When the floodgates of the creative unconsciousness finally opened, the never stagnant sources that inspired Frankenstein were readily available to Mary Shelley. In addition to other passions Percy and Mary were voracious readers. Radu Florescu, author of In of Frankenstein, estimates that the couple may have read as much as sixteen hours on a good day during
their romp through Europe. Reading, romping and remembering provided the seed bed from which grew a classic.
As with the night vision that provoked the tale, the sources she used were not consciously selected. Each contributing resource made its way into the novel subtly and with artistry. We have mentioned how Gothic tales and the Science of Davy, Franklin and others provided a backdrop. Now we turn to Mary's more direct experiences Mary Wollstonecraft: Motherlessness Mary Wollstonecraft: Motherlessness
Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus is pre-eminently effected by Mary's family life. The virtual absence of strong women in the story reflects the disasterous effect Mary Wollstonecraft's death had on her daughter. Victor's mother dies while he is at university in Ingolstadt. His step-sister and fiance, Elizabeth, is orphaned due to the death of her mother in childbirth. Justine, the nursemaid of Victor's brother, William Frankenstein, is wrongfully executed. Elizabeth herself is taken from the world on the threshold of her marriage.
The Monster is motherless as well. Victor in male pride takes the role of mother and father of his creation. The Monster witnesses the promise of femininity through the peek hole of a hovel but even in the DeLacey family the mother is absent. Is it any wonder that the Monster, motherless child that he is, yearns for one thing - female companionship?
The death of Mary's mother undoubtedly contributed to the persistent theme of the absence and ill-fatedness of the women in Frankenstein. There is no better example of the unconscious nature of being cut off from the deeper resources of femininity than Victor's dream which occurred directly after the creation of the Monster.
I thought I saw Elizabeth, in the bloom of health, walking in the streets of Ingolstadt. Delighted and surprised I embraced her, but as I imprinted the first kiss on her lips, they become livid with the hue of death; her features appeared to change, and I thought that I held the corpse of my dead mother in my arms; a shroud enveloped her form, and I saw grave-worms crawling in the folds of flannel (Frankenstein, Penguin Edition, p. 57).
Freudian and feminist interpreters of the novel see in this paragraph the psychological effects of abandonment.
William Godwin: Paternal Indifference William Godwin: Paternal Indifference
William Godwin was middle aged when he married Mary Wollstonecraft. He was originally an idealist and a very lauded champion of the liberal cause. His social theory that knowledge must be accompanied by responsible and loving relationships in society is his most evident legacy to the Frankenstein legacy. Social isolation was the epitome of pride. Godwin wrote that "virtue and happiness could only spring from social considered and constituted aims, the true solitaire can not be considered a moral being.. his conduct is vicious, because it has the tendency to render him miserable" (quoted in Hindle, Frankenstein, "Introduction", Penguin Edition, p.xxix). Mary's tale warns creators of all kinds to love their creations and to take the social effects of knowledge very seriously.
Godwin was a benefactor to Mary's development as an author because his liberal attitude toward the education of women enabled her to listen and participate in parlour discussions with England's greatest minds, including Samuel Coleridge and Percy Shelley. In fact, she was invited to one of the first readings of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge in her father's parlour. William also provided a Scots' education for her, thus allowing her creative distance from her intrusive stepmother.
Wendy Lesser, in her Introduction to the Everyman's Library edition of Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus, reveals another side to Godwin's legacy. The loss of his wife and the social rejection and demonizing of his political theory both resulted in bitterness, and, to some extent, an aloofness toward his daughter, to whom he may have, consciously or unconsciously, associated the death of his wife during childbirth.
When he considered himself betrayed, Godwin could be callous. When Fanny died he refused to allow the body into his and insisted on a pauper's burial for her. When Mary later eloped with Percy Shelley he cut her off relationally while maintaining a financially dependent relationship with Percy. This inadequate parenting, even while minimal provision was made for the necessities of life, mirrored the callousness of Victor toward his child, the Monster. While Victor admits his failure as a scientist, he never concedes the pathetic nature of his parenting. Godwin, for all his social theory to the contrary, was an indifferent father.
Percy Shelley: Romanticism Percy Shelley: Romanticism
Romanticism is a literary movement, and profound shift in sensibility, which took place in Britain and throughout Europe roughtly between 1770 and 1848. Intellectually it marked a violent reaction to the Enlightenment. Politically it was inspired by the revolutions in America, France and the popular wars of independence in Poland, Spain and Greece. Emotionally it was expressed in extreme assertion of the self and the value of individual experience, together with the sense of the infinite and transcendental. Socially it championed progressive causes, though when these were frustrated it often produced a bitter gloomy and despairing outlook.The stylistic keynote of Romanticism is Intensity, and its watchword is Imagination (Oxford Companion to English , p. 842).
Given the intellectually stimulating but relationally cool environment of her it is little wonder that Mary was attracted to the young, passionate poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley. While extremely intelligent, Shelley advocated an approach to living that was rooted in the emotions and sentiments. That approach came to be known as Romanticism.
Ignoring the hardship of limited finances and lodgings, Mary, Percy and Claire trounced through Germany, France and Switzerland. This impulsive, poetically inspired journey through the continent provided the excellent scenic descriptions that are woven into her novel. Percy was versed in the Classics and introduced Mary to the study of Prometheus mythology in both its Greek variant (where Prometheus steals fire from the gods for the benefit of humanity) and in the Roman revision by Ovid in Metamorphoses (where the fire is the Fire of Life used by Prometheus to create humans and animals). He was convinced that Prometheus provides an excellent model of perfectability for humankind. Being an atheist, or at least at odds with Judeo-Christian concepts of God, Percy, like many Romantics, admired the suffering heroism of the rebel Prometheus. Writing Godwin, Shelley pictured himself as "one who suffered much from human persecution but who remained proud and arrogant" (Marilyn Gaul, English Romanticism, p.194). His own tribute to Prometheus was a lyrical poem Prometheus: Unbound, written in 1821. Shelley considered it his best poem and said: "My friends say my Prometheus is too wild, ideal, and perplexed with imagery. It may be so. It has no resemblance to the Greek drama. It is original; and cost me severe mental labor. Authors, like mothers, prefer the children who have given them most trouble."
As with her parent's rationalist radicalism, Romanticism left in its wake heartbreak, suicide and sorrow. Mary experienced consecutive pregnancies and the death of five of her children. Shelley continued to have affairs. The fast and furious Romantic lifestyle was not suitable for maintaining a family. Some critics feel that Mary's Frankenstein was an unconscious critique of radicalism. It may well be that Mary was implying that the Romantic quest for fire prematurely burns out its young proponents, and that the pursuit of perfectability and the strenuous striving to be above the common collective resulted in despair and disappointment. Prometheus, after all, was a myth not a real man. The mature Mary Shelley was certainly no revolutionary as these reveal:
I earnestly desire the good and enlightenment of my fellow creatures... but I am not for going to violent extremes, which duly bring injurous reaction. I have never written a word in disfavor of liberalism... But since I had lost Shelley, I have no wish to ally myself with Radicals - they are full of repulsion to me - violent without any sense of justice - selfish in the extreme - talking without knowledge... (Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus, Penguin Edition, p. xii).
If Frankenstein is a subtle critique of the excesses in Romanticism, it is equally a critique on all ideologies of inflation whether scientific, religious or philosophical. From her own experience Mary Shelley speaks with credibility to whatever exalts human pride over nature's limitation.
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