00:47:08) has a dream let me read you the dream I (00:47:15) slept indeed but I was disturbed by the (00:47:18) wildest dreams I thought I saw Elizabeth (00:47:22) his fiancee I thought I saw Elizabeth in (00:47:25) the bloom of Health walking in the (00:47:27) streets of Ingolstadt (00:47:28) delighted and surprised I embraced her (00:47:31) but as I imprinted the first kiss on her (00:47:33) lips (00:47:34) they became livid with the hue of death (00:47:37) her features appeared to change and I (00:47:40) thought that I held the corpse of my (00:47:42) dead mother in my arms a shroud (00:47:45) enveloped her form and I saw the grave (00:47:48) worms crawling in the folds of the (00:47:50) flannel what Victor Frankenstein really (00:47:54) desires is dead females and after he (00:48:01) tears up the female creature it's an (00:48:05) image that the novel presents almost as (00:48:08) a kind of rape we're called trembling (00:48:12) with passion I tore to pieces the thing (00:48:14) on which I was engaged and then he comes (00:48:16) back the next morning the remains of a (00:48:18) half-finished creature whom I had (00:48:20) destroyed lay scattered on the floor I (00:48:23) almost felt as if i had nine gold the (00:48:25) living flesh of a human being after he (00:48:29) tears up the female creature the next (00:48:33) major event in the novel of course the (00:48:35) creature has said he's been there (00:48:37) observing female his construction of a (00:48:41) female and when he sees Victor (00:48:43) Frankenstein destroyed the female he (00:48:45) says to Victor I will be with you on (00:48:48) your wedding night Victor then goes back (00:48:52) home marries Elizabeth on their wedding (00:48:55) night you would expect Victor to be in (00:49:00) bed with his wife in their honeymoon (00:49:04) suite but instead Victor leaves his (00:49:08) bride alone to go out and patrol the (00:49:12) boundaries of the hotel where they're (00:49:14) staying because of course Victor assumes (00:49:17) when the creature says I will be with (00:49:19) you narcissist egotist that he is that (00:49:22) the creature means only Victor but of (00:49:25) course we would assume if someone is (00:49:28) going to join you on your wedding night (00:49:30) that it's you plural so of course the (00:49:34) creature comes in and kills Elizabeth in (00:49:37) retaliation for the loss of his partner (00:49:40) and it's at this point in the novel and (00:49:43) it's the only time in the novel that (00:49:46) Victor embraces Elizabeth with quote (00:49:51) order only after she's dead (00:49:57) she had been moved from the posture in (00:49:59) which I first beheld her and now as she (00:50:01) lay her head upon her arm and a (00:50:03) handkerchief thrown across her face and (00:50:05) neck (00:50:05) I might have supposed her asleep I (00:50:07) rushed towards her and embraced her with (00:50:11) ardour but the deathly languor and (00:50:13) coldness of the limbs told me that what (00:50:15) I now held in my arms had ceased to be (00:50:18) the Elizabeth whom I had loved and (00:50:20) cherished okay the first part I was (00:50:31) arguing that Victor Frankenstein's (00:50:34) project and the origin of the novel (00:50:37) grows out of Mary Shelley's anxieties (00:50:40) about giving birth but also out of a (00:50:43) patriarchal fear of female independent (00:50:46) female sexuality Victor wants to in (00:50:49) effect destroy the mother by becoming (00:50:52) the mother in the second part I want to (00:50:55) look at the science that lies behind (00:50:57) this novel because it's also a novel (00:51:01) clearly about modern science and about (00:51:04) the dangers of modern science and so (00:51:08) first we should think a little bit about (00:51:10) what science Mary Shelley actually knew (00:51:14) now she was clearly no scientist herself (00:51:18) Victor Frankenstein's extraordinary (00:51:20) experiment takes place as far as we can (00:51:23) tell entirely in an attic lit by a (00:51:25) single candle but I would argue that she (00:51:30) had a very sound grasp of the (00:51:34) cutting-edge science of her day that she (00:51:36) had learned this first from Godwin then (00:51:39) from many people who'd visited Godwin (00:51:41) who were scientists and finally from (00:51:43) Percy Shelley who was obsessed with (00:51:45) science so there are three scientists (00:51:47) that actually lie behind this novel (00:51:50) whose research she's drawing on the (00:51:53) first is Sir Humphrey Davy he was the (00:51:56) founder of the Royal Academy of Science (00:51:58) in England you may know him today as the (00:52:01) creator of the miners land the David (00:52:03) Lamm