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Frankenstein, By Mary Shelley

Decent Essays

Mary Shelley’s life was constantly enveloped in tragedy and scandal, so it is no surprise that a despairing work of gothic science fiction would result form an ill-fated, tortured soul like Shelley. From the very beginning of her life, Shelley experienced great misfortune with the passing of her mother. Later on, three of her four children died in their infancy, and her husband drowned off the shore of Tuscany. It would not be hard to believe that it was this series of burdensome life events that acted as inspiration for Shelley’s melancholy novel. It is also no wonder that the heavy notion of “playing God” serves as a driving force for this book, after all, bringing her loved ones back to life was something that Shelley probably spent a great deal of time contemplating about. The novel most likely served as an outlet for those thoughts, helping her put things into perspective and not get beyond herself into a state of insanity. In the book’s introduction, we are presented with a quote by Shelley that describes a vision that inspired Frankenstein and her first image of what would eventually become Victor and the monster.
“I saw-with shut eyes, but acute mental vision-I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life and stir with an uneasy, half-vital motion. Frightful must it be, for supremely frightful would be the

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