Synopsis

Mary Shelley was born on August 30, 1797, in London, England. She married poet Percy
Bysshe Shelley in 1816. Two years later, she published her most famous
novel, Frankenstein. She wrote several other books, including Valperga (1823), The Last
Man (1826), the autobiographical Lodore (1835) and the posthumously published Mathilde.
Shelley died of brain cancer on February 1, 1851, in London, England.

Early Life

Writer Mary Shelley was born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin on August 30, 1797, in
London, England. She was the daughter of philosopher and political writer William Godwin
and famed feminist Mary Wollstonecraft—the author of The Vindication of the Rights of
Woman (1792). Sadly for Shelley, she never really knew her mother who died shortly after
her birth. Her father William Godwin was left to care for Shelley and her older half-sister
Fanny Imlay. Imlay was Wollstonecraft's daughter from an affair she had with a soldier.

The family dynamics soon changed with Godwin's marriage to Mary Jane Clairmont in
1801. Clairmont brought her own two children into the union, and she and Godwin later had
a son together. Shelley never got along with her stepmother. Her stepmother decided that
her stepsister Jane (later Claire) should be sent away to school, but she saw no need to
educate Shelley.

The Godwin household had a number of distinguished guests during Shelley's childhood,
including Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth. While she didn't have a
formal education, she did make great use of her father's extensive library. Shelley could
often be found reading, sometimes by her mother's grave. She also liked to daydream,
escaping from her often challenging home life into her imagination.

Shelley also found a creative outlet in writing. According to The Life and Letters of Mary
Wollstonecraft, she once explained that "As a child, I scribbled; and my favourite pastime,
during the hours given me for recreation, was to 'write stories.'" She published her first
poem, "Mounseer Nongtongpaw," in 1807, through her father's company.

Love and Horror

During the summer of 1812, Shelley went to Scotland to stay with an acquaintance of her
father William Baxter and his family. There she experienced a type of domestic tranquility
she had never known. Shelley returned to the Baxters' home the following year.

In 1814, Mary began a relationship with poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Percy Shelley was a
devoted student of her father, but he soon focused his attentions on Mary. He was still
married to his first wife when he and the teenaged Mary fled England together that same
year. The couple was accompanied by Mary's stepsister Jane. Mary's actions alienated her
from her father who did not speak to her for some time.

Mary and Percy Shelley traveled about Europe for a time. They struggled financially and
faced the loss of their first child in 1815. Mary delivered a baby girl who only lived for a
few days. The following summer, the Shelleys were in Switzerland with Jane Clairmont,
Lord Byron and John Polidori. The group entertained themselves one rainy day by reading a
book of ghost stories. Lord Byron suggested that they all should try their hand at writing
their own horror story. It was at this time that Mary Shelley began work on what would
become her most famous novel, Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus.

Later that year, Mary suffered the loss of her half-sister Fanny who committed suicide.
Another suicide, this time by Percy's wife, occurred a short time later. Mary and Percy
Shelley were finally able to wed in December 1816. She published a travelogue of their
escape to Europe, History of a Six Weeks' Tour (1817), while continuing to work on her
soon-to-famous monster tale. In 1818, Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus debuted as
a new novel from an anonymous author. Many thought that Percy Bysshe Shelley had
written it since he penned its introduction. The book proved to be a huge success. That same
year, the Shelleys moved to Italy.

While Mary seemed devoted to her husband, she did not have the easiest marriage. Their
union was riddled with adultery and heartache, including the death of two more of their
children. Born in 1819, their son, Percy Florence, was the only child to live to adulthood.
Mary's life was rocked by another tragedy in 1822 when her husband drowned. He had been
out sailing with a friend in the Gulf of Spezia.

Later Years

Made a widow at age 24, Mary Shelley worked hard to support herself and her son. She
wrote several more novels, including Valperga and the science fiction tale The Last
Man (1826). She also devoted herself to promoting her husband's poetry and preserving his
place in literary history. For several years, Shelley faced some opposition from her late
husband's father who had always disapproved his son's bohemian lifestyle.

