Summary Of The Novel 'Romantic Zombie'

Joseph Hoff

Professor Mitchell

4/21/2015

Frankenstein Romantic Zombie

The last thing people think of about the Romantic Era is that zombies would make possible their first appearance in written literature. Frankenstein is a classic novel first published in 1818 by Mary Shelley, a then 19 year old girl. The idea behind the book came after her, her husband and group of their friends finished reading German ghost stories. The friends then entered into a bet as to who could write the best stories. The book is about a man, Victor Frankenstein, a young man studying biology at Ingolstadt University. In his work he discovers how to give life to an inanimate body and uses his knowledge to create a man-monster. His truly believes that his discovery will lead to further scientific advances in biology.

Generally, Frankenstien is placed into the Horror genre, but Frankenstein more correctly fits into the Romantic genres. When the reader thinks about what the monster endures, being abandoned by his creator, not being taught language, not being named and being seen as different and spurned by every human the “wretch” meets in his travels. The story was exceptionally well told and is a push back against the Industrial revolution; women’s rolls, body image and the chase for the next discovery

that was also occurring during this time. Mary Shelley writes Frankenstein as a way to push against the intellectual, social and Industrial powers of her time.

Frankenstein is a self-reflection of her own life and thus one of the first zombie books is about the authors own worries about zombification.

Take into consideration this quote "it's about how ideas in society express themselves (De Vise 330)." Based on this quote and the early 1900's when Frankenstein was written and published. That it was very uncommon for a woman to be educated let alone equally or more educated than a man. For Mary Shelley to write this on a bet between herself, her husband and their friends in less than 6 months is a testament to how untrue these preconceived notion are and were. The best part of the story is Mary came out the victor, but also creating a

masterpiece.
Mary also explores the issue of body image, when Victor states, “How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips (Shelley).” Even though Victor handpicked each and every part of the yellow skinned monster. He was horrified at the monster actually appearance. This is seen today in the way people look at the homeless, unknown to us to situation that put them on the streets. We automatically judge them strictly based on the appearance and do not take into account that homeless person(s) situation.
Discovers if left unchecked or properly observed can lead scientific fallacies and questionable practices. Captain Robert Walton says “It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils. With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, collected the instruments of life around me that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet. It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs” about the creation of the monster (Shelley 42). This is further proven even though an experiment such as The Stanford Prison Experiment are conceived with great ideas, they can quickly get out of hand even when supervised (Haney 30). In Mary’s day there were “credible” scientific on how tissue reacted to electricity and people truly believed if used for the wrong reasons could be used to revive the dead. Today we still struggle with how far is too far when it comes to things like gene therapy, cloning and research testing.
In conclusion even if Frankenstein is written in old English style of writing, is classified as a horror/sci-fi and isn’t truly a zombie book when compared to how zombies are betrayed in modern media. On closer inspection and reading you can definitely find undertones of what makes up modern zombie media. Zombie media generally take a look at what is going on in society and a self-reflection of the current social environment.

DeVise
Haney, C., C. Banks, & P. Zimbardo "A Study of Prisoners and Guards in a Simulated Prison." Naval Research Reviews. 30: 4-17.
Shelley, M., & Grove, A. Frankenstein: Or, The modern Prometheus.