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... o four literary and historical works that Mary Shelley read and studied between the time that she eloped with Percy in 1814 and the publication of Frankenstein in 1818, that were of primary importance in the creation of this novel. They are as follows; Paradise Lost by John Milton, The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe, Lives by Plutarch, and The Memoirs of the Author of the Rights of Women by William Godwin. The first three assist in the monster's education and understanding of human society, which will be discussed shortly. First, however I will discuss the Memoirs as related to the monster's discovery of Victor Frankenstein's journal, and how the journal and Memoirs relate to Mary Shelley's and the monster's search for the knowledge of who they are. In addition to trying to understand and fit into human society, it was of primary importance for the monster to understand who he was and his origins.
He developed, by himself, through the experience of sensations without guidance from similar beings. He was shunned by society and had no understanding of why he was different, why he had no family and why there was no one else like him. The most significant mark of the monster's alienation from society was his lack of a name. The absence of a name denies the monster the knowledge of who he is, his familial origins, and a connection to successive generations (Duyfhuizen, 480). The monster's lack of a name and place in society, which caused him such distress, is shown in the following passage when he his narrating his experiences to Victor. "But where were my friends and relations?
No father had watched my infant days, no mother blessed me with smiles and caresses. I had never yet seen a being resembling me, or who claimed any intercourse with me. What was I? (Shelley, 106) The monster finally learns of the origin of his creation by discovering the journal, that Victor kept while forming the creature, in the pocket of his clothes. The journal described in graphic detail the procedures that Victor utilized to create this new being during the four months preceding the night that Victor brought the creature to life. For the monster, this discovery was a relief because he finally knew more about his "family" and from where he came but the discovery was also equally disturbing (Homans, 149).
The monster notes that "everything is related in them which bears reference to my accursed origin; the whole detail of the series of disgusting circumstances which produced it is set in view; the minutest descriptions of my odious and loathsome person is given" (Shelley, 114 - 115). In the above passage Mary Shelley may also be relating the discovery of her own origins. As discussed earlier, William Godwin published the Memoirs of the Author of the Rights of Women shortly after Mary Wollstonecraft's death and this biography described in great detail Wollstonecraft's life, affairs, suicide attempts, and relationship with Godwin. The work also provides a graphic account of the birth of Mary Shelley and the subsequent demise of Mary Wollstonecraft. Godwin's Memoirs were considered to be "the most hurtful book of 1798 " (May, 503) in which Godwin provides "gynecological explicitness in describing his wife's death after bearing Mary" (May, 503). Mary Shelley read this work while growing up and probably studied it further while developing the novel.
The supposition that she read the Memoirs while working on Frankenstein is conjecture as it is not noted in her journal. It is, however, probable that she did because there is such a similarity between the creation of the monster and her own origins and she may not have wanted to note such a personal work in her journal that would one day possibly be subject to public scrutiny. As the monster discovered the horror of his own creation, similarly Mary was subjected to the "horrors of her own origins as a matricide by the fact that she, along with every English speaking person of her age, was able to witness the primal scene of her creation in Godwin's memoirs" (May, 503). The three works, previously mentioned, that Mary Shelley studied while developing the novel are of primary importance in the monster's understanding of the aspects that make one human and part of society.
Mary Shelley conveniently has the monster discover these three works and study them after he had developed language skills and the ability to read. Through the study of Paradise Lost, The Sorrows of Young Werther, and Plutarch's Lives the monster acquires an understanding of the spiritual, emotional, and civic aspects of human society. The monster obtained knowledge through the study of these works, but he read all three of them as histories of human civilization, when Plutarch was the only one that was actually a biographical history. Mary Shelley studied Plutarch's Lives in 1815 (Feldman, 91) the year prior to beginning Frankenstein. It is a biographical account of noble Romans and their heroic deeds.
Through the study of this work, both Mary Shelley and the monster learned about models of human conduct (Sunstein, 49). The monster states, "Plutarch taught me high thoughts; he elevated me above the wretched sphere of my own reflections, to admire and love the heroes of past ages" (Shelley, 113). Unfortunately, for both Mary Shelley and her monstrous creation, few noble deeds were encountered, and instead, both received ostracism and even hatred from society. The second important work is The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe. Mary Shelley's journal notes that she studied this work in 1815 (Feldman, 91). This work is the tale of a man who experiences unrequited love and eventually commits suicide.
Through the study of this work the monster gains an understanding of the emotional aspect of human nature and learns about the feelings of love and despair. In relating the experience of studying this work to Victor the monster states, "The disquisitions upon death and suicide were calculated to fill me with wonder. I did not pretend to enter into the merits of the case, yet I inclined towards the opinions of the hero, whose extinction I wept" (Shelley, 113). The Sorrows of Young Werther were important to Mary Shelley in the understanding of her dead mother as they were important to the monster in understanding human emotion. Mary Shelley's mother tried to kill herself due to her unrequited love for Gilbert Imlay, the father of Mary's half-sister, Fanny. Due to this, William Godwin saw many similarities between his wife and the character created by Goethe.
