Mary Shelleys Frankenstein :: Essays Papers

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Mary Shelley presented by the biographers suggests an intensely private, imaginatively exuberant, yet also emotionally withdrawn figure, whose political melancholy and strong religious faith are intriguingly at odds with the optimistic rationalism of her famous parents, and her poet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