Mary Shelly's Influence On Frankenstein

A monster typically is characterized by looks, demeanor, and the quality of having no regards to any life on earth. Though Victor Frankenstein does not physically look like a monster, his actions are similarly just as hideous as a monster's appearance. Based upon the history and values of the Romantic period, the influences of other literary works, the personality, actions, and morals of Victor Frankenstein he is portrayed to be more monstrous than his creation.

To begin, Mary Shelly's life, elements, and events in history that occurred during the development of Frankenstein can better explain to the reader why Victor Frankenstein is portrayed as the real monster. Shelly was born as, Mary Wollstonecraft to Mary Wollstonecraft and William

Godwin. Weeks after Mary Shelly was born, her mother died of sepsis and four years later William Godwin remarried to Clairmont. Her life epitomizes loneliness and bitterness she felt from her own father and stepmother, Clairmont who kept her from her father, William Godwin. After the passing of her mother, Mary and her father's relationship never solidified. Consequently, because of Mary Shelly's background she wrote along the lines of other literary themes and described herself in the novel as the creation who was abandoned by her creator, William Godwin. Surely she does not see herself as a monster but the real monster lies in the creator who carelessly left her (the creation ) for a reason that she(the creation) had no control over.

The Romantic period was a period of development and pivotal ways of thinking.

The novel's, setting, plot, and morals reflect that of the Romantic period. The Romantic period lasted from 1785-1830 and the French Revolution occurred during 1789 until 1799. The romantic writers favored the innovations of the French Revolution in that they "reflect on issues of the heart and the imagination"(Ed. Telgen). Shelly instilled the value of feeling versus logic into Frankenstein to create a strong emphasis on what is and what is not acceptable in the age of the Romantics. Editor Diane Telgen states, "[T]hemes of nurture versus nature, good versus evil, and ambition versus social responsibility dominate readers' attention and provoke thoughtful consideration of the most sensitive issues of our time." Victor Frankenstein violates the morals of the Romantic period when he first sought out to disturb the ways of nature by creating life out of death. Others may point out that the Romantics were so infatuated with idea of imagination and creativity to create a higher understanding of the world they live in, that Victor Frankenstein was not a violator, he was an uplifter of the romantic values. On the contrary, Frankenstein was a very logical thinker who left all feelings aside with his creation and post creation. In addition, the romantics also had such high regards towards nature. Science destroys but nature heals all. Nature can never be taken for granted or neglected. If it is, man

will end up making a monster out of themselves just as Frankenstein had done.
Equally important, this novel has a few elements of the Gothic genre, popular in the Romantic period.

The supernatural elements that flood the pages however, hardly any of the settings are dreary or dark. Critic Kelly Winter agrees in that "For the romantics, the vast, uncontrolled wilderness of nature was a holy place, a place where people could retreat from the increasing filth and falsity of civilization" (Kelly). Mary Shelly identified the morals and values of the Romantic period and incorporated them into the novel. Frankenstein does go the Alps for hopes of consolidation not to recognize the beauty of nature, as though a romantic would but in hopes of a cure for his bothered mind. The sight of the awful and majestic in nature had indeed always the effect of solemnizing my mind and causing me to forget the passing cares of life"(Shelly 86).The reader can then conclude that because Frankenstein cannot appreciate landscapes for what it is and his logical thinking contrary to intuition he is a monster in the eyes of a

romantic.