Summary of "Frankenstein and Radical Science" by Marilyn Butler

• "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is famously reinterpretable." It seems to fit any time period because it can be interpreted to be an allusion or allegory for different things in any time period. 

• About one year after Shelley published the novel, the public criticized it for the controversial kind of science (natural science) that it represented. It became less infamous as people gained awareness of the scientific world, because they no longer viewed it as something radical and exciting. 

• Mary Shelley wrote accurately on scientific matters, most likely because she was friends with a respected science writer, William Lawrence. He also influenced her view of man through his writings about natural science and the mechanisms or motivations of man seen in animals. Furthermore, because of this influence, many people, at one time, interpreted Shelley's work as an attack of Christianity.

• Many themes of Lawrence's natural science writings can be found in Shelley's text. For example, "mankind as a domesticated animal, pretentious but flawed." Other themes that Shelley touches on might include "heredity, fosterage and nurturance, sexual selection and the perverse adoption of choices which lead to extinction." (It's easy to see why these ideas were not entirely excepted at the time.) Also the fact that the creature attempts to nurture Frankenstein--for example when he kills a hare for him--could reflect the idea that primitive man is inevitably father to sophisticated man. 

• Lawrence was later condemned for his writings, and this left Shelley in the predicament of publishing a book with blasphemous writings. She re-published a new edition in 1831, which depicted Frankenstein as a more religious character. She also took out a lot of Frankenstein's scientific background, and the genetic material about his family. Now, people could interpret the plot of Frankenstein as they liked, because most of the obvious themes of evolutionary theory were eliminated.