Humphrey (00:52:05) baby is the model for Victor's science (00:52:09) teacher in the novel for professor (00:52:11) Waldman Davy had published a pamphlet (00:52:15) called a discourse introductory to a (00:52:18) course of lectures on chemistry in 1802 (00:52:21) which Mary Shelley had read virtually (00:52:24) memorized and professor Waldman's (00:52:27) lectures are drawn from this Davy makes (00:52:31) a claim for the chemist or the field of (00:52:35) chemical physiology as they called it (00:52:37) the time which is the claim that Victor (00:52:40) Frankenstein is inspired by and that (00:52:42) he's trying to live up to this is what (00:52:45) Davy says (00:52:46) chemistry a new field of chemistry has (00:52:50) dispo'd has bestowed upon the chemist (00:52:52) quote powers which may be almost called (00:52:56) creative which have enabled him to (00:52:58) modify and change the beings surrounding (00:53:01) him and by his experiments to (00:53:04) interrogate nature with power not simply (00:53:07) as a scholar has to been seeking only to (00:53:09) understand her operations but rather as (00:53:12) a master active with his own instruments (00:53:15) there are two important things in that (00:53:18) passage that I want to hear I want you (00:53:20) to hear first of all (00:53:21) Davy is engaging in a sexual politics (00:53:25) that for him the scientist is a male a (00:53:30) master and nature is female nature is (00:53:35) something that the master scientist is (00:53:38) percussive Wallman says the modern (00:53:40) masters of this science penetrate into (00:53:43) the recesses of nature and show how she (00:53:46) works in her hiding places but more (00:53:50) important Davey's making a distinction (00:53:53) between two kinds of science on the one (00:53:58) hand what we might call interventionist (00:54:00) science a science that seeks to actively (00:54:03) change the way that nature works and for (00:54:08) Davy this is what scientists ought to do (00:54:10) in opposition there's what we might call (00:54:14) descriptive (00:54:15) science science that simply tries to (00:54:18) describe or analyze how nature works for (00:54:22) Davy this is passive science scholarly (00:54:25) science bad science or at least inferior (00:54:28) science I would suggest that for Mary (00:54:32) Shelley it's the opposite that (00:54:34) interventionist science is highly (00:54:36) problematic passive science descriptive (00:54:39) science is good for her the positive (00:54:45) scientists that lies behind this is (00:54:47) Erasmus Darwin now Erasmus Darwin is the (00:54:52) great uncle of Charles Darwin and you (00:54:56) all of course know Charles Darwin as the (00:54:59) father of the theory of evolution how (00:55:01) many of you know that Erasmus Darwin is (00:55:04) the father of the theory of evolution (00:55:06) only okay I always like to point out two (00:55:12) English majors that Charles Darwin gets (00:55:15) all the credit for his great uncle's (00:55:18) discoveries because he could write (00:55:20) better Erasmus Darwin published all his (00:55:25) accounts experiments in which he (00:55:27) described quite the theory of evolution (00:55:32) through sexual selection through random (00:55:36) mutation through survival of the fittest (00:55:38) he described all this and in the form of (00:55:43) footnotes - a very long very bad poem - (00:55:50) huge volume poem called the botanic (00:55:52) garden or the loves of the plants nobody (00:55:55) reads it and therefore nobody reads the (00:55:57) footnotes but his great-nephew (00:55:59) read the footnotes religiously and set (00:56:02) about finding more evidence to prove (00:56:04) them went to the Galapagos etc and then (00:56:06) published his findings in clear lucid (00:56:09) prose so he gets all the credit (00:56:12) sometimes writing is more important even (00:56:15) than discoveries (00:56:17) okay for English majors but erasmus (00:56:20) darwin who Mary Shelley had read she (00:56:24) read the bow Tanic garden what she (00:56:27) learned from Erasmus Darwin that's (00:56:29) relevant to the novel two things first (00:56:31) of all according to Erasmus Darwin (00:56:33) evolution proceeds a an evolutionary (00:56:38) ladder from single sex propagation the (00:56:42) division of amoebas to dual sex (00:56:44) propagation males and females (00:56:47) so in effect Victor Frankenstein is (00:56:49) anti-evolution he's going down the (00:56:52) evolutionary ladder backwards from dual (00:56:55) sex propagation to single sex and of (00:56:58) course combining animal and human parts (00:57:01) and doing it he's also claiming that (00:57:05) he's creating a new species according to (00:57:09) Erasmus Darwin that's impossible you (00:57:12) can't have a new species just created de (00:57:15) novo one species evolves out of previous (00:57:19) species through mutation okay (00:57:23) the last signs oh and I should say that (00:57:26) Darwin is all descriptive science simply (00:57:29) telling us how nature has watered (00:57:31) through time the last scientists that (00:57:33) lies behind this is Luigi Galvani now (00:57:37) Galvani you will know if you know at all (00:57:39) is galvanized rubber rubber through (00:57:40) which electricity has been run Galvani (00:57:44) was trying to prove that the life force (00:57:48) and electricity are the same and so what (00:57:53) he was doing this is late 18th century (00:57:55) he was a professor of science at the (00:57:59) University of Bologna oldest university (00:58:01) in in Italy in Europe and if you go to (00:58:04) the tip alone yet you have to be sure to (00:58:08) see the sculpture of Luigi Galvani that (00:58:12) stands in the courtyard right in front (00:58:13) of the university because what Galvani (00:58:15) was doing was running electrical charges (00:58:18) through dead animals in order to (00:58:22) reanimate them and his specialty was (00:58:24) frogs get a dead frog where I'm in (00:58:27) charge of electricity through we get up (00:58:29) and hop away (00:58:30) in the sculpture he's standing there and (00:58:32) he's got his book of knowledge that he's (00:58:35) open in front of but look carefully (00:58:37) there's a swap dead frog in the book (00:58:39) okay so Galvani is electrifying (00:58:44) frogs he's also moving on to cows (00:58:49) finally his nephew Giovanni aldini comes (00:58:55) to London this is in June 1803 and (00:58:59) decides to do the ultimate galvano (00:59:02) experiment to run electricity through a (00:59:04) dead human corpse and so aldini collects (00:59:09) the dead body of a recently hanged (00:59:12) criminal from Newgate Prison man named (00:59:15) Thomas foster takes him to an operating (00:59:18) theatre and proceeds to run ever (00:59:20) stronger charges of electricity through (00:59:24) his courts at the first charge Thomas (00:59:27) foster he recounts lists later opened (00:59:30) his eyes clenched his fists and his (00:59:33) entire body went into convulsions he (00:59:35) then increases the electrical arc to (00:59:38) charge and finally includes the action (00:59:41) even of those muscles furthest distant (00:59:44) from the points of contact with the (00:59:46) electrical arc was so much increased as (00:59:49) almost to give an appearance of (00:59:51) reanimation and then final sentence (00:59:55) vitality might perhaps have been (00:59:57) restored if many circumstances have not (00:59:59) rendered it impossible but I just want (01:00:03) to call your attention this is (01:00:03) cutting-edge science that Victor is (01:00:06) doing this is the latest cutting-edge (01:00:08) experiment on electricity and of course (01:00:11) Victor Frankenstein is using a spark of (01:00:14) light an electrical spark to animate his (01:00:17) creature okay (01:00:23) part three in Mary Shelley's novel (01:00:28) Victor Frankenstein does not succeed in (01:00:32) his scientific project does not succeed (01:00:36) in becoming the crater the creator of a (01:00:39) new race of supermen as species which as (01:00:43) he says quote would bless me as its (01:00:45) creator and source many happy and (01:00:47) excellent nature's would owe their being (01:00:49) to me no father could claim the (01:00:52) gratitude of his child so completely as (01:00:54) I should deserve theirs and I would like (01:00:57) to suggest that the reason that his (01:00:59) experiment fails is because mother (01:01:03) nature fights back fights back first by (01:01:08) cursing Victor Frankenstein with (01:01:11) diseases all the time that Victor (01:01:14) Frankenstein is carrying out his (01:01:16) creation both of the male creature and (01:01:19) of the female creature he gets sick he (01:01:22) gets physically sick he gets mentally (01:01:24) sick in fact after the creation of the (01:01:27) male creature he has a total nervous (01:01:29) breakdown and he has to get his best (01:01:31) friend to come and nurse him back to (01:01:32) health it takes six months finally he is (01:01:38) so overwhelmed by disease that he dies (01:01:43) of natural causes at the age of 26 (01:01:49) secondly Mother Nature pursues Victor (01:01:54) Frankenstein with the very elements that (01:01:57) he's tried to steal from her I'd like to (01:02:01) suggest that all the atmospheric events (01:02:03) all the effects in the novel which we (01:02:06) think of as the paraphernalia