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Frankenstein Influences

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The Influences of Mary Shelley’s Personal Life in the Story of Frankenstein
The authors that are most successful in creating vivid emotions of fear, anguish and heartache are those that have experienced such emotions in their own lives. Mary Shelley in her gothic fiction novel Frankenstein presents her personal challenges through the literary work and characters. First, Mary’s own birth and the death of her mother are re-created in the fictional novel as the creation of the monster by Victor Frankenstein. Through the agonizing emotions of the monster caused by the isolation and shunning from society, Mary’s own emotions of rejection and loneliness during childhood and adolescence are reflected. Throughout the story there exists a dark …show more content…

Mary had craved a mother’s love throughout all of her life and sorrowfully regretted the end of her relationship with her father. During her pregnancy, Percy Shelley and her step sister Claire had started up an informal relationship which undermined her self-esteem. Throughout the summer Percy Shelley and his new found interesting, powerful and successful friend lord Byron sailed the country side, ate and drank together and discussed politics and their writing. Mary having spent her childhood in her father’s study was a strongminded, educated and intelligent woman and had interests and writing aspirations just as Percy and Byron. Yet, similarly to the monster, Mary was isolated from the men’s conversations and amusements by her appearance being of the female sex. Both Mary and her creation of the monster suffered because the dissemblance between the nature and strength of their minds and the appearance of their bodies. The monster is bitter towards his quick forming intelligence, for his "sorrow only increased with knowledge." (Shelley 123) He expresses, "I wished sometimes to shake off all thought and feelings; but I learned that there was but one means to overcome the sensation of pain, and that was death . . . ." (Shelley 123). The monster conveys that he is pained by the capacities to think and to have emotions, but

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