Mary Shelley died of brain cancer on February 1, 1851, at age 53, in London, England. She
was buried at St. Peter's Church in Bournemouth, laid to rest with the cremated remains of
her late husband's heart. After her death, her son Percy and daughter-in-law Jane had Mary
Shelley’s parents exhumed from St. Pancras Cemetery in London (which had fallen into
neglect over time) and had them reinterred beside Mary at the family’s tomb in St. Peter’s
in Bournemouth.
It was roughly a century after her passing that one of her novels, Mathilde, was finally
released in the 1950s. Her lasting legacy, however, remains the classic tale of Frankenstein.
This struggle between a monster and its creator has been an enduring part of popular
culture. In 1994, Kenneth Branagh directed and starred in a film adaptation of Shelley's
novel. The film also starred Robert De Niro, Tom Hulce and Helena Bonham Carter. Her
work has also inspired some spoofs, such as Young Frankenstein starring Gene Wilder.
Shelley's monster lives on in such modern thrillers as I, Frankenstein (2013) as well.

HISTORY OF ITS CREATION

Since the weather of that June was horrible and cold, a group of creative writers on vacation
decided to hold a contest to see who could write and tell the creepiest ghost story. Like
people do on vacation.
There was Mary Shelley (then Godwin), eighteen-year-old daughter of famous author and
feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, and her lover and future husband, the famous poet Percy
Bysshe Shelley. They were joined by fellow author John Polidori and another well-known
poet, Lord Byron, as well as Byron's lover, Claire Clairmont.
Polidori and Byron wound up writing vampire tales, but the clear winner of the contest
turned out to be Mary Shelley for the story that came to her as a 'waking dream,' in which
she saw '…the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out...' and the creator of said creature
'would hope that, left to itself, the slight spark of life which he had communicated would
fade; that this thing…would subside into dead matter…' (Shelley 21).
Supposedly, this waking nightmare occurred to her after hearing Percy Shelley and Byron
talking about the possibility of reanimating the dead, or bringing the dead back to life.
After her dream, a sincerely creeped out Mary Shelley began writing in earnest, intending to
craft a short story based on this horrific creation and the disgusted reaction of its creator.
CULTURAL CONTEXT

The full title of Mary Shelley's novel is Frankenstein; or the Modern Prometheus. So it
shouldn't come as a surprise that Mary Shelley was influenced by this tale. Her husband
Percy Shelley even began composing his own tale of Prometheus in the form of a poem
entitled, Prometheus Unbound. He began composing this work right around the same time
that Mary was publishing Frankenstein.

Aside from the title, Shelley borrows from the tale of Prometheus a sense of consequence
resulting from seeking enlightenment and power. Victor is her modern incarnation of
Prometheus. He as Prometheus was, is fascinated by the power of electricity (lightning). We
can recall from the narrative the moment when he becomes captivated by its fantastical
power.

It is from this power, that he has equipped himself with, that the inner torture he will suffer
from the use of it stems. Immediately following the creation if the creature, Victor is ill with
disgust for what he has done. His torture mirrors that of Prometheus'; undying and eternal.
From the beginning of the novel, when Victor warns Walton of the consequences of his
quest, to the conclusion when Victor again reiterates the misfortunes he has suffered as a
result of his curiosity, Mary Shelley mimics the Prometheus tale. Perhaps, this is why she
saw it as a fitting subtitle.

