Frankenstein summarizes the Romantic View of Science/Knowledge:

"'The ancient teachers of this science,' said he, ' promised impossibilities and performed nothing. The modern masters promise very little; they know that metals cannot be transmuted [alchemy] and that the elixir of life is a chimera. But these philosophers, whose hands seem only made to dabble in dirt, and their eyes to pore over the microscope or the crucible, have indeed performed miracles. They penetrate into the recesses of nature and show how she works in her hiding places. They ascend into the heavens'; they have discovered how blood circulates, and the nature of the air we breath. They have acquired almost unlimited powers; the can command the thunders of heaven, mimic the earthquake, and even mock the invisible world with its own shadows'
    Such were the professor's words [M. Waldmen ] -- rather let me say such the words of the fate -- enounced to destroy me. As I went on I felt as if my soul were grappling with a palpable enemy; [...] more, far more, will I achieve; treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation."  -- Victor Frankenstein (27 Norton, 805 Wilke)

The Romantic view of Knowledge/Science:

"A human being in perfection ought always to preserve a calm and peaceful mind, and never to allow passion to a transitory desire to disturb his tranquility. I do not think that the pursuit of knowledge is an exception to this rule If the study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections, and to destroy your taste fro those simply pleasures in whihch no alloy can possibly mix, then that study is certainly unlawful, that is to say, not befitting the human mind. If this rule were always observed; if no man allowed to any pursuit whatsoever to interfere with the tranquility of his domestic affections, Greece had not been enslaved; Caesar would have spared his country; America would have been discovered more gradually; and the empires of Mexico and Peru had not been destroyed."  -- Victor (33 Norton)

Romanticism:

Happiness thru tranquility

Tranquility thru nature/natural beauty

Nature equals beauty, good, "God"; Scientific exploration and knowledge destroys man's true, right or natural relationship to nature

Emotional (feminine) response privileged over rational, logical: feel more, think less

Enlightenment Justice:  Due Process and the Necessity of Proof

Justice: becomes a scientific topic instead of religious (end of witch trials, The Inquisition)

Psychology: What is the nature of the criminal mind? What causes crime? Who judges whom?

Rousseau: noble savage: society/materialism (property) destroys man's inherent goodness/innocence; Confessions (442-443, 451-452): Rousseau is turned into a criminal thru physical abuse, poor treatment, and inequality.

William Godwin (Mary's pappy) An Enquiry into Political Justice (rationalist-ethical view of evil/crime (cause/effect instead of theological) See: William Godwin notes

Justine is guilty until proven innocent, a critique of Pre-Enlightenment conceptions of justice and legal systems.

The DeLaceys cannot achieve equal treatment under the law and suffer the same fate as Justine.

Victor unjustly accused of Clerval's murder.

The Creature is unjustly judged by Viktor; the Creature's argument for just treatment is rooted in classical Enlightenment values and Rousseau's and Godwin's conception of the roots of crime and criminality.

Major Scientific/Technological Advances revolutionize man's relationship to Natural World:

1770 - Galvani: sending electric shocks through dead frogs, resulting in twitching movements of the frogs legs

1796 - Edward Jenner: smallpox vaccine (understanding of nature of disease; concept of immunity; self contamination)
(Voltaire on innoculation: http://www.bartleby.com/34/2/11.html )

1795 - First horse drawn railroad (harnessing nature systematically)

1799 - Rossetta stone (deciphire hieroglyphics: ability to understand lost civilizations thru scientific study)

1814 - George Stephenson: first steam locomotive (no longer dependent on nature)

1816 - First stethoscope (ability to "look into" human body when it's still alive!)

1818 - First steam ship crosses Atlantic (no longer dependent on nature, can cross when one chooses regardless of trade winds)

 (N. Pole not reached until 1909; Inland Passage found non-existent; death never conquered: nature proves itself more complex than thought)

Economic/Industrial Revolution: Man's Relationship to Labor, Land and Means of Production

1760 – 1820: Shift from Mercantilism to Industrialism; application of Cartesian/Newtonian method.

Shift from cottage industries to centralized industry, amalgamation of economic control; displacement of family.

Women: economic role displaced, controlled by industrial capitalism

Children: from home to factory

Agricultural Revolution:  Man’s Control of Cows and Bushes:

Crop rotation: grass and grains

Farmers able to keep cattle alive thru winter for first time ever.

Jethro Tull cuts “Aqua Lung”  when not busy inventing the horse-drawn hoe c. 1730

Scientific cattle breeding: Avg. oxen weight:      1710: 370 lbs. 

                                                                                1745: 800 lbs.

Population Explosion: Massive child mortality rate and spread of contagious diseases during colonialism balanced with beginnings of the technological and scientific revolutions. Shelley context: growing up seeing many people die (see Biography section) but at a time when defeating death itself seems increasingly possible, even probable.

World Population:

    1750: 791,000,000 (64% in Asia)

    1900: 1,650,000,000

    1950: 2,520,000,000

    2000: 6,055,000,000

Life Expectancy:

Hunter-Gatherer; late Roman/Medieval:     20-30

                                                1870:   40 yrs.

                                                1915:    50

                                                1930:    60

                                                1955:    70

Population Explosion:    

                Europe:           1750: 163,000,000

                                        1800:  203,000,000

                                        1850:  276,000,000

Population Migration:

N.America:    1750:     2,000,000

                        1800:     7,000,000

                        1850:    26,000,000

Political Revolution, Exploitation of the Brown Man:

Imperialism: British Empire's (and European) colonial domination of heathens, savages, others, primitives

(Europe shifts from white colonies to brown colonies)

Revolutionary: SHIFT FROM MONARCHIES TO DEMOCRACIES THRU VIOLENT REVOLUTION; Prometheus: man challenges historical Divine Imperative of Monarchies/Rulers)

1776: American Revolution

1790: French Revolution

1796 - 1815 Napoleonic Wars (dangers of democracy and unchecked freedom) (Mary and Percy travel thru war-torn France in 1814; Mary begins writing Frankenstein roughly about this time)

1811: Wars of Independence in S. and Central America

Colonialism: European colonial domination of heathens, savages, “Others”, primitives etc.  (Europe shifts from white colonies to brown colonies)

Feminism: Mary Wollstonecraft (Mary's mother) Vindication of the Rights of Women

-- Note Mary Shelley's criticism of "masculine" ambition in Frankenstein; evasion of man's responsibility to women and his children (his creations); need to balance knowledge and ambition with love and responsibility; argument rooted in the need for women to be educated with the same skills as men and how women's weakness was a result of society training women to be so: we are what we are trained to become.