Mary Shelly’s life is as interesting as the life of the
characters she has created. Authors are notorious for drawing from their lives to
create a foundation for stories they create. From the allegories in Tolkien’s
work, to the bitter truth of A Long Way
Gone, by Ishmael Beah, all artists need this form of inner
inspiration.
Many
similarities can be found between Mary Shelly and her monster Frankenstein. For
example Mary Shelly was educated by her father’s library, and she had no
restrictions on what she could and couldn't read. A self-educated woman. This
form of education is mirrored in her story when Frankenstein learns to speak by
listening to the DeLacy family.
This is an allusion to her self-willingness to learn, and transcending
the normal education a female received during the early nineteenth century.
Another,
move obvious allusion is the creation of monster Frankenstein himself. He was
conceived in a time when Mary Shelly was ostracized from a lot of people she
knew. This was largely due to her scandalous behavior. She wrote the story 1816 when she spent
her summer in Geneva, Switzerland. She was there with Lord Byron, Clair
Clairmont, Percy Shelley and John Polidori. They would sit around and tell each
other tales of gothic horror, which helped Mary Shelley conceive the idea of Frankenstein.
In
addition to the above contributing factors, there is another important one as
well. The fact that, at the time of writing, Mary Shelley was having trouble with her children. Both were ill and out of all here children only one, Percy Florence
Shelley, survived past childhood. Mary Shelley wrote in her journal "Dream that my little baby came to
life again - that it had only been cold & that we rubbed it before the fire
& it lived." Which could be primordial inspiration for Frankenstein.
It’s
interesting to learn the stories behind the stories and that is especially the
case with Marry Shelley’s, Frankenstein.
It’s hard to believe that an ostracized 19 year old wrote such a masterpiece
and arguably the first science fiction story.
