Final answer:
Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' was influenced by the Enlightenment ideas from her parents, Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, and Romantic ideals from her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her work reflects her upbringing, her intellectual milieu, and the themes central to the Gothic and Romantic literary traditions, evidencing concerns about social outcasts and the boundaries of scientific exploration.
Step-by-step explanation:
Philosophical Influences on Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein'
The philosophical influences on Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' are deeply rooted in the intellectual tradition of the Enlightenment and the Romantic Movement. Shelley's parents, Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, instilled in her the philosophical underpinnings of equality and rationality. Her mother’s advocacy for women's rights in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, along with her father’s Enlightenment-based philosophies, greatly influenced her perspective.
Additionally, Shelley was immersed in the Romantic ideals through her relationship with Percy Bysshe Shelley, whose works exhibited a deep dissatisfaction with society's norms and a tendency to glorify intense emotions and nature. The trio's (including Lord Byron) proximity and shared ideals culminated in a fertile setting where Mary Shelley's creativity led to the birth of her 'monstrous' novel, Frankenstein, which was directly influenced by the Gothic and Romantic literature of her time.
The themes in Frankenstein reflect Shelley’s intellectual heritage and the philosophical discourses of her time, addressing the limitations of scientific exploration, the ethics of creation and destruction, and the lived experience of being an outsider—a reflection of the societal outcasts she was familiar with through her father's intellectual circle.