HUMN 303 Week 7 Assignment
Frankenstein, a novel first published in the year 1818, stands as the most talked about work of Mary Shelley’s literary career. She was just nineteen years old when she penned this novel, and throughout her lifetime she could not produce any other work that surpasses this novel in terms of creativity and vision. In this novel, Shelley found an outlet for her own intense sense of victimization, and her desperate struggle for love. Traumatized by her failed childbirth incidents, troubled childhood, and scandalous courtship, many of Shelley’s life experiences can be seen reflected in the novel. When discussing the character and development of the monster, Shelley launches an extensive discussion on the
The author’s grief is reflected in the lamentation of Victor over his mother’s death. The two birth-related deaths in her life, made Shelley yearn for elemental procreative power, just like Victor Frankenstein in the story (Lehman, 1992, pp. 49-50)
“These are the reflections of the first days; but when the lapse of time proves the reality of the evil, then the actual bitterness of grief commences.” (Shelley, 1818).
Victor’ grieving over his mother’s death and his urge to produce a new life to compensate the loss suffered by him, in many ways relate to the tragedy of Shelley, who had lost a mother and daughter. Giving birth to a monster (psychological) is an unconscious fear many women carry when they are pregnant, according to Dr. Almond. Almond believes that Shelley was concerned that any child she produced might carry some of the repressed, destructive characters she herself possessed. Like the doubts Shelley had about her writing abilities, she, Almond opines, might have had her reservations about the nature of the child she might bear. The dream, which gave Shelley the idea to write this novel, further throws light on the fears she had in her mind about the sort of child she will give birth to (D'Amato, 2009, p. 122). In the novel Victor hates his creation from the moment he sets his eye on it, and even wishes that he could destroy it.
"I gnashed my teeth, my eyes became inflamed, and I ardently wished