Mary Shelley's Influence On Frankenstein

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Born into a family of noted writers in the 1800s, Mary Shelley is destined to become a writer. She is second daughter of famed feminist, educator, and writer Mary Wollstonecraft and the equally famous anarchist philosopher, William Godwin. Her dad, William, encouraged her so much that in 1808, when she was at the young age of eleven she had written and published her very first book of her verses titled “Mounseer Nongtongpaw; or The Discoveries of John Ball in a Trip to Paris” (Gale Group, “Mary Shelley Overview”). Being the daughter of two of the most prominent philosophers and activists of the previous generation, she has great holes to fill and help carry the family legacy. Her work is now known among the greatest literature written in English …show more content…
Throughout the nineteenth century, references to the novel appear in many novels and poems. Although normally best known for the film of Frankenstein, released over a century after the popular plays. Richard Brinsley Peake’s Presumption showed on stages just five years after the novel was first published. Countless amounts of films, TV Shows, plays, and literature have received influence from this great novel. Even something such as Halloween has been culturally impacted from the writing of Frankenstein. Every Halloween kids of all ages and even adults can not resist to dress up as the big, mean, and scary Frankenstein. Even those who have not read the great novel have been influenced by it. According to British Scholar, the significance of the work lies in its furthering of the acceptance of women as credible contributors to English literature, as well as its ongoing and pervasive cultural influence. The culture of the views of women writing on topics such as Frankenstein was not seen and looked down upon and criticized for. According to Don Nardo’s Understanding Frankenstein, publishers would frequently ask for an account of the origin of the story and Mary would answer with “How I, then a young girl, come to think of and to dilate upon so very hideous an …show more content…
“Mary Shelley: Overview.” St. James Guide to Science Fiction Writers, edited by Jay P. Pederson, 4th ed., St. James Press, 1996. Literature Resource Center. Go.galegroup.com

Aldiss, Brian W. “Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft (1797-1851).” Science Fiction Writers: Critical Studies of the Major Authors from the Early Nineteenth Century to the Present Day, edited by Richard Bleiler, 2nd ed., Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1999, pp. 681-688. Scribner Writers on GVRL, go.galegroup.com. Accessed Mar. 2017

Brown, Alan S. "The Science That Made Frankenstein." Inside Science. N.p., 25 July 2016. Web. 24 Mar. 2017. .

"Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature: Transformation of a Monster." U.S. National Library of Medicine. National Institutes of Health, 09 June 2015. Web. 24 Mar. 2017. .

“Mary Shelley.” New World Encyclopedia. 22 September 2016. www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/mary_shelley.

Nardo, Don. Understanding Frankenstein. Lucent Books, 2003.

“Women and Europe- Mary Shelley.” The British Scholar Society. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Mar 2017.
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