Grave Robbing: History and Contexts within Frankenstein

 

A group of men robbing a woman's body from a grave (6).

Background of Grave Robbing and Connection to the 18th and 19th Centuries:

In the late 1700s and early 1800s, anatomical and medical sciences were advancing, and according to David Ketterer, bodies used in these sciences started coming in with the passing of the Murder Act of 1752. Ketterer states that the Murder Act “made the medical dissection of all executed murders compulsory” (5). Although this made acquiring bodies easier, it is also stated that, “there were not enough such murders to provide the College of Surgeons with all the corpses it required” (5). This lack of bodies pushed people to drastic measures, and the short, but important, era of grave robbing and body snatching began. 

            Grave robbing and body snatching are mostly synonymous. PBS describes them as, “the act of secretly removing corpses from graves for sale, primarily to medical schools where they were used for dissection and anatomy lessons” (4). As stated, the act of grave robbing was a driving factor in the medical and anatomical scene during the time period. Without grave robbers, the technological advances and knowledge about the human body we have today may cease to exist.

            Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein while grave robbers were taking over Europe. The act of body snatching and grave robbery are important parts of Dr. Frankenstein's story, and without them the final draft of Shelley's novel could look completely different compared to what we see today. Below is a short video from National Geographic. The video shows how grave robbers went about committing these controversial acts and how they have changed modern science and research today (7).

Frankenstein and the Importance of Grave Robbing:

Frankenstein and his creation (1).

            Within Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, grave robbing plays a vital role in the story. Without the knowledge of grave robbing, the story of Victor Frankenstein and his creation may not exist in the modern literary world. Ann Bates states, “Between 1827 and 1832, before the Anatomy Act of 1832 came into force, body snatching was prevalent as there was a lack of legal means to obtain cadavers for medical research” (2). Within Mary Shelley's story, Dr. Frankenstein tasks himself with creating life from what was once dead. To do this he was required to find body parts to fit his creation. In the story it is stated that Dr. Frankenstein, "dabbled among the unhallowed damps of the grave or tortured the living animal to animate the lifeless clay" (8). Victors' fascination with the dead, and the possibility of creating new life, led him to grave robbing so he could acquire the necessary parts for his creation. 

            As previously stated, grave robbing was a necessity in the 18th and 19th centuries. This need for grave robbing rose due to the lack of subjects for colleges and doctors to study. Within Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Victor is a college student, which fit well with the time period and how study was done in the anatomical field. The law of the early 19th century also didn't provide much action against grave robberies. The BBC states, "Under the law at the time, buried bodies were not seen as property, so Resurrectionists (as they became known) were able to dig up bodies without fear of being arrested for theft" (3). Dr. Frankenstein's experiment wasn't a school issued lab or test, but the lack of police interference and relative ease that Victor had finding parts for his creature show how normalized grave robbery was while Mary Shelley was writing Frankenstein.

Works Cited:

(1) Carmela, Angela. “Victor Frankenstein and His Daemon: A Study of Their Dialogue.” The-Artifice.com, 17 Aug. 2021, the-artifice.com/frankenstein-dialogue/. Accessed 23 Mar. 2026.

(2) Bates, Ann. “Digging in the Dark: Unveiling the Unlikely Protagonists in Medical Science Advancements - The Grave Robbers!” Journal of Perioperative Practice, vol. 34, no. 6, June 2024, pp. 172–77. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.proxy-commonwealthu.klnpa.org/10.1177/17504589231223015. Accessed 9 Mar. 2026.

(3) BBC Bitesize. “Burke and Hare: The Body Snatchers - BBC Bitesize.” BBC Bitesize, Apr. 2022, www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zvrsydm#zpy6hcw. Accessed 29 Mar. 2026.

(4) “Body Snatching around the World | History Detectives | PBS.” Pbs.org, 2014, www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/feature/body-snatching-around-the-world/. Accessed 9 Mar. 2026.

(5) Ketterer, David. “Murdering to Dissect (Book Review).” Science Fiction Studies, vol. 24, Mar. 1997, pp. 119–23. EBSCOhost, research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=c3d27b72-1928-3c96-9868-eebe56e5e5a6. Accessed 9 Mar. 2026.

(6) Lenoir, Andrew. “Body Snatching: A Blood and Guts History of Modern Medicine.” Allthatsinteresting.com, 15 Nov. 2019, allthatsinteresting.com/thumb/1045.752.allthatsinteresting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/illustration-of-body-snatchers-at-a-grave-featured.jpg. Accessed 9 Mar. 2026.

(7) National Geographic. “Grave Robbers | National Geographic.” YouTube, 10 Apr. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=z23tGG8jWF8. Accessed 23 Mar. 2026.

(8) Shelley, Mary. "Frankenstein." Dover Publications. 21 Oct. 1994.