The Role of the Golem in the Making of<i>Frankenstein</i>

Abstract

The monstrous likeness between the Creature in Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, and the Golem of Jewish folklore is no mere coincidence. The Golem’s introduction into early nineteenth-century German literature — ironically at the hands of two avowed anti-Semites, Jacob Grimm and Ludwig Achim von Arnim — may have permitted its rediscovery by Mary Shelley. In addition, the tortured journey of the Creature in her novel may have been inspired by her reading of her husband’s poems about the ‘Wandering Jew’.