of gothic (01:02:08) novels or gothic films all the lightning (01:02:11) the thunder the rain that curse all (01:02:13) during Victor Frankenstein's (01:02:15) constructions of his creatures that all (01:02:17) that is there not just as background (01:02:20) it's there to remind us of the elemental (01:02:23) power of nature that she has the (01:02:26) capacity to pursue Victor just as he's (01:02:30) been trying to pursue her to her (01:02:33) so it's almost as though she's if you (01:02:35) think back to a Greek tragedy like (01:02:37) arrestees those sonic spirits of the (01:02:39) female that pursue arrestees that's (01:02:42) going on in this novel as well thirdly (01:02:45) mother nature punishes Viktor by (01:02:48) depriving him of any kind of maternal (01:02:51) instinct parental instinct instinctual (01:02:53) bond with his own child and finally she (01:02:58) punishes him by making it impossible for (01:03:01) him to procreate his own natural (01:03:03) children by having his creature kill his (01:03:06) fiancee on their wedding night so at (01:03:10) this level clearly the message of the (01:03:14) novel is those who violate mother nature (01:03:18) will be killed but I don't want to end (01:03:23) their fourth part because I think (01:03:28) implicit in this novel is an alternative (01:03:32) ideal to Victor Frankenstein's project (01:03:36) his project is to control nature change (01:03:39) her eliminate female sexuality what I (01:03:44) think Mary Shelley is trying to suggest (01:03:46) in this novel is an alternative to that (01:03:49) I think she believes that civilization (01:03:53) can be improved the human species can be (01:03:58) improved but it can only be improved by (01:04:02) people who value and cooperate with (01:04:05) nature I think it's very important that (01:04:08) the only member of the Frankenstein (01:04:10) family who is literally alive at the end (01:04:13) of this novel is Victor's brother Ernest (01:04:15) and the only thing we know about Ernest (01:04:18) is that his father wanted him to be a (01:04:21) lawyer but he refused and insisted (01:04:23) instead on becoming a farmer and farmers (01:04:27) are course are people who have to (01:04:29) collaborate with nature in order to (01:04:32) survive the best model for this natural (01:04:37) cooperation or collaboration in Mary (01:04:41) Shelley's view I think is the nuclear (01:04:44) family (01:04:45) but it's a nuclear family that is (01:04:47) grounded on a mutually loving usually (01:04:52) respect or galat Aryan family dynamic (01:04:56) this is the way in which Mary (01:04:57) Wollstonecraft's ideal of the (01:04:59) companionate marriage gets into (01:05:01) Frankenstein that the Laci family is a (01:05:04) gesture in that direction but notice (01:05:06) that the Lacey family lacks a mother so (01:05:09) although they're a happy family as their (01:05:12) name suggests Felix the son happiness (01:05:15) Agatha means goodness they're joined by (01:05:17) Safi Sophia wisdom the Wollstonecraft (01:05:21) figure although they move in that (01:05:24) direction even they lack the maternal (01:05:27) embrace of the mother and hence they (01:05:30) disappear from the novel what I'm (01:05:33) suggesting here is that Mary Shelley (01:05:35) wants to endorse what nowadays we would (01:05:38) call an ethic of care a society and a (01:05:41) morality in which the needs of everyone (01:05:44) in the family are met are acknowledged (01:05:47) nurtured and met she wants us to see (01:05:50) that when the nurturing loving love of a (01:05:53) mother is absent (01:05:54) that's when monsters get made also when (01:05:59) someone places higher value on their (01:06:02) work than they do on their domestic (01:06:04) affections on their human relationships (01:06:06) that's also when monsters get made and (01:06:09) she says this actually in a passage in (01:06:14) the novel which is in Victor (01:06:16) Frankenstein's voice but which I think (01:06:18) comes as close as anything in the novel (01:06:20) to articulating Mary Shelley's own view (01:06:23) she says quote a human being in (01:06:26) perfection ought always to preserve a (01:06:29) calm and peaceful mind and never to (01:06:32) allow passion or a transitory desire to (01:06:35) disturb his tranquillity I do not think (01:06:38) that the pursuit of knowledge is an (01:06:40) exception to this rule if the study to (01:06:43) which you apply yourself as a tendency (01:06:45) to weaken your affections and to destroy (01:06:48) your taste for those simple pleasures (01:06:50) in which no alloy can possibly mix then (01:06:54) that study is certainly unlawful that is (01:06:57) the (01:06:57) not befitting