Psychological Origins of Frankenstein

The Psychological Origins of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein When one thinks of a book such as Frankenstein, one thinks of it as purely a horror story and not much else. However, there is far more to the story than is first apparent. Shelley has effectively mixed the horror genre with some autobiographical elements. Mary Shelley was the daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, two notable English thinkers. Wollstonecraft died days after Mary's birth leaving her …

…childhood) that she did not know what to do in her life. She was still only a teenager, but she had had three children by the time she was 17. Her unconscious fears about everything were unleashed when she began writing Frankenstein. Mary Shelley's novel thrilled audiences and provoked many different adaptations of her work. However, the thread of reality that she wove throughout her work says more about her life than any autobiography ever could.