How did eugenics influence Mary Shelley?

The term itself couldn't have influenced
Shelley, who wrote the first version of in 1818. Francis Galton is
credited with coining the term "eugenics" in 1883, and the movement really didn't pick
up substantial steam until the early 1900s. However, Shelley's work does show some
forward-thinking scientific analysis for ideas that really didn't exist in the early 1800s, so
it is possible to examine Frankenstein with the idea that Shelley may have had the roots of
ideas about eugenics, even though this was not a topic that had fully developed when she wrote
the book.

Eugenics is the philosophy that only the healthiest, strongest, and
most desirable people should produce offspring, to further those traits in the human
population.can be considered a "father" of sorts tohe created. Under the lens of
eugenics, we can then examine the features he chose for his new being:

How [to] delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care
I had endeavoured to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as
beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and
arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly
whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that
seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled
complexion and straight black lips.

On one hand,
Frankenstein chooses these desirable traits (including an eight-foot frame) that humans might
prefer. The parts which Frankenstein chose to stitch together to create this being are
"beautiful." He is muscular and strong. He has long, "lustrous" hair and
perfectly white teeth. Frankenstein seems to understand that a beautiful creature is the most
desired outcome.

But he also learns that he cannot control all variables. The
creature's eyes are too watery, the skin turns out an odd yellow color, and his lips are an
unnatural black. Eugenics faces the same limitations, even in today's great scientific
advancements of genome mapping. While we know a great deal about how genetic coding works (which
Shelley was completely ignorant of) and which genes code for various human traits, diseases, and
abilities, we certainly still have much to learn. Intelligence, for example, is coded in at
least five hundred different genes.

Thus, Frankenstein's realization before
the term "eugenics" was coined is much the same as our own today. Humans are a complex
species, and tinkering with the creation of an ideal being can produce unexpected and even
unexplainable results. Frankenstein's attempts to create a beautiful being actually repulsed him
when his work was complete, and he could not account for the being's personality, which had
strong tendencies toward violence and revenge.