the human mind and now we (01:07:01) could have the slides on just a couple (01:07:04) more that I want to show you because (01:07:06) this passage goes on and it goes on to (01:07:08) make a really important political point (01:07:11) she goes on to say that this rule were (01:07:14) always observed if no man allowed any (01:07:17) pursuit whatsoever to interfere with the (01:07:20) tranquility of his domestic affections (01:07:22) then Greece had not been enslaved Caesar (01:07:26) would have spared his country America (01:07:29) would have been discovered more (01:07:30) gradually and the empires of Mexico and (01:07:33) Peru had not been destroyed there's a (01:07:37) powerful political argument going on all (01:07:39) through Frankenstein and it has to do (01:07:41) with the French Revolution you can see (01:07:44) the creature as the embodiment of the (01:07:46) history of the French Revolution (01:07:48) starting out as a belief in the innate (01:07:51) goodness of human beings I was born good (01:07:53) but then moving through the terror (01:07:56) becoming frightening ending up and this (01:07:59) is why I wanted to show you the slide (01:08:01) the subtitle of the novel of course is (01:08:03) Frankenstein or the modern prometheus (01:08:07) Frankenstein because like the Greek hero (01:08:09) prometheus (01:08:10) he stole fire from the gods to give to (01:08:13) man she wants to suggest following this (01:08:17) print by Cruikshank that the true modern (01:08:20) prometheus of her day is Napoleon this (01:08:23) is Napoleon who has stolen the innate (01:08:27) ethic of Justice from the origins of the (01:08:31) French Revolution profited from the (01:08:34) terror and Riaan scribed a tyranny so (01:08:37) the image is the downfall of tyranny the (01:08:40) downfall of the modern Prometheus of (01:08:43) Napoleon at the hands of Justice and (01:08:47) Mary Shelley too wants to say the (01:08:49) problem with the French Revolution says (01:08:51) it's that the original thinkers the (01:08:54) revolutionary thinkers the jacobins did (01:08:57) not make room in their new republic (01:09:00) their egalitarian democratic republic (01:09:03) they did not make room in it for the (01:09:06) aristocrats for the Roman Catholics for (01:09:09) the king and queen (01:09:10) instead they executed them by the (01:09:13) guillotine and thereby transformed what (01:09:15) could have been an improved social (01:09:17) organization into a tyranny I think she (01:09:22) wants to draw an analogy between that (01:09:25) political argument and her scientific (01:09:28) argument she wants to suggest that (01:09:31) scientists also have to take (01:09:34) responsibility for the predictable (01:09:37) consequences of their research they have (01:09:40) to take political and ethical (01:09:43) responsibility this is I think the most (01:09:48) prescient aspect of this novel and the (01:09:51) way in which it speaks directly to (01:09:53) what's going on at this very moment this (01:09:57) is keenly on my mind because UCLA is (01:09:59) very much at the forefront of this (01:10:01) scientific research the human genome (01:10:06) project and germline engineering stem (01:10:10) cell engineering how many of you are (01:10:11) familiar with this good what stem cell (01:10:16) engineering does as you know is it (01:10:18) alters DNA wherever it all just the DNA (01:10:23) of a pre fertilized egg that's then (01:10:25) implanted and then goes on and I went to (01:10:29) a conference in was 201 no sorry earlier (01:10:33) in 1998 there's the first conference of (01:10:36) its kind called engineering the human (01:10:38) germ line at UCLA and all the guys were (01:10:41) there craig Venter of the human genome (01:10:43) project Watson of Watson and Crick (01:10:46) silver you name nine of them up on the (01:10:51) stage and they're saying why we should (01:10:53) alter germ lines why we should engage in (01:10:56) stem cell engineering and of course the (01:10:58) first thing they want to do is to (01:11:00) eliminate genetic diseases tay-sachs (01:11:02) disease Huntington's disease that sounds (01:11:06) fine and then they go on and they say (01:11:08) whoa and of course we would want to (01:11:09) eliminate mental diseases bipolar and (01:11:14) I'm sort of thinking to myself okay well (01:11:16) there goes Virginia Woolf (01:11:17) there goes van Gogh (01:11:19) there goes Proust maybe maybe we want to (01:11:23) think about this little then they go on (01:11:25) well and of course we would want to (01:11:26) improve attractiveness and I get who (01:11:30) gets to decide and then emotional (01:11:33) stability I mean we're really in the (01:11:36) brave new