Electricity And Power In Frankenstein

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Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein was inspired by the works of Benjamin Franklin combined with tragedy in her own life. Benjamin Franklin’s work with electricity only 66 years earlier had filled society with excitement over the possibilities for its uses, including the potential to re-animate the dead. Mary Shelley 's past was filled with death; losing three children, a stepsister, and her mother. Victor Frankenstein combined these two influences to fight death with electricity, and brought Frankenstein 's monster to life. Although he did not discover electricity, that honor goes to William Gilbert; Benjamin Franklin was the first to recognize that electricity was more than something to be used to create sparks in a magic show (Bellis). Using his famous kite experiment on June 10, 1752, Franklin proved that lightning and electricity are the same thing. Franklin, however, wanted to discover practical uses for electricity. Through his experiments, he …show more content…
In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley introduces the concept of galvanism to the story through Victor Frankenstein:
We witnessed a most violent and terrible thunder-storm. Before this I was not unacquainted with the more obvious laws of electricity. On this occasion a man of great research in natural philosophy was with us, and excited by this catastrophe, he entered on the explanation of a theory which he had formed on the subject of electricity and galvanism, which was at once new and astonishing to me (Frankenstein ch. 2). In addition, Giovanni Aldini, physicist nephew of Luigi Galvani, used his uncle’s discoveries for morbid entertainment displays. In the early 1800’s, he used electricity in a public showing to make a slaughtered ox’s eyes, nose, and tongue move. He went on to experiment on the recently deceased body of a man. Aldini

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