Victor Frankenstein’s Evil Genius: Plutarch, Brutus’s Vision, and the Absent Revolution

Authors

  • Fabio Camilletti University of Warwick (UK)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13130/2037-2426/14492

Keywords:

Plutarch, Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Ghosts, French Revolution

Abstract

This essay examines the influence of Plutarch’s Life of Brutus on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, arguing that the relationship between Brutus and his «evil genius» provides Shelley with a model for characterizing the pair of Victor Frankenstein and his Creature. By considering the broader context of Plutarch’s reception from the sixteenth through the early nineteenth centuries, and particularly the construction of Brutus as a ghost-seer, a clinical obsessive, or a revolutionary icon, the essay examines the Brutus/Victor parallel as actual and/or symbolic parricides, shedding new light on Shelley’s failed representation of the French Revolution in her novel.

Author Biography

  • Fabio Camilletti, University of Warwick (UK)

    Professore associato di Letteratura Italiana
    University of Warwick (UK)

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Published

2021-07-09

Issue

No. 27 (2021)

Section

Essays

License

Creative Commons License
Except where otherwise noted, the content of this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License.

How to Cite

Victor Frankenstein’s Evil Genius: Plutarch, Brutus’s Vision, and the Absent Revolution. (2021). ENTHYMEMA, 27, 18-30. https://doi.org/10.13130/2037-2426/14492