Correlation Between Frankenstein and Mary Shelley's Personal Life

The idea that Mary Shelley's personal life affected her writing makes a lot of sense. After reading her biography, the reader sees how Shelley's life was tormented and ridden with suffering, just as Victor's and his monster's were. Her upbringing also might have rendered her an oucast amongst others her age, as the monster's creation did him. She grew up around prolific writers and thinkers with relatively unstable personal lives, which made her quite different from the mainstream public. This is outlined in the article Frankenstein: Monster Still Alive 183 Years Later, when Christopher Schildt says "But suffering and loss and pain, the feeling of being ostracized- that I think she knew very well...".
Not only was Shelley publicly ostracized, as Frankenstein's monster was, but she was also internally tormented by the loss of many of her children. Victor constantly tortures himself because of his creation, and although he was not publicly punished, the constant burden of his creation was punishment just the same.
With all of this said, it is easy to see how the theme of Frankenstein was influenced by Mary Shelley's personal life, and her real-life struggles add heart-wrenching authenticity to it.

Frankanstein Post #1

Personally, I enjoyed reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The struggles that each of the characters face are universal, and even though the circumstances are hard to relate to, the emotion at the core of it all is easy to understand. Frankenstein's creature contemplates mankinds morals, and points out some of society's hypocricies. It is easy to see how a new creation could be confused about the idea that possesions are what shows the successes of man instead of intangible virtues, and how quickly a seemingly understaning society could be so judgemental. Shelley illustrated this point well in the creatures naievte, and it was a refreshing perspective for the reader.