The Concept Of Galvanism In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Mary shelley 's 1818 (later revised in 1831) novel Frankenstein is a very important piece of modern historical literature which has an interesting story behind its creation. The novel has been adapted into many different mediums including multiple feature films, comic books, radio plays, and even video games. However there is one thing in particular that is very interesting about the novel and that is its references to the scientific concept of galvanism. In fact, one could argue that galvanism is one of the primary inspirations and driving factors behind victor 's story in the novel.

Merriam Webster defines Galvanism as “a direct current of electricity especially when produced by chemical action”. The term Galvanism is actually derived from

In chapter two of Frankenstein Victor learns more about electricity and he is also introduced to the concept of galvanism. The exact quote from the text states "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 page 271) This quote shows that after his conversation with the researcher victor gained an interest in the properties of electricity and the concept of galvanism, which would eventually lead to his creation of the

In fact, only two sentences in the entire book allude to lightning and the Galvanism theory". (http://ethw.org/Galvani_and_the_Frankenstein_Story) I find this to be a very fascinating story telling technique because it gives the reader little information about the workspace in which victor creates his experiments which in the context of the story works very well because victor doesn 't want anyone to replicate his experiment.

The concept of Galvanism is one of the central elements of Frankenstein. In fact, the quotes from the novel that were mentioned earlier in this essay either mention galvanism specifically by name or they describe elements that are commonly associated with galvanism such as electricity and reanimation. These elements are so ingrained into the story of Frankenstein that if they were missing then the story just wouldn 't feel the same or have the same message behind it. In fact, many could argue that without the concept of galvanism this story wouldn’t