The Story of Frankenstein Imagine the weather’s rotten and you and some friends are stuck indoors with nothing to do How would you liven things up Would you play a game Tell a ghost story or two Whether you’re at a sleepover camping or chilling in a creepy castle telling scary stories is an age-old way to pass the time So when English poet Lord Byron and his friends were stuck in a gloomy house in Switzerland that’s just what he suggested Each person would write a ghost story and read it aloud to the group Mary Shelley was among those friends Her spooky creation The first draft of the novel Frankenstein Monster Fact At the same house party where Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein John Polidori wrote his famous short story The Vampyre See page 28 Monster Fact In Greek mythology Prometheus was one of the Titans who created the universe He molded humankind out of clay and was later punished for stealing fire from the other gods and giving it to humans Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus was first published in 1818 Today it is a must-read in schools around the world It’s also the inspiration for many popular films TV shows books and comics Shelley’s bone-chilling story is about a scientist named Victor Frankenstein He’s obsessed with creating life So Victor builds a man out of dead body parts and uses his science skills to zap it to life But when his creation wakes and Victor sees it in living breathing horrible action Victor freaks out He abandons it Lonely and unloved the man-made human acts out sometimes in monstrous ways
LONELY MONSTERS Many popular villains have suffered from loneliness Consider these notorious fictional examples Lord Voldemort the evil Dark Lord in the Harry Potter stories was an orphan From an early age he was denied parental affection He grew up isolated and alone The Penguin one of Batman’s enemies grew evil after being rejected by his parents and bullied for his strange appearance and obsession with birds The Grinch lived far from society isolated from everyone and everything except his dog His loneliness turned him bitter making his heart two sizes too small Can loneliness really turn you into a monster Scientific research suggests it could Everybody feels lonely sometimes but feeling lonely for a long long time actually transforms the brain Those changes can make people less outgoing Lonely people find it harder to enjoy the things that typically make others happy Extremely lonely people feel pleasure when they see other people not getting along That can make them want to stir up trouble
The Age of Enlightenment Where did Mary Shelley get her ideas for Frankenstein The eighteenth century when Shelley was born was considered part of the Enlightenment because many scientific principles were being discovered at the time Electricity what it was and how it worked was a hot topic Mary Shelley knew about these ideas She was well-educated and especially interested in science She also knew lots of famous scientists including Sir Humphry Davy a well-known electrical researcher and scientist of the era Monster Fact The word galvanize meaning to excite or shock people into taking action was coined from Luigi Galvani’s name 1717 Gabriel Fahrenheit invents the first mercury thermometer 1752 Benjamin Franklin proves lightning is electrical See page 15 1769 James Watt’s steam engine propels the Industrial Revolution 1781 William Herschel discovers Uranus 1790 John Fitch invents the first successful steamboat 1792 William Murdoch invents gas lighting 1800 Alessandro Volta builds the first battery See page 12 1809 Humphry Davy creates the first electric lamp Franken-frog Around 1780 Luigi Galvani made an important discovery When his assistant touched a metal scalpel to a dead frog’s exposed nerve its leg jumped Galvani believed that electricity ran through the frog’s nerves If this was true he wondered could electricity be the source of life Scientists did a series of experiments to find the answer Electric shocks were even applied to victims of drowning in attempts to bring them back to life These experiments were not only interesting to scientists They also became a source of edutainment for ordinary people Traveling exhibitions toured Europe to show the effects of electricity One of the showmen was Giovanni Aldini Galvani’s nephew In 1803 at a famous prison called Newgate Aldini shocked the corpse of an executed murderer The corpse sat up Many spectators believed the corpse was coming back to life It wasn’t The shock just made the corpse’s muscles contract like in Galvani’s frog The question of whether electricity was the source of life remained open Monster Fact After the prison experiment the Newgate Calendar reported that the jaws of the deceased criminal began to quiver and the adjoining muscles were horribly contorted and one eye was actually opened
WHAT IS ELECTRICITY ANYWAY Everything in the universe is made up of tiny particles called atoms The atoms are made up of even tinier particles called protons electrons and neutrons The protons and electrons have electrical charges Protons have a positive charge and electrons have a negative charge Neutrons have no charge Particles that have the same electrical charge repel each other push each other away Particles with opposite charges attract each other pull each other together Protons and neutrons form the center or nucleus of the atom and electrons whirl around the nucleus The electrons interact with particles belonging to other atoms They repel particles that have negative charges and attract particles that have positive charges Sometimes an electron will break free and move from one atom to another That motion is electricity When there are a bunch of atoms together and electrons are moving from one atom to another in the same direction it’s called an electrical current In the same way that a current of water has more force than a single water droplet an electrical current has more force than a single electron A current can literally push particles around so they do work like light up light bulbs or make motors spin Some materials are made of atoms that lose electrons more easily than others These materials conduct electricity better because more electrons are moving from atom to atom Copper is one of these materials which is why electrical wires are made from this metal
