The Influence Of Mary Shelley's Sleep Paralysis

Frankenstein, a novel first published in the year 1818, stands as the most talked about work of Mary Shelley’s literary career. She was just nineteen years old when she penned this novel, and throughout her lifetime she could not produce any other work that surpasses this novel in terms of creativity and vision. In this novel, Shelley found an outlet for her own intense sense of victimization, and her desperate struggle for love. Traumatized by her failed childbirth incidents, troubled childhood, and scandalous courtship, many of Shelley’s life experiences can be seen reflected in the novel. When discussing the character and development of the monster, Shelley launches an extensive discussion on the

Sigmund Freud's studies in psychoanalysis are uncannily fore-grounded in the late romantic period. The works of William Wordsworth, Percy B. Shelley, Lord Byron, and Mary Shelley, all function as poetic preludes to Freud's 18th century field. Particularly, it is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein that creates a fictional rendering for psychoanalyst. In Frankenstein, Victor's rejection of the Monster metaphorically represents the ego's rejection of the unconscious. Following from this metaphorical paradigm, Freud's theories on narcissism, the libido theory, the doppelganger, neurosis, and the Oedipus-complex all resonate in the pages of Frankenstein. After a brief introduction to narcissism and

Let’s begin with what sleep paralysis is. Sleep paralysis is a temporary state of being completely immobile (Schacter et al.) Most people feel like they cannot move an inch of their body but are aware of their surroundings. It is a state between being awake and being asleep.

In the summer of 1816, tensions began to lift long enough for the brilliant Mary to envision the story of Frankenstein. Shelley, Mary, and Claire rented a house in Lake Geneva, close to the Villa Diodati where Lord Byron, Percy's friend, lived. They would all spend nights together discussing topics in literature, philosophy, and science fiction. Reading and telling ghost stories to each other inspired Byron to challenge the members of this intellectual circle to create their own ghost stories. After a heated discussion on galvanism, which is the reanimation of a corpse through electricity, Mary went to sleep, not knowing that she would dream up the creation of Frankenstein. During that dream she had what she called a "waking nightmare." She had a dream that a student created a human being, and woke him up with machinery [5]. The novel will be completed and published in 1818; Mary was nineteen at the time of publication. At such a young age, this was an outstanding feat for a women writer of her time. She also finally married Percy in December of 1816, after Harriet committed suicide. Also during this summer, Mary's half-sister Fanny Imlay commits suicide as well. So it is apparently obvious that the tragic deaths of her relatives and her children had an effect on her

The novel “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley, and the article “Of the Pernicious Effects” by Mary Wollstonecraft, both have relations when regarding the importance of feminism during their time periods. Throughout Shelley’s novel feminism is addressed because she uses female characters to further her plot and display her viewpoints. If Wollstonecraft evaluated the female characters in Shelley’s novel, she would realize that Elizabeth, Justine, and Safie all show an importance to the flow of the novel and the purpose of equality that Shelley is sending about feminism through these characters.

Emotional isolation in Frankenstein is the most pertinent and prevailing theme throughout the novel.  This theme is so important because everything the monster does or feels directly relates to his poignant seclusion.  The effects of this terrible burden have progressively damaging results upon the monster, and indirectly cause him to act out his frustrations on the innocent.  The monster's emotional isolation makes him gradually turn worse and worse until evil fully prevails.  This theme perpetuates from Mary Shelley's personal life and problems with her father and husband, which carry on into the work and make it more realistic.(Mellor 32)  During the time she was writing this novel, she was experiencing the emotional pangs of her

Credibility Statement: Having a sleep disorder, myself, I know how important it is to get the recommended sleep each night. According to Alina Bradford in the article "Sleep Paralysis: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment"(2017), Sleep Paralysis is described as the inability to move or speak immediately after waking up.

   Since its publication in 1818, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein has grown to become a name associated with horror and science fiction. To fully understand the importance and origin of this novel, we must look at both the tragedies of Mary Shelley's background and her own origins. Only then can we begin to examine what the icon "Frankenstein" has become in today's society.

I have lived with sleep paralysis my whole life. Reading about something so horrifying and strange does not do it justice. I can tell you that a paralysis is so much more than not being able to move. There is something far more sinister about it. The paralysis literally lets your imagination run wild and that is dangerous. The role transformation plays in a scary story is practically the thing that tells it. Like in all nightmares, things can shift from being harmless to harmful. Transformation plays a key role in stories that are meant to scare us. Objects, settings, and humans all have the ability to transform in a story. Of course multiple things transform, but the main thing to be focused on is the transformation that even transforms the story.

Ronald Britton is the writer and editorial manager of the article: Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein: What Made the Monster Monstrous. Throughout this article Britton will talk about the genesis of the renowned story of Frankenstein, which emerged from a fantasy experienced by Mary Shelley while on an occasion imparted to her spouse and her stride sister. The creator talked upon Shelley expressing that “She emphasizes that she was not confined to her own identity in these daydreams, she became others and so peopled them with creatures far more interesting than her own sensations” (Britton 2). As a kid Shelley composed stories that were sensible, fabulous, and pleasing; they were her shelter when irritated and her most profound joy when free. One night as Shelley is asleep, she has a striking dream. In the fantasy she sees a revolting apparition of a man extended and after that, on the working of some capable motor, hint at life. Shelley portrays how she is controlled by her wild creative energy. She expresses that “This clearly was no daydream. I would call it a night terrors a sleep-induced visual hallucination that persists on waking” (Britton 3). Shelley then builds up the thought that what frightened her will frighten others. She needs to depict the apparition which frequents her midnight pad, so the next day she started to recount to her story.

In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, it is up to the readers to decide whether or not the characters are insane, and if they are, should it excuse some of their actions. Insanity is the state of being extremely ill and a danger of insanity is impaired judgement. Some factors that lead to insanity amongst the characters like the creature and Victor are the broken relationship between the creature and Victor, the loss of loved ones, and both characters make themselves insane with their thoughts. In Frankenstein, the relationship and actions between Victor Frankenstein and the creature directly lead to the impulsive decisions that shows how the characters become insane.

Sleep paralysis is a common condition with a prevalence of 5-62%, although most affected people have single or infrequent episodes (Dahlitz). Occasionally sleep paralysis is found to run in a family, and it can be associated with other disorders of hypersomnia, such as sleep apnea (Becker 81). Narcolepsy has also been linked with sleep paralysis; both are thought to be REM sleep disorders (Siegel). Gender and race do not seem to be a factor of risk for this disorder. The episodes of sleep paralysis seem to range from ages 5-35 (Dahlitz). The use of anxiolytic medicines, psychiatric disorders and high anxiety can also contribute to sleep paralysis (Larkin).

“Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley was born out of the waking nightmare she had on June 16, 1816 (see notes 1 and 4). It was an intense vision that produced one of the greatest and powerful horror stories n the western literature, it is a story which assumed a mythic view as it taken into account the profound result concerning understanding of a man of his position in the world and the results of transgressing against nature and God (Gilbert, 2000, 1-4).

In the riveting epistolary novel, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley we are exposed to various and compelling themes such as cultural and social ideologies incorporated within the early nineteenth century society standards. Several diverse aspects of interpretation and literary devices are emphasized within Mary Shelley’s exhilarating stylistic text. Although, there are many individuals and events that give this exciting gothic fiction novel meaning, the relationship and incidents conveyed between creator [Victor Frankenstein] and creation [The Monster] truly embody the structure of an epistolary novel. From the moment Victor Frankenstein decided to construct such a horrific creature to all the appalling events that occurred afterward shape the literary