Frankenstein By Mary Shelley: Paralleling

Mary Shelley and Victor: Paralleling During her lifetime, Mary Shelley lost her husband, all but one of her children, and had a very distant father. The losses suffered by Mary Shelley are paralleled in her book Frankenstein as shown by Victor and his creation losing their brides, Victor losing his brother, and Victor being distant from his creation.
Mary lost her husband, the famous poet Percy Shelley who drowned in the Gulf of Spezia in Italy. Victor destroyed the bride he was making for his creation because he was afraid that the two creations would wreak havoc together. In vengeful retaliation, the creation makes good on his threat that “I will be with you on your wedding night!” (Shelley, 116) and strangles Elizabeth, Victor’s new bride while he is looking for the creation, shattering any hope for happiness Victor might have had. The parallel of the loss of Mary’s husband and the brides in the book is significant because both losses are very painful and close to their hearts.

One of them, William, died of malaria in June 1819, while his sister, Clara died of dysentery in September 1818. Both of them were still very young when they died. Victor’s brother William was strangled by Victor’s creation when he was about six. Victor becomes first depressed then enraged because he knows his creation was the murderer and he cannot do much about it. Mary is in the same predicament: she cannot do a thing about the children’s deaths and becomes frustrated because of it. The similarity here is that both Mary and Victor are powerless in this situation and can only watch in horror as the drama that is life plays