Books for Bones: The Intertextuality of Frankenstein

In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley can be viewed as romanticizing the philosophical arguments of her day, translating the philosophical discourse of the Romantic era into narrative in a dialogic manner consistent with Menippean satire. More specifically, the form Shelley has structured to hold the fruit of her invention is essentially a patchwork of intertextuality, a dialogic work assembled from some of the most influential books of her time. While Frankenstein combed through graveyards to find the parts needed to form a bride for his creation, Shelley combed through the pages of several influential works of literature to provide the materials that her imagination brings to life:   Roussseau's Emile and Julie, Milton's Paradise Lost, the Bible, her father William Godwin's Political Justice and Caleb Williams (which romanticizes the philosophies Godwin puts forth in Political Justice) and her mother Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women.

At the time Shelley wrote her novel, the books she used to structure her story were popular, at least within the literati. Today, they require a tour guide. This intertextuality centers on Rousseau's Emile, which valued experiential education over a classical approach to education through books and lessons and mandated that children be allowed to follow their own interests. A person familiar with Emile will recognize that Shelley is taking a cue from Rousseau's own words:

"Thus one kind of education would be practicable in Switzerland and not in France; another would be right for the middle classes but not for the nobility....Others can concern themselves if they want, each for the  country or the state they have in view."

The education of the characters in the novel - most notably that of Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, the creature, and Felix, but also of the minor characters as well - are variances of the course of education laid out in Rousseau's seminal tract. Felix,  a French member of the landed gentry, is the only character who has been educated well; Walton, left to his devices, is an idiot (perhaps this is a satire of Byron, who was also from a nautical family - but Byron was educated in the traditional manner which provided him with the ability to be a poet), Frankenstein is raised in Switzerland and something goes very wrong with his education (it was his mother's fault).

Emile is the source of several important parts of Frankenstein. For instance, consider the scene where Felix comes upon the creature kneeling before his father and throws him with “supernatural strength.” The creature is supposedly an eight-foot tall being with superhuman strength of his own, therefore a being with considerable muscle mass. Worse, the being is kneeling giving it a lower center of gravity. Yet Felix “flings” him across the room. It seems rather expedient and is sometimes thought of as one of the novel's problems.

However, this exact moment is a manifestation of a single sentence in Emile where the themes of education and creation collide (not coincidentally, this is the exact center of  Frankenstein): “The rebellious angel who fought against his own nature was weaker than the happy mortal who is living at peace according to nature.” The rebellious angel is the creature, who self-identifies with Satan, and by seeking help he is going against Satan’s prideful nature. The happy mortal is Felix, whose name means happiness. While his educational background isn’t really given, his character exhibits many traits of Emile, the titular student of Rousseau's work.