Gail Godwin

In the times that Frankenstein is written, exploration and application of science is exploding along with developments in all aspects in Industrial Revolution. One dramatic event in scientific community at that time is the famous “vitalist debate” engaged by two medical professionals John Abernethy advocating vitalism and William Lawrence propagating materialism. Critics constantly assume what standpoint in the debate is Shelley taking by analyzing her main character “the Creature” in…

A common reading of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” is that it is a cautionary story about the dangers of going too far with science and meddling with what one does not understand. The novel does deal with themes of negligence and lack of care, but not necessarily in the arena of science itself. Rather, the novel uses the story of Victor, a figure who is at once a mother and a father, to display themes of parental negligence and the negative outcomes that this produces in the child. However, this…

modern feminists with her book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, and quite influential in her legacy. However, her life was cut short with the birth of Mary Shelley, dying only days after her new daughter was born. Mary Shelley’s father, William Godwin, was left a grieving widower with a new daughter, the namesake of his late wife, to always remind him of the loss of his love. Growing up, Mary Shelley realized this extra sadness that was set upon her father, and carried a sense of guilt…

Mary Shelly was an English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, biographer, and travel writer. She was born August 30, 1797 in Somers Town, London in the United Kingdom. She was well-known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or The Modern Prometheus. Shelly spent time in Geneva to get inspiration for the novel Frankenstein. Shelly focuses on the influences of history, the elements of the Gothic theme, and the theme of Modern Prometheus. The history of Frankenstein started when Mary Shelly…

Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin were both famous writers. Mary, as an English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women rights and William, as a political writer and philosopher. During Mary Shelly’s birth, Mary Godwin was in the process of giving birth for eighteen agonizing hours. Her mother’s placenta broke apart during the birth causing it to become infected. After…

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Shelley was born in Somers Town, London, in 1797. She was the second child of the feminist philosopher, educator, and writer Mary Wollstonecraft, and the first child of the philosopher, novelist, and journalist William Godwin. Her early life was one of tragedy, her mother died shortly after Shelley’s birth, and she grew up as an outcast, reminding her family that her life was the very thing that caused her mothers’ death. Shelley spent much of her life processing the…

Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, uses an extreme amount of imagery. These physical surroundings strongly affect the characters throughout. Frankenstein uses setting descriptions in order to reflect the emotional state of each character. Throughout Frankenstein the cold is used in order to set a negative mood or feeling. In the opening letters, Walton describes the setting as “surrounded by ice” that is “stretched out in every direction” (9). This cold setting reflects the “anxious…

Peering into Mary Shelly’s different stages of life as well as her early and later works, we can gain an insight of how her life was reflected into her writing. In London, England on August 30, 1797 William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft welcomed their daughter Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin into the world. Her mother was an acclaimed feminist writer, but died just ten short days after giving birth to Mary due to puerperal fever. Her…

capacity to frighten, scare, or startle readers and movie watchers by inducing feelings of terror (Venables). Mary Shelley was an innovative writer of this style. Mary Shelley was born to two famous writers, mother Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and father William Godwin (Nichols x-xi). When Mary was sixteen, she met a young poet by the name of Shelley. No one approved of their love, so they ran away to Switzerland (Nichols 54-64). It was destined for her to become a writer. While away she began…

The novel Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley, brought a new era to the writing industry. Shelley’s novel can be described as dark, mysterious, and perplexing due to the actions faced and made throughout the book. Inspiration for writing such a novel arose from Shelley’s personal life and incidents endured throughout it. Although she didn’t directly experience certain events written in the novel, she did experience the same or similar amount of darkness and melancholy in her life. The novel…