Influences on Frankenstein

Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, was the novel of her time

introducing many new themes and ideas. Mary Shelley, who began writing this
novel at the young age of 19, published Frankenstein in March of 1818. Mary
would finish writing Frankenstein within a year of first writing it due to a bet with
Percy Shelley, her husband. Mary was always smart and one would find that out
because at the young age of ten Mary published her first poem. Although Mary
was good at writing, Mary never received formal schooling. Mary's novel,
Frankenstein, was the story of her time and has influenced over fifty movies to
date. Although the first edition of this book was unsigned by Percy Shelley it was
really written by Mary, but few could believe that a nineteen year old could write
such a horror story. Mary Shelley's science fiction, Frankenstein, was greatly
influenced by her life in her early years, her interests and studies, her relationship
with her stepmother, the deaths of family members, her husband's love and
interests, and the monsters parallel to her personal life.
Growing up Mary's life was not that simple; she had to deal with the
hardships of loosing her mother as well as her unpleasant relationship with her
step mom.. Growing up without a biological mother Mary's step mom often
treated Mary very poorly (Kiely1). When she saw her stepmother and her father
getting along she would often stop them from interacting with one another
(Kiely1). Growing up with her stepmother Clairmont would often show jealous
feelings toward the children of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft (Kiely1).

However, besides the jealous and unfair treating of her stepmother Mary
Shelley had two very smart and gifted writers as parents who tried to make
Mary's life easier. Mary had two parents that were very much involved with
writing. Mary's father Percy wrote An Enquiry concerning political justice and the
foremost writer on the French Revolution (Kiely1). Mary's mother who gave
young Mary her name had written A Vindication of the Rights of Women (Kiely1).
Growing up Mary's parents wanted to bestow some valuable lessons on Mary
and did so in their actions when raising her and even before Mary was born they
put forth actions to better her life. Even though Mary's parents believed that love,
not law, determined marriage, they got married when Mary's mother was five
months pregnant with her. Shelley's parents were major radicals of their time,
and were greatly influenced by the French Revolution (Kiely1).
Although her biological parents were positive influences on her life
Shelley had many losses of family members due to suicide and illness, which
contributed to her book. Mary's mother died shortly after Mary was born due to
an infection that was believed contracted from the doctor's hands because they
were unwashed (Wllis1). Like her monster, Mary was motherless (Willis1). Mary
gave birth to a baby girl in February of 1815 when Mary was just fifteen and the
young child died twelve days later due to premature birth (Kiely1). The death of
this child gave way to a theme in Frankenstein of life coming back again. Percy
and Mary's daughter, Clara, was born in 1817, but only survived one year. In
1819 William, the son of Mary, died from malaria at the young age of three and

led Mary to a mental breakdown. There was only one child of Mary and Percy
that survived childhood who was Percy Florence, born in 1819 (Kiely1).
Growing up Mary was a studious girl by spending her days studying and
reading. During the period that Shelley wrote Frankenstein she studied the
works of Rousseau (Britton 4). In Rousseau's second Discourse there is a
discussion on the state of natural man or to what Rousseau refers to as the
"noble man." "Frankenstein's monster is an embodiment of this state of being
developed by Rousseau, in which the monster first discovers himself and later
the knowledge of language and the conventions of society (Britton 4)."
A poem written by Marvin Bell depicts the struggle and sadness Mary
Shelley had and then depicts it in her story, Frankenstein. "Bigger than the best,
but not the best, who can take history by the throat and squeeze the steam from
the new bread, turn glass to sand, and grind the gears of planets to oil and oil to
water, until the earth is rid of that Creator who dared to make a thing without a
soul. I walked because of Science and Scientist. I stood because he had it in
his thought that life should come from what is dead, should turn time back and
dry your tears. I, who was made from brick and mortar, meant to be inferior, was
greater. Given the parts, I assumed the role. I am the dark body that cannot
rest free from any hysterical note, made as I was to symbolize your dread.
Through the magnifying lens of fear you watch me in your son and by your
daughter. While you disperse in every dark theatre in streams if light, inside you
I am whole."

