?God Makes All Things Good, Man Meddles With Them And They Become Evil?. Show How Frankenstein Illus Essay, Research Paper

Mary Shelley

wrote the novel Frankenstein in the early part of the nineteenth century.? Frankenstein has been considered as possibly

the first gothic novel.? The novel was

written at a time when Mary Shelley and her husband Percy were staying at the

home of Lord Byron on the shores of Lake Geneva.? Mary Shelley was born in 1797 and, when her mother died shortly

after her birth, she was brought up by her father and stepmother.? As a child the idea of republicanism was

implanted into her by her father.? Her

mother had been an early women?s rights campaigner and had written several

books on the subject.? Her father, on

the other hand, was very interested in alchemy and Galvanism.? Galvanism was the idea of running electric

currents through a body to restore it to life, invented by Luigi Galvani. The novel came

to be written when Mary told the gathering of Romantic poets at Lord Byron?s

house, in Geneva, of a dream she had had.?

This scared and shocked the poets, who encouraged her to make it into a

book.? In the novel we see heavy

elements of the Romantic poets and the influence they had on Mary when writing

the novel.? For instance, when Victor

Frankenstein is walking through the mountains to meet with the monster after

the deaths of William and Justine, the beauty of the mountains and the views is

used to contrast his mood of distress and anxiety.? The description given and the contrasts are very typical of the

Romantic poets and the way in which they write. Another aspect

of Mary Shelley?s life that shows through in the novel is the idea of

Republicanism.? Mary uses a letter

written by Elizabeth to Victor Frankenstein to show her view of monarchies and

republics:?The republican

institutions of our country have produced simpler and happier manners than

those which prevail in the monarchies which surround it.?This novel was

written shortly after the French revolution when the monarchy was overthrown

and France became a republic.? At this

time, people were beginning to compare the monarchies of countries such as

Britain with the monarchy of France and people started to distrust the

monarchies and doubt their strength. Another element

of Mary Shelley?s life and childhood, which shows through the novel, is the

idea of parental rejection.? Because of

her mother?s death, Mary felt that she was rejected by her mother.? This is shown chiefly by the situation of

Justine.? Justine?s mother had several

other children who she loved and cared for, but she did not like Justine at

all.? Frankenstein?s family took her in

and cared for her and she became a happy girl.