Frankenstein Essay -- English Literature

Frankenstein Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelly. We can tell by Mary Shelly’s back ground, were she has incorporated some of her social experiences in to her novel. Mary was the daughter of an anarchist father (William Godwin) and a feminist mother (Mary Wollstonecraft). In today’s terms this could be thought as a ‘wild upbringing’. Mary grew up in an environment that suggested she needed to question the way society was being run. Mary’s mother died ten days after giving birth to her, an act that Mary’s father was never quick to forgive; in fact he blamed Mary for his wife’s death and this often forced Mary to attempt to take her place. This was often in the form of sitting on literary discussions and meeting her father’s estranged guests. At the age of 17 Mary would often write at her mother’s grave side at St Pancras Churchyard in London; where the couple had married. Mary includes her fascination with death into Frankenstein. An example is, in chapter 24 pages 217 Victor says â€Å"as night approached, I found myself at the entrance to the cemetery.† His random wonderings have led him to be with his dead family, where he feels alone and maybe wants to join them. It was through Mary’s fascination with the cemetery that she met her soon to be husband, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelly. He followed her there upon her father’s instruction and declared his love for her; it was to become their meeting place. In the novel Mary uses the cemeteries a few times, when Victor goes to the cemetery to collect dead bodies to create his monster. There are clearly some important dates in the life of Mary Shelly that no doubt influence the subject matter of the novel. In 1805 there was the Napoleonic Wars lasting unti... ... experience. This becomes important when we assess her bohemian lifestyle; living a life that is almost a work of art. She wrapped her novel with images of the liberating power of art and portrayed an admiration of nature at its most impressive. There is a sense of fear and fascination with the creature. He is a man with abnormal strength; he has a face full of scars and together gives people a sense of fear when they see him. The people are scared of him and declare him as being some sort evil, so immediately see him as being a threat to them and instinctively attack him. This makes the readers feel sorry for the creature and keeps the reader waiting for what he will do when all mankind wants to kill him. Mary uses imagery and nature to reflect this. She uses the weather to show how he is feeling, like when he first runs away and it is raining heavily.