Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The novel Frankenstein is a gothic horror story and was written by

Mary Shelley in 1816, based on a nightmare she had while on holiday in

Geneva. It was influenced by the social and historical events that

were happening during the period in which it is written. It also draws

heavily on events that had occurred in her past and were happening in

her life at the time of writing the novel. Her mother died in

childbirth so she grew up without a maternal influence, and her father

was either absent from her life or was often surrounded by his

friends, so she did not have ideal parental figures to look up to.

Similarly, in the story the monster has no mother as he was man-made,

and his ‘father figure’, Victor, who is his creator, rejects him when

he realises what he has done.

When Shelley wrote the novel she was only eighteen and had already

suffered many deaths in her family. Her half sister had committed

suicide and she had lost a baby just before she wrote the novel. She

was very depressed after these events and we can see how this could

have influenced the way in which she wrote the novel and the events

which happened to the monster, which are mainly bad experiences. The

monster is also portrayed as being depressed in the story, as he feels

that he has nothing of any value in his life and no friends or family

to turn to. Shelly uses the emotions of grief and sadness throughout

the book, reflecting her own feelings at the time she wrote it.

The book was written at a time of great change. New technological and

scientific things were being discovered very rapidly and scientific

theories were graduall...

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...s shown in these chapters is that people are

judged initially by how they look and not what type of person they

are, even though this is unfair. She also shows that people are

treated differently depending on what class and religion they are,

again unfairly. The book was written just after the French

revolution, when the peasants overthrew the monarchy and triumphed

over the upper classes. As Mary was from an upper class family she

may have feared that the same would happen in this country to her own

family. There is also a strong theme of injustice in the story – both

in the treatment Safie’s father receives in being imprisoned and also

in the way that the monster is treated by other people, and also

similarities in the way Safie’s father treats her and Felix, and the

rejection of the monster by his creator.