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The inspiration for Frankenstein: was author Mary Shelley influenced by Dundee鈥檚 gruesome whaling industry?

13 September 2018

Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus was famously written on the shores of Lake Geneva. But were the seeds of the story planted on the banks of the River Tay?

In 1812, the teenage Mary was sent from London to Dundee to live with the family of businessman William Thomas Baxter. Their mansion house enjoyed unimpeded views to the city’s busy harbour.

In the many months she spent with the Baxters, Mary found freedom to write and “commune with the the creatures of my fancy”.

Did Dundee鈥檚 whaling industry influence Mary Shelley?

The gruesome sights and tales of whaling may have left an impression on young Mary.

In the early 19th Century, Dundee was home to a large whaling industry. Each summer, local men set sail to spend months hunting in cold Arctic waters.

Tales were told of seamen driven to madness by their bleak existence, or entire ships becoming wedged in ice and lost forever.

These stories would not have passed Mary by, according to author Angela Wright on Frankenstein Dundee.

“Even if she didn’t start writing Frankenstein in Dundee, in her head she started to have a story. That story become the framing narrative of Robert Walton, the Arctic explorer who wishes to go to the land of mist and snow.”

The unpleasant sights and smells that accompanied the returning men may also have influenced young Mary.

Carcases of walruses, seals and polar bears were piled on the quayside for all to see. Women set to work scrubbing clean the whale bones covered in gristle, fat and blood.

Barrels of blubber were carried from the harbour to the boiling yards to be rendered into oil.

Dead creatures ripped open and dissected; their body parts to be reused elsewhere. A gruesome sight for impressionable young minds!