It is commonplace for famous authors to write about things that they know about, and have experienced in their own lives. Many of the situations and characters in Mary Shelley's works can be traced back to things that happened in and people that had an influence on her own life.
             Shelley's writings were influenced by her parents, as well as the nineteenth century into which she was born. Several critical and influential people in Shelley's life had achieved fame. Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, was a famous feminist writer. Her father, William Godwin, was a famous philosopher and novelist. Shelley's own husband, Percey Bysshe Shelley, was also a successful writer. These people became her inspiration to write.
             Through the merging of her life experiences and her inspirations, Shelley formulated many of the plots, characters, and story lines in her novels. There is a direct relationship between Mary Shelley's works and her childhood, environment, and close experiences with death and tragedy.
             Like many other authors, Mary Shelley's childhood years had a major effect and influence upon her literary works. Mary Shelley had a very lonely and detached childhood. "Her childhood was hardly unhappy, but she was frequently lonely and lacked a feeling of family identity" (Todd, Dictionary of British Women Writers 605-606).
             The strained relationships between Mary and her family caused her to feel great loneliness. "[Shelley] detested her stepmother, idolized her dead mother, and sought love from her reserved and distant father" (Shatlock, The Oxford Guide to British Women Writers 568). At the age of fifteen, Shelley's father shipped her off to Scotland to ease tensions in the family (Schlueter, An Encyclopedia of British Women Wrtiers 568). This increased her innermost feelings of isolation, and her desire for love from her father. It also gave definition to many of her characters. In turn, Shelley made her characters s...