Frankenstein Essay, Research Paper
Mary Shelley had a dark childhood and a abnormal life. This
had a large influence on how she wrote Frankenstein. In
Frankenstein, her personal life played a significant roll on the
gothic appeal of the book. The people that influenced her book
the most was her father, William Godwin, her Mother, Mary
Wollstonecraft Godwin, Her Husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley and her
little brother William Godwin.
Mary Shelley s father William Godwin was a philosopher and a
political theorist. Her father was a great writer but he was not
there when Mary needed him and he didn t give Mary the attention
that she needed. He was not a bad father he was just not there to
raise her and watched after her, he still managed to earn her
love though. This would help to explain why Mary was a great
author, but wrote about dark and dominated things in
Frankenstein. Despite her resentment of her father s bleak
rationality, she acknowledged her deep intellectual debts to his
novels by dedicating Frankenstein to him (Davenport 191). Her
father also wrote dark stories of misery. Mary saw as did her
father, the duality in human nature which is capable of brining
misery and ruin to the most gifted of beings. (Bloom78).
After the death of his wife and Mary s mother he married
Mary Jane Clairmont. Mary was a very bad stepmother. She did not
give Mary any of the attention or love that she needed from a
mother. It only got worse when Mary Jane gave birth to her first
child. Now that Mary Jane had a child of her own she did not give
any attention to Mary. Mary Jane would go on to have four more
children. The five children crowded into one house increased
Mary s feeling of inner isolation, the refrain which sounds
throughout her novels and short stories. Another constant
refrain, that of complex familiar relationships, is seen embodied
in the five children, no one of whom could muster two parents in
common, Charles and Jane Excepted (Harold78)
The death of her mother was probably the biggest factor that
affected the writing of Frankenstein. One theme of Frankenstein
is mothering and the absence of mothers: Mary Shelley s own
mother was heavily pregnant with her when her parents married :
her mother died as a result of her birth. (Gothic 188). This is
where Mary conceived the idea of the Frankenstein Impulse -
The desire to alter human nature even to the point of creating
life itself. (Sunstein 233) A quote that best represents the
relationship between her mother and the creation of the monster
is Victor
dreams seeing pictures of his dead mother ten he wakes up and
sees the dead monster. (Frankenstien43) This quote describes the
relationship between Mary Shelly s mother and the creation,
because Mary had been born into the world motherless, like the
creature and throughout her life she had only had a father to
guide her, like the monster does. The creature is a symbol for
Mary being born into the world as a motherless child. Her
reserved manner hid deep feelings baffled by her mother s death
and her father s distance- two kinds of coldness, one might say,
both of them which are embodied in the monster s dead and also
unloved. (Bloom78)
Mary s Mother also a had a very big influence on giving Mary
the courage to write a book in a society that was ruled and
dominated by men. It was almost unheard for a women to write a
book especially one that is as morbid as Frankenstein. Mary s
mother was a brilliant women who wrote the world s first feminist
tract, A Vindication of the rights of women. Mary got many of her
dark personality traits from her mother. When Mary s mother had a
failed love, before Mary was born, she tried to jump off of a
bridge and commit suicide, luckily though she failed at her
attempt.
In her late teen years Mary got involved with a married with
a married man who was a great writer also. She did not marry him
until his wife died. She was so desperate for love that she
followed him all around Europe. He would help Mary to spark many
ideas, when he was living and when he died. The
Shelley-Frankenstein connection had been a frequent source of
speculation among the novel s critics… the novel is an
instrument of revenge against her husband. (Bloom)
Marilyn butler has demonstrated that Mary and her husband were
keenly interested in a contemporary medical controversy as to
whether electricity or something analogous to it, could do duty
for the soul and this inspired the means for Frankenstein to be
infuse the vital spark of life into the monstrous
creation. (Gothic 192)
These are both quotes that represent how her husband
influenced her in a negative a positive way. Her husband helped
to give her ideas to write the book , Mary wrote the book as a
form of revenge on her husband because of the way that he treated
her.
The death of Mary s Children and her little brother help to
explain why Frankenstein had so much death in it. Shelley s Plot
contains details of profound personal authenticity which the
reader couldn t guess: she called Frankenstein s little brother,
who is strangled in the woods by the monster, William, The name
of her Favorite baby brother. (Gothic 191), William is dead!
