Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has been reimagined onscreen hundreds of times and is a staple of pop culture. The prevailing takeaway is one of science gone wrong and the dangers of pursuing the unnatural. But contemporary readers were surrounded by Enlightenment-era scientific breakthroughs that were beginning to shift the definition of death. To them, Frankenstein would have read as frighteningly plausible.
The real experiments that inspired Frankenstein
When Mary Shelley published her iconic novel in 1818, raising the dead seemed to be the near future.
Coleman Lowndes was a lead producer who has covered history, culture, and photography since joining the Vox video team in 2017.
Electricity was being used in a scientific practice called “galvanism,” which seemed to show some promise in reanimating body parts of recently dead animals and humans. Shelley even references galvanism in the 1831 edition of the book, citing it as an example of how the Frankenstein experiment could be possible.
To learn more about the science that inspired Frankenstein, check out the video above. And for more Vox videos, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel.
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