Examining Human Alienation in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is hailed as one of the greatest novels dealing with the human spirit ever to be written. Shelley wrote this nineteenth century sensation after her life experiences. It has been called the first science fiction novel. Shelley lived a sad, melodramatic, improbable, and tragically sentimental life. She was the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, the brilliant pioneer feminist in the late eighteenth century. However due to complications in childbirth and inept medical care, Shelley's mother passed away soon after her birth. Later on, Shelley married the famous romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Mary Shelley's masterpiece, Frankenstein, was inspired partly by Milton's Paradise Lost:

"Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay

To mould me Man, did I solicit thee

From darkness to promote me?"

The novel explores the theme of how society can ruin good through human alienation. Shelley powerfully expresses that theme through the development of Victor Frankenstein's failed aspirations, the creature's plight, and the inevitable destruction of Frankenstein.

Frankenstein is a novel about a creature that was made by a scientist driven by ambition. It first introduces Victor Frankenstein, the protagonist, and his interest in science. However, he doesn't have an interest in modern science as his father wishes, he is appealed by the fascinations of alchemy and mystical sciences.

"It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my inquiries were directed to the metaphysical, or in its highest sense, the physical secrets of the ...

... middle of paper ...

...Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press, 1992. 245-58.

Merriman, C.D. The Literature Network. Jalic Inc, 2006. Web. 28 March 2010. http://www.online-literature.com/shelley_mary/

Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Ed. Scott Elledge. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 1975.

Poovey, Mary. "My Hideous Progeny: Mary Shelley and the Feminization of Romanticism". PMLA (1980): 332-347. Web. 29 March

2010. http://www.jstor.org/stable/461877?seq=2

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein Or, The Modern Prometheus. New York: New American Library, 1963. Print.

Smith, Johanna M. Introduction: Biographical and Historical Contexts. Frankenstein. By Mary Shelley. 2000. 2nd ed. Bedford/St.

Martins, 2000. Web. < http://books.google.com/books?id=qykBJvG0iJQC&dq=mary+shelley&lr=&source=gbs_navlinks_s>

Wolf, Leonard. The Annotated Frankenstein. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1977.