During her stay at the Villa Diodati, Mary Shelley dreamed of a "hideous phantasm of a man stretched out... on the working of some powerful engine... [it shows] signs of life, and stir[s] with an uneasy, half-vital motion" (Buzwell 2, Shelley 19). This was the beginning idea of her world-famous nove...

• Word Count: 2436
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

The cruel and sad death of a child is presented in Frankenstein when the William, the youngest sibling of the main character, Victor Frankenstein, is murdered by vicious strangulation, "the print of the murderer's finger...on his neck"(Shelley 70.) ... Although deeply disheartened by his death, he still remained in her heart and acted as an extreme inspiration to the rest of Mary's fictions along with Lord Byron, Samuel Coleridge, and still her parents (Woodbridge Desire to Acquire Knowledge). ...

• Word Count: 1927
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate