Mary Shelly's "Frankenstein"

Paper Summary:

This paper explores the interpretation of Mary Shelly's "Frankenstein" as a novel about the fear of pregnancy and the trauma of afterbirth and then looks at how this relates to Mary Shelly's own life. The paper provides examples from the novel and from Shelly's life to support this interpretation.

From the Paper:

"Though works of fiction generally represent a writer's imagination rather than actuality, inevitably the writer's life experiences or viewpoints influence the literary effort. One work that bears out the truth of the aforesaid statement is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, as a comparison of the text with the author's life reveals a marked commonality of themes. Though Frankenstein is ostensibly a tale in the horror genre, it is also a powerful human interest story representing as it does, human emotions such as those that revolve around pregnancy and after birth. The same emotions around identical issues is also found in documentation on Shelley's life, establishing a resemblance too startling to be written off as mere coincidence. In reading Frankenstein, however, it is important to remember that the tale was penned in the early nineteenth century, a period where sensibilities of the readership did not allow an overt exploration of issues such as pregnancy and birth. To that extent, Shelley explored the said emotions through the relationship between the scientist, Victor Frankenstein, and the monster he gave birth to."

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