Frankenstein [Original 1818 Text]

by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

As stated before, Mary Shelley was under great pressure to prove herself as a writer and as an artist. Her parents, Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, and her husband Percy Shelley were highly accomplished literary artists. Percy Shelley was constantly after his wife to produce a work by which to make a name for herself, and to enter the literary canon. Perhaps it was this obsession that drove her. There is no emotion stronger than the emotion of need. The need for love and approval. The need to express oneself. As Victor was driven by a desire to create life, so was Shelley driven by that same desire. A desire which took only a stormy night to cultivate. A few ghost stories around the fire. A vision in the night. A mother that wasn’t there. A father that wasn’t there enough.