In the book Frankenstein there is a section called “Modern Criticism” which gives writers the chance to analyze specific parts of the book. The first story in this section is by a man by the name of Christopher Small; his essay is called Shelley and Frankenstein. It’s written in modern time and tells and about Smalls opinion on who Mary Shelley was and how her and Victor Frankenstein may be the same person. Small opens up talking about how he feels Shelley is not the only one who deserves credit for Frankenstein but her mentor Byron, who told her to “write a ghost story”. He also believes the personality types of the two (character and author) are extremely similar; for one he talks about the age being similar and having had Shelley speak about similar wants and need, such as Victor desires. Characters in the book, such as Elizabeth, which was the name of Shelley’s mother, resemble aspects in Mary’s life which Small believes she did on purpose. Physically Victor and Shelley were the same age and possibly had the same mindsets, Small mentions that maybe she did all of this not intentionally but without knowing, stating, “Frankenstein himself is clearly and to some extent must intentionally have been a portrayal of Shelley, and Shelley can scarcely have been unaware of it, if only on account of his name.”[Small 205] It may have been possible that Shelley created a story from an idea that bloomed. She may have taken issues going on in her life out of the book, and created a wonderful story without such a wonderful ending.
Reading all the sections in this book made me look at the story in a different view than I had before. It opened my eyes to see the real meaning behind the relationships going on in the book and how things like deep thoughts and grotesque creatures can add more to the emotion in the story.
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein: the 1818 Text, Contexts, Nineteenth-century Responses, Modern Criticism. Ed. J. Paul Hunter. First ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996. Print.
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Hi Sierra,
ReplyDeleteOkay first I have to tell you that the eyeball moving around at the top of your post really gives me the ebbie-gibbies! It seems that quiet a few critical analysis reports seem to think that Shelley was portraying herself in the novel. It is also interesting how this man makes a point to say that Shelley should not receive all of the credit for the novel based on comments by her mentor. It is definitely interesting to read how people have such different views of the novel. Very nice post and very creepy visual! Good job!