Influences on Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley once said that the idea for Frankenstein came to her in a dream. Although this may be true, books often grow from the original source of inspiration. Many things that Mary Shelley experienced in her life may have had influence on the way Frankenstein was written. Her mother's death and the strained relationship with her father changed the way she saw the world. The romantic era in which the book was written had an influence on the style of the writing as well. All of these things can be seen reflected in Frankenstein.
Shelley's mother died when she was still an infant. Although it was not intentional on her mother's part, Mary Shelley may have felt like she had been abandoned by the one who had given her life. In Frankenstein, the monster is abandoned soon after its "birth" as well. This is a traumatizing event and contributes to the isolation that ultimately turns the monster violent. Frankenstein is partially inspired to his endeavor by the death of his mother, and he goes to undertake the task of bringing the power of creation to humanity. Through her mother’s writing on Prometheus, Shelley must have known that tragedy befalls those who try to bring the power of the Gods to humans. As a young girl, Mary Shelley was only able to connect with her mother by reading her books, and she would often read them by her mother's grave. After the monster is abandoned by Frankenstein, he comes across a copy of Paradise Lost, which helps frame his experience of the world. The theme of connecting to the world and to others through reading is persistent in both Mary Shelley's life and in Frankenstein.
After she ran away with a married man, Shelley's father disowned her. However, because her father was also a writer, she was able to connect to him through his writing. In the first few months of her marriage, Shelley experienced the traumatic loss of her infant daughter. At the same time, she was being exposed to her father's writing about alchemy, and his ideas about whether scientists should be able to control who lives or dies. In the novel, a young Victor Frankenstein begins his knowledge of the world by reading old books on alchemy and the "principles of life". This forms his basic understanding of things long before he learns that the books have been disproven. Even when he studies updated information at school, that basic understanding of the world stays with him, and later on comes into play during his research of life and death. Shelley's father argued that when in making a decision about life and death, a scientist should consider the greater good that could come from the choice. Frankenstein is obsessed with personal matters, however, and never stops to consider if it is his place to bring a creature to life - he simply knows that he has found the way to do it, and wants to see that theory come to fruition. His scientific research isolates him both in the short term while he is experimenting, and in the long term when his creation destroys his family. These parts of the novel could be directly related to Mary Shelley's interpretations of her father's writing, as it is the nature of speculative fiction to consider the "what ifs" of many situations. Shelley showed a possible outcome of what can happen when a scientist does not think when life is in his hands, how technological advancement can isolate humans, as well as further exploring the possibilities of alchemy.
Frankenstein is an example of romantic literature, and as such exhibits many characteristics of the era. The romantics were very concerned with the power of nature, and while at first it seems like Frankenstein's monster is going to be a triumph of science; it is very quickly shown that he is a testament to nature's wrath for those who try to foil it. Life was never meant to be artificially created, and so when a human is foolish enough to think he has cheated nature, there are dire consequences. Another prominent idea of the time that Shelley would have been exposed to is that of the sublime. When Victor explains his method of creating the monster, it is shown as an all-consuming process that sickens him at the same time as it excites him. When striving toward a lofty goal, it is possible to hate the process while at the same time loving what the ultimate outcome will be. It is a feeling shared by artists, writers, and by scientists like Victor. It is certainly a sublime feeling, being of equal parts abhorrent and exultant. Isolation is another common theme of romantic literature, and it is something that all the characters in Frankenstein experience, as well as something they share with Mary Shelley herself. As a child, learning about her dead mother only through her writing, and later when she was estranged from the only parent she had left, Shelley must have felt very isolated. Plato said that people experience life like a person chained in a cave, only able to see the shadows of life as they flicker on the wall. This must have been what it felt like for Shelley to only connect with her parents through reading their writing - being able to observe their thoughts and ideas, but not to discuss or interact with them. The monster experiences this as well, as he watches the De Lacey family but cannot be a part of their life. Victor also experiences this, although through his own actions. He withdraws into his studies, rejecting those friends who try to reach him. In the end, the result of those studies punishes him by destroying the family that he had not appreciated in the past. The result is Victor as we see him at the beginning of the tale, alone in a harsh environment and tormented by his guilt over creating the monster.
Mary Shelley's early experiences permeate the themes of this book. Her mother's abandonment is reflected in the loneliness of the monster. Since she was unable to discuss her father's ideas with him directly, they are played upon in the text with Victor's studies and decisions. The work overall is a classic of romanticism, portraying the darkness of nature's power and the isolation inherent in human life. It is subtitled "The Modern Prometheus", and while Prometheus may have been a sympathetic protagonist for romantic readers, Victor Frankenstein is his dark side. A contemporary audience could watch as he tried to bring humans something they truly should never have had. His punishment would have been seen as an example of a justly sublime outcome. All of these things created the environment in which Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, and their influence can be seen in the work.