The Parallels of Mary Shelley and Frankenstein

Mary Shelley’s life is filled with ups and downs. Through those times Shelley wrote the novel Frankenstein. Although Frankenstein is a fiction novel, it is similar to Mary Shelley’s real life.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was born to the parents of Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin on August 30, 1797 in London, England. After Mary was born her mother died ten days later (“Mary” 2). Four years later William Godwin married again. Mary Shelley was not formally educated but was surrounded by her father and friends intellectual atmosphere. She read a wide variety of books most were of her mother’s collection (“Mary” 2). Mary’s favorite retreat was her mother’s grave. She went there to read and write (“Mary” 2).

Mary met Percy Shelley at the age of fourteen. Two years later they met again and realized their attraction (“Mary” 2). At that time Percy was married with two children. Like Mary’s parents they believed in love over legal marriage (“Mary” 2). July 1814, Mary and Percy eloped before her seventeenth birthday. The next few years Mary and Percy spent traveling to Switzerland, Germany, and Italy (“Mary” 2). After Percy left his family Percy’s father cutoff his allowance.

Mary and Percy life was then filled with financial difficulty and personal tragedy (“Mary” 2). As recorded by Eleanor the couple went on to have to children their first child William died as an infant so did the others Clara and Everina. After William died Mary had a dream. March 19, 1815; Mary’s dream was recorded in her journal “Dream that my little baby came to life again- that it had only been cold and that we rubbed it before the fire and it lived” [SIC]. Anxieties about motherhood and the inability to give life led her to write...

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... dates and names. The novel Frankenstein was born out of doubled fear(n.p.). Fear of women not being able to have healthy normal children and fear of an author not being able to write. Margaret Walton Saville from the novel has the same initials as Mary Shelley (n.p.). The day that Walton sees the creature, July 31, 1797 was the year Mary was born. Frankenstein ends on September 12, 1797 which is two days after Mary’s mother dies (n.p.).

Those are the parallels between Mary Shelley and the novel Frankenstein

Works Cited

Eleanor, Ty. “Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.” Wilfrid Laurier University.1 February 2010.

Gerson, Noel B. Daughter of Earth and Water. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc, 1973.

“Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.” UXL Biographies. UXL, 1999. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale