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A Monster in the Mirror: Mary Shelley

 

            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 novel, Frankenstein. In the nineteenth century, for a young woman to choose the hideous science fiction idea of using dead body parts to create a living being was unheard of (Franklin 2). Society would view her as "abnormal;" however, Shelley's persona differently because of the intelligence implemented into the novel. Shelley received astounding education in science, literature, and philosophy from her father (Discovering Authors 3). She used this knowledge to write breathtaking essays, diary entries, and novels at a young age, including Frankenstein. Published in 1818, Frankenstein follows Victor Frankenstein's triumph as he reanimates a dead body, and then examines his guilt for creating it. .
             When his creature perceives his rejection by mankind, he seeks revenge on his creator's family to avenge his despair. Shelley, after experiencing the deaths of her family members as well as new discoveries in science and technology, expressed how modern society influences the creature's establishment in her novel Frankenstein.
             In Frankenstein, most of the deaths and murders relate to the deaths in Shelley's life. The problems and murders that came after the creation of the creature contrasts to Shelley's experiences with childbirth and children. In the nineteenth century, childbirth was just as threatening as using electricity (Franklin 3). After all of the children Shelley birthed, she was extremely lucky not to have died from complications as her mother did (2). To Ellen Moers, a famous biographer of females, "Frankenstein seems to be. a woman's mythmaking. of birth.it's emphasis is not upon what precedes birth.


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