Concepts of the Body, Medicine and Madness in Mary Shelley’s Frankenste

I intend to examine to what effect concepts of the body, medicine and madness ar presented in Mary Shelleys Frankenstein (1818). I shall perform close analysis to parts of the text referring to explorations in new technologies, advances in medical science, and there mental impacts. I shall discuss social implications of the growth of mans technological evolution during the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Mary Shelleys Gothic science-fiction novel Frankenstein (1818) was indite and published between two major historical events. It followed The French variety (1789-1799) a period of radical social and political upheaval, and was written during The Industrial Revolution between the eighteenth and nineteenth century, a time of great socioeconomic and cultural effects. The French Revolution acted as the single most crucial entrance on British intellectual, philosophical, and political life in the nineteenth century. (David Cody, French Revolution 2010). The Industrial Revolu tion marked the transition from a world of artificer manufacture to a factory system. (Shirley Burchill et al. The Industrial Revolution 2010). The advancements in machine based manufacturing brought social implications of anxiety. Frankenstein can be viewed as a reflection of the tumultuousness and change seen within society during the eighteenth and nineteenth century, through the explorations and growth in mans technological evolution. Frankenstein is an epistolary novel, comprised of letters, journals and diary entries, allowing the reader a sense of verisimilitude a sense that it might have actually occurred, enabling the author to change points of view when required to further the plot. The story follows a little grief stricken ... ....com. Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 2011. useable from www.dictionary.reference.com/browse/Prometheus, accessed 12th January 2011. Russell A. Potter, A Chronology of Frankenstein. Available from www.ric.edu/faculty/rpotter/Frank-chro n.html, accessed 12th January 2011.Robert W. Anderson, Body Parts That Matter Frankenstein, or The new-fangled Cyborg, 1999. Available from www.womenwriters.net/editorials/anderson1.htm, accessed 12th January 2011.Shirley Burchill, Nigel Hughes, Peter Price & Keith Woodall, The Open Door Website, The Industrial Revolution, 2010. Available from www.saburchill.com/history/.../001.html, accessed 12th January 2011.U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Frankenstein Penetrating the Secrets of Nature, 2010. Available from www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/frankenstein.html, accessed 12th January 2011.