Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Mary Shelleys Frankenstein

Unbelievably Mary Shelley wrote the novel Frankenstein

at the age of eighteen. This great work captures the imaginations of its

readers. Frankenstein remains one of the greatest examples of Gothic

literature. Unlike other Gothic novels of the time, however, Frankenstein also

includes elements of Romantic writing, and therefore cannot be classified as

soley Gothic.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was an English novelist. The daughter

of the British philosopher William Godwin and the British author and

feminist Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin. Born in London in 1797, Mary was

privately educated. She met the young poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in May

1814, and two months later she left England with him. When Shelley's first

wife died in December 1816, he married Mary. Mary’s first and most

important work, the novel Frankenstein, was begun on Lake Geneva in the

summer of 1816 as her contribution to a ghost-story competition. A

remarkable accomplishment for such a young writer, Frankenstein was a

success. No other work by Mary Shelley achieved the popularity or

excellence of this first work, although she wrote four other novels, books of

travel sketches, and miscellaneous tales. In 1818 the Shelley’s left England

for Italy, where they stayed until Shelley’s death. Only one of Mary’s and

Percy’s children survived, Percy Florence, and in 1823 Mary returned to

England with him and concentrated on his education and welfare. The image

of Mary Shelley presented by the biographers suggests an intensely private,

imaginatively exuberant, yet also emotionally withdrawn figure, whose

political melancholy and strong religious faith are intriguingly at odds with

the optimistic rationalism of her famous parents, and her poet husband’s

atheistic radicalism.

The story of Frankenstein begins in the polar ice of the Arctic Circle.

The ship of an English explorer, Walton, is trapped in the ice and is unable

to travel. During the day the men on board spotted a sledge, driven by a

huge man and drawn by dogs followed by Victor Frankenstein, a man in

very poor condition. Walton nursed him back to health as the stranger told

Walton his story.

Victor Frankenstein was born in Geneva and at an early age showed

promise in the natural sciences. Victor was sent to a university when he

grew older, and that’s where he stumbled on to the secret of creating life.

With great brilliance Victor created an eight-foot monster and gave him life

through electricity.

Once Victor had realized what he had done he panicked and left the

creature. When the creature wondered into the city everyone he met

screamed and ran away. Finally the creature found a place to live in a