FREE ESSAY ON PARELLELS BETWEEN MARY SHELLEY AND FRANKENSTEIN

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 happened all at once and two weeks after she
gave birth, Mary Wollstonecraft died. Mary Shelley was the cause of the death of her
mother. Never would she be able to get close and bond with her mother the way mothers and
daughters 
do. She realized that she had to stay strong and accept what life had to offer her.
"Though she had struggled to reject that instinctive guilt, carefully schooled as she had
been in logic throughout her thirteen years by her renowned philosopher father, the
thought continued to haunt her" (Leighton 3). Thoughts of her mother would always be with
her, but life had to go on. There was no better way for Shelley to keep the spirit of her
mother alive then by following in her mother's footsteps and becoming a writer. Now she
would be able to be as expressive as she wanted and release all her grieves and
emotions.
The way Shelley's mother died is quite similar to the way Frankenstein's mother died.
While his mother was taking care of Elizabeth, his "sister," from scarlet fever, she
became very sick and simultaneously died. Here, Elizabeth feels that she is the one
responsible for her mother's death. If she had insisted that her mother stay away from
her while she was sick, she would have still been alive. Elizabeth and Victor had to
accept what happened and move on with their lives. "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). 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.
When Mary Shelley gave birth to a boy, she decided to name it William in honor of her
father. After two years of happiness, little William became seriously ill and died. This
was the most traumatic thing Shelley had to encounter. It was hard enough having a mother
die, now it was her son. Life did not seem to have much meaning to her anymore. "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). This was a very
upsetting and chaotic time for Shelley. She could not come to any realizations as to why
her baby was taken away from her.
It seemed very ironic that Shelley named Frankenstein's little brother William,
especially since William dies. Frankenstein could not 
understand the real reason as to why this happened to William. Was he the cause? No
matter what the implications were, Frankenstein knew that Justine, his cousin, could not
kill her own family member. Questions were left unanswered and things were always a
mystery to Frankenstein.
As Shelley was growing up, she had a lot of step/half brothers and sisters from different
marriages. She was not able to get very close to them because she was always moving
around and living in different places. One significant half-sister that Shelley remained
close with was Fanny Imlay. She was four years old when their mother had died and as she
and Shelley were growing up, Fanny would talk about Mary Wollstonecraft and tell her
everything she remembered about her. Shelley remained close to Fanny throughout all her
years of writing and during her marriage to Percy Shelley. Just as everything seemed
good, Shelley receives a letter from Fanny saying her final good-bye; she had committed
suicide. Shelley was devastated and blamed herself. "Mary was tormented by the thought
that if she had not been so wrapped up in her own affairs, she might have sensed Fanny's
despair and somehow helped her overcome it" (Leighton 84). Now Shelley felt that she was
responsible for two deaths, her mother and her sister.
Victor Frankenstein created a monster through his scientific genius. The creation was a
representation of the life that Victor desired to live until it started overpowering
Frankenstein's life and destroying it. The creature is very sensitive and when it is told
how ugly and disgusting it is, anything could happen. One day, Frankenstein's little
brother William saw the monster and was scared. William told the monster how ugly he was
too. Without any warning, the creature approached William and killed him. At first,
Frankenstein had no idea who had done this to William; but he knew that his cousin
Justine was falsely accused . The death of William broke Frankenstein's heart; he loved
the little boy so much. William was taken away from Frankenstein the way his mother was
and again, he had no control over it.
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. 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. Now he realized that the monster killed little William. This was so
overwhelming for Frankenstein. He felt that he was the cause of these two deaths. If he
had never created this monster, his brother William and his future wife would be alive
and well. Frankenstein began to breakdown and was self-destructing. How was he going to
live with himself knowing that he caused these deaths?
Frankenstein's attitude is very similar to that of Shelley. She feels utterly responsible
for two deaths as well, her mother and her half-sister. She regrets being born so that
her mother could have lived a long, happy life and if she was not so involved with her
career and love life, she would have been able to save Fanny's life. Shelley did not make
the best decisions but she had to come to the realizations that things happen in life
that nobody has control over.
Dealing with the death of loved ones is probably the hardest thing that a person has to
go through and when tragedy occurs time after time, it is not easy to gain back hope.
Although Frankenstein is not an autobiography of Mary Shelley's life, all of the
incidents of death in the novel have shown to have some similarities to her life.
Frankenstein experienced death and overcame death the same way that Mary Shelley did.
Having an author resemble its character allows the reader to get a true insight on the
life of the author. It also helps the reader understand why the author chooses certain
characters and why certain actions take place.