Williams C
Womens Writ. 2001;8(2):213-34. doi: 10.1080/09699080100200190.
While thorough investigation of many aspects of contemporary scientific developments and Mary Shelley's personal history have provided illuminating contexts for the study of Frankenstein, the activities of the Royal Humane Society, and other bodies and individuals who pioneered and publicized resuscitation techniques, have been comparatively neglected. Here we find a richly documented, highly conspicuous area of scientific endeavour, which generated much excitement in life and literature from the last quarter of the eighteenth century onwards. There are three major points of contact with Frankenstein: Victor Frankenstein's revival of dead tissue to make his creature; the frequent occurrences of unconsciousness and asphyxia, both in the novel and in Mary Shelley's family during the period leading up to its composition, and the widely differing degrees of competence and success with which they are treated; and the possibility that resuscitative techniques were used to revive Mary Shelley's mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, after a suicide attempt. The impact on Frankenstein of Mary Shelley's lifelong distress at the role she played in bringing about her mother's death in childbirth has been thoroughly canvassed by other critics, notably Anne Mellor, but the thought that Mary Shelley, who was herself conceived after her mother's second suicide attempt, might be, in a sense, a child of the dead adds a further turn to the Gothic screw. This study traces a hitherto unexplored intersection between Mary Shelley's first novel and her family history, as well as showing how it launches a formidable attack on the shady ethics and inconsiderate arrogance of some early resuscitators.
虽然对当代科学发展的诸多方面以及玛丽·雪莱的个人经历进行深入研究，为《弗兰肯斯坦》的研究提供了具有启发性的背景，但皇家人道协会以及其他率先开创并宣传复苏技术的团体和个人的活动，却相对受到了忽视。在这里，我们发现了一个有丰富文献记载、备受瞩目的科学努力领域，从18世纪最后二十五年起，它在现实生活和文学作品中都引发了诸多关注。与《弗兰肯斯坦》存在三个主要关联点：维克多·弗兰肯斯坦通过复活死亡组织来制造他的怪物；在小说创作期间，小说中以及玛丽·雪莱家族中频繁出现的昏厥和窒息情况，以及对这些情况的处理能力和成功率差异极大；还有一种可能性，即复苏技术被用于在玛丽·雪莱的母亲玛丽·沃斯通克拉夫特自杀未遂后使其苏醒。玛丽·雪莱因自己在母亲分娩时导致其死亡而终生痛苦，这对《弗兰肯斯坦》的影响已被其他评论家，尤其是安妮·梅勒深入探讨过，但想到玛丽·雪莱自己是在母亲第二次自杀未遂后怀上的，从某种意义上说，她可能是个死而复生之人的孩子，这为这部哥特式小说又增添了一层恐怖色彩。本研究追溯了玛丽·雪莱的第一部小说与她家族历史之间一个迄今未被探索的交叉点，同时也展示了这部小说是如何对一些早期复苏者阴暗的道德观念和轻率的傲慢态度发起有力抨击的。
