Parellels between Mary Shelley and Frankenstein

Natalie Maio Romanticism

PARALLELS BETWEEN MARY SHELLEY and FRANKENSTEIN

It is clearly evident that there are many parallels between the novel Frankenstein and the life of its author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Throughout her life, Shelley experienced many deaths of loved ones. These tragedies led her to create a monster story that expressed her psychological state of mind. From researching biographical texts of Shelley, I learned that the deaths of loved ones that Mary Shelley experienced had a significant influence on the plot of Frankenstein.

Mary Shelley was born into a family that contained notable writers, William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. These two writers influenced Mary Shelley’s decision to become a writer. One night as Shelley was going to sleep, she began thinking of a horror story. Before she realized it, pages and pages of words were flowing and soon enough, Frankenstein was created. Without realizing it, Shelley was incorporating events that were taking place in her life to the story that she was writing.

Mary Wollstonecraft became very sick when Shelley was born. She had suffered due to complications during childbirth. Everything happene

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Now he realized that the monster killed little William. Sure enough, on the night of Frankenstein’s wedding to Elizabeth, the monster raped her and killed her, leaving Frankenstein all alone with no one to love. Mary Shelley was the cause of the death of her mother. “The world will never be to me again as it was – there was a life and freshness in it that is lost to me…I ought to have died on the 7th of June last” (Walling 19). She realized that she had to stay strong and accept what life had to offer her. The creation was a representation of the life that Victor desired to live until it started overpowering Frankenstein’s life and destroying it.

Victor Frankenstein created a monster through his scientific genius. They would both always feel the pain and sorrow of the loss of their mother, but they knew that going on with life and doing well for themselves would make their mother both happy and proud. Having an author resemble its character allows the reader to get a true insight on the life of the author. After two years of happiness, little William became seriously ill and died. William was taken away from Frankenstein the way his mother was and again, he had no control over it. “My mother was dead, but we had still duties which we ought to perform; we must continue our course with the rest and learn to think ourselves fortunate whilst one remains whom the spoiler has not seized” (Shelley 43). One day, Frankenstein’s little brother William saw the monster and was scared.

When the monster began controlling Frankenstein’s life and making demands, Frankenstein knew something was wrong. Frankenstein would not create a mate for the monster so it promised to put revenge on him.

Approximate Word count = 1410
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

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