world at this point and then (01:11:38) finally if they wanted to eliminate all (01:11:40) the natural causes of ages and I thought (01:11:44) oh my God we're all going to be living (01:11:45) to 150 200 and in fact when the audience (01:11:49) was asked how many of them would do this (01:11:51) for their unborn infants 99% of the (01:11:55) people in the audience said of course (01:11:56) they would do it as I could afford it (01:11:58) and the only person who objected was (01:12:01) someone from Social Security saying have (01:12:02) you thought about the implications and I (01:12:08) objected that's cuz I saw them all is (01:12:11) one little Victor Frankenstein after (01:12:13) another I mean that this project (01:12:14) yeah create a perfect human species that (01:12:17) will live forever okay the latest (01:12:21) wrinkle in this and this is the (01:12:23) conference I went to last year was (01:12:25) called babies by design and now women (01:12:29) who do X vitro fertilization which of (01:12:33) course more and more women do because as (01:12:35) they get into their late 30s early 40s (01:12:37) before they have their their first (01:12:39) children they will produce many eggs (01:12:42) usually as many as 8 to a dozen and then (01:12:45) they have to decide which eggs to have (01:12:47) implanted and luckily they're not all (01:12:49) octo moms they don't want all so they do (01:12:54) genetic diagnosis of the eggs (01:12:57) it's called pre PGD pre-implantation (01:13:02) genetic diagnosis and what of course (01:13:05) they're trying to do is to screen these (01:13:07) eggs to eliminate genetic diseases but (01:13:11) also to eliminate things like congenital (01:13:14) deafness blindness Down syndrome (01:13:18) dwarfism one of the members of this (01:13:21) panel was Paul Miller you may know him (01:13:24) he's a dwarf he's been the leader of the (01:13:26) Americans with Disabilities (01:13:28) movement in America and had the most (01:13:30) impact on Congress in this regard and (01:13:33) Paul Miller got up and he said you do (01:13:36) have to realize from the point of view (01:13:38) of the communities of the death the (01:13:40) blind dwarves (01:13:42) this is tantamount to a Holocaust think (01:13:47) about that (01:13:48) that's Victor Frankenstein's project (01:13:50) alive and well at UCLA right now so (01:13:53) think about it in terms of bioethics (01:13:56) there's also a it up the next slide (01:14:00) there's also an argument in this novel (01:14:02) about race because the creature is not (01:14:06) just a giant he's a yellow skinned giant (01:14:10) and this is my own version of the (01:14:13) creature colored for your benefit what I (01:14:16) wanted to call your attention to is the (01:14:18) fact that Mary Shelley is making a (01:14:21) comment about race in the novel when she (01:14:25) gives the creature long flowing black (01:14:26) hair and yellow skin the yellow skin is (01:14:29) not as I think most people would read it (01:14:31) it's not jaundice it's not disease it's (01:14:33) actually a racial marker and she had (01:14:37) been reading blumenbach (01:14:38) who developed our current (01:14:40) classifications of the five races of man (01:14:43) Caucasian white yellow would be Asian so (01:14:48) for her this creature is clearly marked (01:14:51) as an Asian Walton who picks up Victor (01:14:53) Frankenstein North Pole who sees the (01:14:55) creature to distance says he is not a (01:14:57) European and the creature thus (01:15:00) represents the advent of someone from (01:15:06) another race into a European culture and (01:15:09) I think contributes to Victor (01:15:11) Frankenstein's fear okay what I want to (01:15:16) suggest then finally is that the (01:15:18) argument of this novel the implicit (01:15:21) argument is that we have to learn how to (01:15:24) embrace mother nurture even that which (01:15:29) is radically different from ourselves (01:15:32) even if it's an eight-foot giant even if (01:15:35) it's a member of enough (01:15:36) race even if it's someone who is (01:15:38) categorically different other because if (01:15:42) we don't embrace them if we respond to (01:15:44) them with fear as Victor Frankenstein (01:15:47) does then we write them as monstrous and (01:15:51) if we write them as monstrous we are the (01:15:55) authors of monstrosity we create the (01:15:58) monsters that we describe and so I (01:16:01) wanted to leave you finally the last (01:16:04) image the alternative to Victor (01:16:06) Frankenstein's reaction this is Diane (01:16:08) Arbus famous photograph of the Jewish (01:16:12) giant at home with his parents in the (01:16:15) Bronx thank you (01:16:26) [Applause]