In Godwin's Memoirs he calls Mary Wollstonecraft the "female Werther" and states that her letters to Gilbert Imlay bear a striking resemblance to the romance of Werther (Marshall, 218). Mary Shelley would have been aware of this having already read the Memoirs. Thus, Mary Shelley utilized the work, that helped her understand the emotional state of her mother, in the novel, so that the monster to could also learn about the experience of human emotion. The final work, that influences the novel and the monster, is Paradise Lost by John Milton. Mary Shelley spent a considerable amount of time studying this work and read it a number of times prior to writing Frankenstein (Feldman, 89 and 96). Mary Shelley utilized this work to give her novel mythic scope and the following passage was used as the epigraph; Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay To mould me Man, did I solicit thee From darkness to promote me? (Johnson, xii).
The monster also read this literary work as the true history of the origin of the creation of human beings. He saw aspects of himself in both the characters of Adam and Satan. He was like Adam in that he was the first of his type of creation and was unlike any living creature. The monster, however, felt a stronger connection to the character of Satan in that he was spurned by his creator, Victor, just as Satan was cast out of heaven by God.
The creature related his feelings about his identification with the characters from Paradise Lost in the following passage; "Like Adam, I was apparently united by no link to any other being in existence; but his state was far different from mine in every other respect. He had come forth from the hands of God a perfect creature, happy and prosperous but I was wretched, helpless, and alone. Many times I considered Satan as the fitter emblem of my condition, for often, like him, when I viewed the bliss of my protectors, the bitter gall of envy rose within me" (Shelley, 114). It is my personal belief that Mary may have also felt, at times, as the monster does in the above passage. She was human, like all others, but had parents who were political radicals, had a singular educational experience, had the origin of her own creation published for the entire world to read, and ran off with a married man. The combination of the above experiences set Mary apart from society and caused her to feel the isolation and alienation of an outcast; an outcast like her monster and Milton's Satan.
She differs from the monster in that she is notorious for her name, not her appearance, while the monster has no name and is instead an outcast due to the differences in the way he appears to others. In many ways Mary Shelley saw herself as the monster that she created and identified further with the monster by having him read the same works that she did. Through the study of Mary Shelley's journals and her biography, one becomes aware of how important study and research were to her. Her biography tells how the influence of her literary parents and husband provided her with a unique educational experience and how she was encouraged to conduct research. Her journals provide a detailed list of all the works that she studied and assist in relating what she studied to the creation of her timeless classic and all of the knowledge, especially of human origins, that is contained in the novel. Most importantly, the combination of the journal and her biography help answer how such a young woman with such a troubled life created such an enduring piece of literature.
She had a great love of research and knowledge and used her studies in her creative output. Bibliography: Works Cited Bennett, Betty T. " Finding Mary Shelley in Her Letters. " Romantic Revisions. eds. Robert Brinkley and Keith Hanley.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. 292 - 306. Bennett, Betty T. "Frankenstein and the Uses of Biography. " Approaches to Teaching Shelley's Frankenstein. ed. Stephen C. Behrendt. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 1990. 85 - 92.
Duyfhuizen, Bernard. "Periphrastic Naming in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. " Studies in the Novel 27 (1995): 477 - 492. Feldman, Paula R. and Scott - Gilbert, Diana, eds. The Journals of Mary Shelley. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987. Homans, Margaret. "Bearing Demons: Frankenstein's Circumvention of the Maternal. " New Casebooks - Frankenstein/Mary Shelley.
ed. Fred Betting. New York: St. Martin's, 1995. 140 - 165. Johnson, Diane. Introduction.
Frankenstein. By Mary Shelley. Bantam Classic Edition. New York: Bantam, 1981. vii-xix. May, Marilyn. "Publish and Perish: William Godwin, Mary Shelley, and the Public Appetite for Scandal. " Papers on Language and Literature 26 (1990): 489 - 512.
Marshall, David. The Surprising Effects of Sympathy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988. Polling, Burton R. "Philosophical and Literary Sources of Frankenstein. " Comparative Literature 17 (Spring 1965): 97 - 108. "Review of Frankenstein. " British Critic 9 Apr. 1818: 432 - 438. "Review of Frankenstein. " Monthly Review 85 Apr. 1818: 439. Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein.
Bantam Classic Edition. New York: Bantam, 1981. Sunstein, Emily W. Mary Shelley - Romance and Reality.
Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989
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