Pre 1914 – Prose Coursework Essay
Part 1 – Lesson 1
Life and times of Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley was born on 30th August 1797, Somers Town, in London. Her parents were called William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. She had a depressing childhood because her mother died when she was 10 days old and was raised by her father and much resented step-mother. When Mary is sixteen, she meets a young poet called Percy Bysshe Shelley (future husband). For several times, they ran away to Continental Europe along with her step-sister. Shelley was already married when they ran away.
Later on, in 1816, they go abroad again and spend time with Lord Byron and his friend Polidori in Geneva. Byron then suggests that they all should write a ghost story. Mary wrote ‘Frankenstein’. Her book was based upon her husband because he too, was a philosopher. Shelley was reflected as a character of ‘Victor Frankenstein’. The story is first set in Iceland where Victor recalls the events in his life of creating the creature. Victor was a philosopher and studied Medical Science in Ingolstadt.
The term ‘death’ largely affected Mary’s novel based upon past events that has happened in her life. Mary then had ‘waking’ nightmares which led her to write ‘Frankenstein’, which took her two years to publish. Percy’s wife drowns herself later that year when the book was published. Mary was married to Percy in December 1816. The monster in ‘Frankenstein’ is somewhat based upon Mary because she was an abandoned child (like the monster). Also, Mary was surrounded by death later on in life because Percy drowns shortly after they are wed. Her half-sister dies along with her children. However, she was partly relieved by the birth of her only son Percy, their only surviving child.
Plot of the novel
Victor hides from the creature in a remote part of the world which is below 0°C and was found by a group of crusaders seeking to destroy the monster. Victor then tells of his story to them to prove that he is dangerous and should not be approached and how he spent his life devoting himself to create the creature. ‘Frankenstein’ is about a philosopher called Victor Frankenstein who studied Medical Science in Ingolstadt. He wanted to create a human being from dead body parts and organs. His aim was mainly to create someone that could help cure diseases that were roaming around at that time and to be a tester in testing the antidotes to see if they will cure the disease. However, Victor’s dream shatters when he creates the creature because it turned out to be what he hadn’t expected…an ugly, vile, and unique creature. Later on, Victor abandons the creature thinking it was dead. The creature is left with a journal about his master and how he attempted to create him. The creature then tries to seek his master but murders people because they are all afraid of him. He is forced to hide just in case the people try to destroy him. In the middle of the story the creature learns how to interact with humans thus he is a human himself. He learns about feelings towards others and why they sorrow. He also learns how to care for people. He meets a small family in a cottage and starts to wonder if he would ever feel that way: having a family. He helps the family by helping them pull out the vegetables that are stuck to the grounds near the winter and chop up wood for them to make fire. All this ends when the creature meets back with Victor because he wants him to create a mate for him so he can leave society alone. However, when Victor refuses to help him, his only choice was to murder his fiancée: Elizabeth. This way the creature knows that Victor will bring Elizabeth back to life so he takes this chance to get his mate. Once Victor has brought her back to life the creature makes his move. However, all this backfires when Elizabeth destroys herself in a ball of fire resulting in the whole house burning down. Shortly after the story finishes…Victor dies. By dying, this led to creature to come out and tried to say sorry to his father before burning his body and himself along with it.