Historical Context of Frankenstein

The monster himself is a symbolism of birth of science—an acquisition of intellectual
power beyond the common learning. When the monster perceives his face into the mirror,
Shelley conveys the authority of science over human existence because it has the power to
create abnormal creatures—beyond expectation.
During the period of 19th century when Shelley writes this novel, women have no voice in
their culture. They remain as weak, unprivileged, and servants of men.
Shelley's novel is also a construction of social enlightenment during 19th century
civilization.
Shelley describes the concept of Marxism in her novel through the structure of Victor's
creature.
NARRATIVE TECHNIQUES

Since the novel is said to have originated in the so-called ‘ghost-story’ context, she fell back
on the Gothic tradition, but altered it drastically. So much so that the novel as it was
published could hardly be called Gothic, for, with a few exceptions, there are no
supernatural trappings. As a literary heiress to two great and eminent intellectuals, Mary
seems to have examined and tested all existing conventions, but she found none which
could suit her: she invented her own – a hybrid of ‘Chinese box’, ‘point of view’,
‘indirections’ and Framed or Embedded Narrative, which is a also known as framed
narratives or Chinese box structure of stories within stories, metafiction. The first narrative
was taken by Walton Who writes to his sister Mrs. Saville. Since the plot of the novel in
this section is carried on by letters, at this stage the epistolary narrative has been employed
from there the embedded structure of the narrative is taken up by Victor from chapter 1 to
10. Victor’s narrative then gives a frame to the narratives of Monster from chapters 11 to
16. From there again the turn of narrative is carried further by Victor up to 24 and Walton
takes over the narratives to the concluding part of the novel and the frame is closed up. The
structure is tight because of embedded narrative. It is written in 1st person narrative, but
there are three 1st person narratives.
The intention of each narrative is to create some effect on the narration. Through the
narratives, the parallels between the characters are sketched that linked the stories together.
The end is open.
Mary Shelley paved the way, she pioneered a new genre-science fiction – and raised
questions which have grappled the contemporary scientists.
MY DRIVING QUESTIONS
1. Are the crimes made by the devil can be justified?
2. What could have probably happened after creating a woman for the monster.
3. Could telling relatives about re-animation prevent the crimes?
CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING POINTS

1. A young Swiss boy, he grows up in Geneva reading the works of the ancient and
outdated alchemists, a background that serves him ill when he attends university at
Ingolstadt. There he learns about modern science and, within a few years, masters all
that his professors have to teach him. He becomes fascinated with the “secret of life,”
discovers it, and brings a hideous monster to life. To my way of thinking, Victor
Frankenstein was a very hard-working and persistent type of person. He wanted to
achieve his goal, despite all the inconveniences and the level of profound knowledge
to be gained. Anyway, as it always happened, the idea of re-animating a dead person
was driving him crazy only till the point of its creation. Than any interest
disappeared, disgust overcame all human feelings. I haven`t the faintest idea about
Victor`s particular design of the monster. He was like a scholastic scientist at that
moment but not a real person with compassion, sensibility, responsibility for smb`s
life. This novel can be compared with `Pygmalion` by Bernard Shaw. Victor made up
his mind to create a bride for the monster because she would be of lack awareness
how to hide from the world, their children would influence modern people, the
second creation was very abominable and filthy, it was doomed to a flop.
2. I have no doubt that this ending is the only to occur. Victor`s sufferings are
unbearable, his remorse is sincere and lasting but Victor must be in charge of these
crimes, because his irresponsibility caused so many heart-breaking tragedies. He is
able to become happy, tranquile, adequate no more. He is sentenced to death in
agony.
3.
4. It gives "the creature" a sense of otherness throughout the whole story. Although
human, he is seen as a monstrosity. He is not only abandoned by Victor, he is
abandoned by humanity. He lacks a name, security, love, purpose....These are the
things people live for. The creature remains an outsider in a world that he has a right
to be in.
5. Frankenstein arrests us by force of its astonishing fantasy and its range of
implication: the definition of “monster,” judgments that derive virtue or villainy from
class origins and accidents of physical appearance; the responsibility of creators to
and for their creations; the responsibility of society for the anger of those to whom it
refuses care, compassion or just decent regard; the relationships of parents and
children--and all this arrayed with an eerie, brilliant intuition, a century before Freud,
about the psychological dynamics of repression, transference, condensation, dream-
work, and alter egos.