Later on in life dealing with death for Mary would not get any better, but
would eventually get worse. Mary had a stepsister, Harriet Shelley, and a half
sister, Fanny Imlay, who both committed suicide. Fanny Imlay who was the
illegitimate daughter of Mary's mother and Gilbert Imlay who was always known
as a troubled girl. Fanny Imlay checked herself into a hotel in October of 1817
and overdosed on Laudanum and died shortly after. Harriet Shelley, who was
Mary's stepsister, committed suicide by drowning herself in the Serpentine. To
make her life more complicated in 1822 Mary's husband, Percy Shelley, drowned
in a boating accident in the Gulf of Spezia near Livorno (Kiely1). Although
Shelley had many losses and a horrible relationship with her stepmother, she had
an influential relationship with her husband Percy that produced an immense love
between the two. Mary met Percy when she was just sixteen years of age. At
the time the two met Percy was unhappily married to Harriet Westbrook. Percy
spent much of his time at the Godwin's household discussing politics and current
events. Percy and Mary soon became really close and fell in love with each
other. Mary declared her love for Percy when he was twenty-two and she was
sixteen. At this time Percy was married to a wife who was pregnant with his
child. In July of 1814 Percy threatened to commit suicide if Mary would not run
away with him to France and elope (Kiely 2). Mary and Percy ran away to
France despite Mary's father forbidding her to see him again. Mary's marriage as
well as relatives' marriages is the conservative themes of the novel Frankenstein
(Lowe-Evans ix).

Percy, Mary Shelley's husband, was fascinated with chemistry and other
sciences, which greatly influenced Mary's novel. Percy Shelley was completely
captivated with science and especially chemistry, which was thought that he was
the model for the scientist Victor Frankenstein in Mary's novel Frankenstein
(Willis1). When Percy was younger he would experiment with chemical
"apparatuses" and materials. Percy also read treatises on magic and witchcraft
as well as those more modern ones describing the miracles of electricity and
"galvanism" (Willis1). Like Mary's mother and father Percy was a romantic poet
of his time. Percy also had in common the fact that he was an idealistic in his
passion wit reforming the world like his wife's mother and father.
Frankenstein was also called the "Prometheus." According to the Greeks,
Prometheus was punished for stealing fire from the gods by being chained to a
rock and had a bird pick at his liver (U.S. National institute of library 1). " Haughty
Prometheus sought fire for human betterment--to make tools and warm hearts.
Similarly, Mary Shelley's arrogant scientist, Victor Frankenstein, claimed
benevolent intentions, and thirsted for the moment when I should put them in
practice." Frankenstein endures not only because of its infamous horrors, but for
the richness of the ideas it asks us to confront--human accountability, social
alienation, and the nature of life itself."

The story of Frankenstein has a major role between the creator and the
monster. The monster is more intellectual and emotional than his creator.
Antithesis between the monster and creator is complex. The monster's name
was not Frankenstein; instead the creator and scientist name was Frankenstein.

While there are major roles between the monster and the creator there
are also many themes in Frankenstein that play out in the overall role. In the
novel Frankenstein, the monster, receives superiority through suffering. The
monster in the story has thought that are thought to be a fresh disease with every
new thought. The monster also receives a state of pure spirit through
extraordinary situations. " Frankenstein is a half tragedy in which the fall from
greatness is nearly all fall or more accurately where greatness defined in terms of
the personal pain which results from the conscious of loss which cannot be
recalled or comprehended by other men." " Mary Shelley spends a great deal of
her narrative confronting her hero with images which evoke the sublimity of his
mental state where ordinary words fall."
A major theme of Frankenstein is that of a motherless monster just like
Shelley. The monster is quoted saying,
But where were my friends and relations? No father had watched
my infant days, no mother had blessed me with smiles and
caresses; or if they had, all my past life was now a blot, a blind
vacancy in which I distinguished nothing. From my earliest
remembrance I had been as I then was in height and proportion. I
had never yet seen a being resembling me . . .. What was I?"
This quote depicts marys life in numerous ways. When Mary was
growning up she was motherless due to the fact that her mother died when she
was just days old. The line that says "No father had watched my infant days," is

depicted in her life by her father being distant and with drawn from her life
because of her stepmothers disproval of their interaction.
Among the themes of Frankenstein Mary was influenced by many
situations in her life. In 1806 Mary hears Coleridge recite "The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner." Mary also discussed the process of galvanism. Mary and
Percy met Lord Byron at his home on Lake Geneva where that night she thought
up the story of Frankenstein and began writing and finally published it in 1818.
Mary Shelley's science fiction, Frankenstein , was greatly
influenced by her life in her early years, her interests and studies, her relationship
with her stepmother, the deaths of family members, her husbands love and
interests and the monsters all parallel to her personal life.