CU-B ENGL250 SP26

Anatomy, Power, and Politics of the Dead      In the early 18-19th century, the human corpse became a primary, but complicated source of fascination in social, medical, and political spheres. This isn't anything specific to this era, but the way the dead were debated upon was. When medical schools all over Europe began popping up with medical advancements on the rise, fascination in anatomical practices that used to just be the realm of science now became a foray into class and pushing the boundaries of morality. Naturally, with the rise of new medical schools and more students, there came a need for bodies—cadavers to be more specific—for the students to practice and study on. However, there weren’t enough bodies to be supplied and executions weren’t an every day happenstance. So what needed to be done to supply these bodies? Grave robbing—and so a new “profession” was born. It became a necessity and a necessity that rose into the public sphere of consciousness.  ...

          Figure 1:  popular painting "The Nightmare" by Henry Fuseli in 1781 Frankenstein in the Gothic and Romanticism Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was published in 1818, which was during the Gothic and Romanticism era. Gothic and Romanticism affected the literature, art, and architecture in the late 18th - early 19th centuries throughout Europe. Romanticism was a reaction to the Enlightenment in the 18th century. It was mainly in England and France and was from the aftermath of the French Revolution (2). The Enlightenment focused on logic and reason, while Romanticism focused on nature, and the Gothic focused on death and the supernatural. Gothic and Romanticism are two different movements that supported each other. Both went against rationalism of the Enlightenment and while the Gothic movement was about the supernatural and death, Romanticism explored themes of death as well. It focused more on nature though and the danger of that with the hum...

(3) Image from Science Alert Overview   Scarlet fever is described as A bacterial illness that can develop in a person with strep throat. Scarlet fever shows bright red rashes all over the body while including high fevers and a sore throat. This illness is most common in children from ages five to fifteen (1). In the late 1800s and early 1900s, England and Wales families and children were under a war of fighting this illness. It wasn’t until the 1920s that a scientist discovered what might be happening to these young children (4).  Mary Shelley, The author of Frankenstein was born in April of 1797. The novel itself was written in 1818. Scarlet Fever had a high mortality rate at this time period being around 12% to 15% (6). It is also said that around this time, which antibiotics were not a thing, only around 20% of people who were infected were able to survive (7). (2) Image from The Lancet Including Frankenstein When Frankenstein by Mary Shelley was written in the early 190...

Electricity Discovery and Reanimation (1) Early 19th-century illustration of a galvanism experiment showing his electricity reanimating a corpse  During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the discovery of electricity was very important. It helped shape how people thought about life as a whole. Some scientists began to work with the idea that electricity held the power to reanimate life, and that electricity itself was the reason for living things. This idea holds great importance to the story Frankenstein by Mary Shelly, which was published at the start of 1818. This scientific discovery directly relates to Frankenstein's main character, Victor Frankenstein, and his attempt to use electricity to create life from a nonliving creature. Arguably, the most important discovery of this time was Galvanism. Galvanism was a theory developed by Luigi Galvani, which stated that electricity is the key to life. He noticed that electricity can cause dead frog muscles to twitch o...

Mary Shelley. (1). The start of Mary Shelley's painful familiarity with grief began at a young age. Her mother, unfortunately, passed away due to complications from childbirth shortly after Mary was born. Throughout her life, she faced numerous tragedies and overcame personal challenges that include losing her own children. Even though she was presented with countless devastating experiences, she found a way to create through her grief. She lived a full and eventful life. When Mary Shelley was sixteen, she eloped with Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was twenty-four at the time. Soon after, she became pregnant with their first child, Clara, who tragically died shortly after being born. Following the loss of their child, she endured a series of personal tragedies that deepened her understanding of loss.  Although it was a common occurrence during this time period, the impact remains the same. Two weeks after Clara had passed, Mary Shelley wrote, “Dream that my little baby came to life agai...

When Science Dug too Deep: Grave Robbing and Frankenstein