Paris is the capital of France, and it is a city well known for beautiful architecture and its art. This city appears in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein a couple times. During the first time it appears, The Creature is narrating the story and during his story, he watches this family that makes him feel safe. He finds that this family came from Paris, France, and shares the backstory of this family during his part of the novel. On another note, Paris appears again as a location that Frankenstein and his father stop at after his father takes Frankenstein back home from being imprisoned. Frankenstein was in prison in the first place because he was accused of the death of his friend Henry Clerval, and after Frankenstein was proven innocent, his father and him are now returning home to his lover Elizabeth. Frankenstein’s father supposedly “had some business” in Paris, which is why they appear to be staying in that city on the way home. From 1815 to 1830, Paris, France was undergoing a Restoration. The French Romantic movement was growing throughout this time and advancements in agriculture were taking place. However, there were tensions with the government. There were especially tensions between the Parliament and the King. Since 1800, the population of the city had been growing from 600,000 to over a million in 1846. Because of its large population, however, Paris also had a problem with diseases and poor conditions in the city. Since this city appeared to be growing while Mary Shelley was writing Frankenstein, it makes sense as to why this city would appear in her novel. This city was under quite a lot of development as Shelley was working on her novel, making it yet another place the characters of her novel could visit or originate from. 

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. London, Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, and Jones, 1818.

Beaufort, Jean. Paris, France. Public Domain Pictures, https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=222570&pict....

Clint Bruce, DeTholozany Pauline, Larson Sharon, and Majewski Henry. “Paris: Capital of the 19th Century.” Brown University Library Center for Digital Scholarship. https://library.brown.edu/cds/paris/chronology3.html

Mestre, Jennifer. “The Rebirth of France.” Old World Voyages, 27 July, 2022. https://oldworldvoyages.com/the-rebirth-of-paris/