That sweet little child, whose smiles delighted and warmed my
heart, who was so gentle yet so gay (Shelley68) This shows how
truly dark and domented Mary was. Catastrophe followed
harum-scarum young lovers. Mary s first child, a daughter, was
born after they returned to London and their debts; it was
premature and died. ( Bloom) This was perhaps a main contributor
the dark and gothic appeal of the book.
Mary s travel s throughout Europe is what helped to spark an
interest and gave her the idea for writing the book. But these
youthful travelers were among the first to enter France after the
Napoleon Wars, and a desolate place they found it, the fields
uncultivated, the villages and buildings destroyed (Harold 79)
This is when Mary is traveling through Europe with her soon to be
husband and she begin to see ideas for the book. Percy s wife was
also chasing them around Europe , much like the creature chased
victor all over Europe. Like the Story the chase ended in a
tragedy with Percy s wife killing herself.
The idea so possessed my mind, that a thrill of fear ran
through me , and I wished to exchange the ghastly image of my
fancy for the realities around. I see them still; the very
room… the closed shutters, with the moonlight struggling
through, and the sense that I had that glassy white lake and the
while Alps were beyond. I could not get rid of my hideous
phantom; sill haunted me. I must try to think of something else.
I recurred to my ghost story! O! If I could only contrive one
which would frighten my reader as I myself had been frightened
that night. Swift as light and as cheering was the idea that
broke in upon me. I have found it .( Shelley24)
This is where Mary conceived the idea for Frankenstein. They were
staying at the house of lord Byron , in Switzerland. Not only did
staying in Switzerland spark the idea for Mary but it also
helped to act as the scenario for the book.
It is commonly accepted that Frankenstien relies on
personal experience for its material. It does not deny other
interpretations- for a metaphor has many interpretations- by
stating Mary saw herself as the monster. (Davenport) This is why
we pity it. She too tried to win herself into society. This is an
example of Mary feeling sorry for herself and it being mixed in
with the book. Nomader how hard she tried she could not fit in
society, just like the monster trying to fit in with society.
This is why the readers feel sympathy for the monster.
Mary experienced the fear, guilt, depression , and anxiety
that often attend child birth, particularly in situation such as
hers-unmarried, her consort a married man with children by
another women, and beset by debt in a foreign place. Only a women
only Mary Shelley could have written Frankenstien. As Mirian
Gillon says She was the only one of the lot of them that new
about life .(Davenport 243)
This quote represents how Mary is the only one of the
authors in her time that could have written about life and known
as much about death and the creation of life. Only a person that
went through so many tragedies would understand life like her and
be able to put it into the form of one book.
I had worked for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of
infusing life into inamite body (Shelley 42). Only a person that
is very intelligent but had a very dominated and morbid life
would be able to think something up like this. The time period
that she was living nobody would dare to write something or even
think something like this up.
The biggest link between Mary and the book is the monster.
Through characterization Mary develops the creature into a symbol
of herself. They are both rejected from society and the only
thing that they want is to be loved. I possessed no money, no
friends, no kind of property . (Shelley62). This is when the
monster realize that he will never be able to fit into society
just like Mary. Mary uses imagery to paint a picture of what the
creature looks like. She does this because this is how she feels
on the inside, she is a outsider of society and feels like she
does not belong The Monster wants a companion that he can run
away with and spend the rest of its life with. Mary wants this to
because she wants to be shown love for the first time in her
life. The monster companion is destroyed and this is kind of
odd because after Mary published the book her husband dies. In a
way the destruction of the monsters companion is foreshadowing
the death of Mary s husband. The creature and Mary are also born
into the world without a mother, only a father to take care of
them. For the creature its father was victor and Mary s was her
actual father. Both of their father s did not give them the
attention and the love they needed, they acted like they never
created either one of them.
Mary Shelley had a life that was filled with death and
loneliness and neglect. the beauty of the dream vanished, and
breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. (Shelley42) This
quote, when victor first brings the Monster to life represents
Shelley s life and how she felt about her life. The only way
that she could express herself was through writing Frankenstein.
Reading the book is almost like reading about the life of Mary
Shelley. Mary was a type of writer that would take events in her
life and put them into the stories she was writing. Only a Mary
would have a life that was so bad that she could create a great
novel from it. Frankenstein was one of the greatest books ever
written but the author had to suffer a lot in order to create
that book.