Essay: Comparing Frankenstein and Shelley's life

The novel Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus is considered as one of the most fascinating and ineresting masterpieces created by the writer Mary Shelley. This book contains Shelley’s imagination and knowledge which made possible this interesting reading. Nevertheless, it is also possible to learn about the content of the book by analyzing the context in which the author lived. In fact, Shelley’s feelings can be also explicit in the plot. In this essay we will be able to recognize the relationship between this novel and Mary Shelley’s context.

The book Frankenstein, written by Shelley narrates the story of Dr Victor Frankenstein, a man whose interest for the secret of the human life led him to create a being by ataching different body parts and then he gave his creation life by electricity. However, Dr. Frankenstein felt dissapointed as soon as he saw a hideous monster instead of a “perfect” being as he wanted, therefore he felt the need to abandon his creation. Afterwards, the monster left the laboratory and went towards the mountains and he ran into a cottage dwelt by a family. While the monster was hidden near the cottage he become educated and he also learned about the humanity. Since the monster realized of his difference from the rest of the human beings he started to feel sad and dissapointed. He felt as a real monster when he realized that people escaped terrified as soon as they saw him. For that reason, the monster began to blame his ow creator and the mankind itself for his sadness, so the monster looked for Dr Frankenstein in order to take vengeance.

As I could apreciate in this novel, the creator as well as the creation showed their interest in create knowldege from what they learned. Victor Frankenstein’s curiosity of knowing all about the secret to create and give life to a being led him to study different fields of Sciences. On the other hand, Frankenstein’s monster understood certain human behaviour by observing a family.

Despite of his rejection from the society, the monster was devoted to learn and apply what he learned. So did Mary Shelley. In fact, by analyzing the context in which Shelley lived, I could notice her feelings reflected in her novel. Shelley, who was the daugther of a feminist and the wife of a poet, wrote the novel Frankenstein when she was 19 years old. “What is surprising [...] is the enormous body of knowledge contained in the novel. The novel contains references to the fields of literature, poetry, science, education, politics, history, and mythology” . All these fields are expressed in the content of the book.

It is also surprising the fact that Shelley showed devotion in create a fascinating book despite of social and financial problems she had to face. These difficulties such as her husband’s debts, the death of her mother and Shelley’s newborn son and the suicide of her half sister, seemed not to be an obstacle to create this novel full of imagination and knowledge along with her own experience.

Shelley’s passion to acquire knowledge through different researches is evident in the mentioned novel. It can be compared with the words of Dr Frankenstein: “I have described myself as always having been imbued with a fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature”(Shelley, 40)

. Like the monster of the story, who desired to know about his origins, Mary Shelley felt rejected by the society and, therefore she learned about what she knew based on a self-teaching. "My education was neglected, yet I was passionately fond of reading. These volumes were my study day and night" (Shelley, 2) Since the author did not received a formal education like the rest of the women in that period, she quest for what she needed to know. This method led her to research all de fields mentioned before which made possible this book. Shelley’s passion to innovate can be also reflected in Dr Victor Frankenstein, the one who created the monster. As a personal interpretation I would say the author’s determination to join all she researched to create this novel is the same determination of Dr. Frankenstein to create the monster by joining parts of the human body.

As a conclusion, what makes this book Frankenstein an interesting masterpiece is the fact that its content can have a relationship with the author herself, By this I mean that when Mary Shelley wrote this book she thought about her own experience and problems which were useful as a mean of inspiration in order to write the book. As a reader, I could infer that some attitudes in characters like Victor Frankenstein and his monster have a certain similitude with Shelley’s characteristics and feelings. One of the points that I will analyze is the idea of the character Victor Frankenstein to attach different parts of the body, which belonged to different corpses, in order to create a being and give him life afterwards.This attitud can also have relation with Shelley’s need to create this fascinating book by joining her knowledge of Sciences, Literature, Philosophy, and Mithology. Thus she would give shape to the story in the book.

1. http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/maryshel/knowledge.shtml
2. Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus. p. 40