Unhappy teenagers often fi nd their
way to science fi ction, one way or
another. It’s hardly surprising that a genre
laden with metaphors of loss, loneliness and
longing for connection should be attractive to
young people struggling to fi nd their place in a
world that seems to resent their very existence.
Few such troubled kids have ever conveyed
their fears and desires as powerfully – or as
signifi cantly – as Mary Shelley. She wrote
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus at the
age of 18, having survived unimaginable grief
to emerge as one of the greatest writers in the
English language. This extraordinary woman
used her own tragic experiences as fuel for a
novel rich in existential questions and moral
conundrums. As the daughter of two eminent
philosophers and the wife of poet Percy Bysshe
Shelley, circumstance guaranteed her at least
a footnote in literary history. Instead, her own
genius won her a place in the literary pantheon.
Dr Sorcha Ní Fhlainn is Senior Lecturer in Film
Studies and American Studies and founding
member of the Manchester Centre for Gothic
Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University.
She’s well-placed to assess Shelley’s role in
birthing a genre still vital to today’s pop culture.
“It’s one of those very infl uential novels that tapsWORDS GEM WHEELERTHE COMPLETE GUIDE TO
FEW NOVELS CAN HOPE TO HAVE THE CULTURAL IMPACT THAT
FRANKENSTEIN HAS HAD, ITS INFLUENCE SPREADING ACROSS ALL
MEDIUMS EVEN TO THIS DAY. WE TAKE A LOOK AT THE LEGACY OF
MARY SHELLEY’S CLASSIC NOVELinto the very primal fears we all have: around
birth, around death, around rebirth. Shelley
herself had lost a child, and Shelley scholars
have found that the torment of this was the
psychological drive behind that novel. I think it’s
to do with who grants the right to give life and
take it and, possibly, to steal it from the gods:
that Promethean fi re. Who gets to do that? Of
course, the novel grapples with the powers of
creation – and also the horrors of creation –
throughout. The novel is so loaded with those
kinds of metaphors that you feel that she was
grappling with a very serious emotional heft at
the tender age of 17, 18 years old.”
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was born in
London in 1797. She was brought up by her
father, radical philosopher and writer William
Godwin, following the death of her mother just
a few weeks after her birth. Her childhood was
blighted by a sense of guilt at having ‘killed’
Mary Wollstonecraft, a feminist thinker and
writer of considerable repute.
A fractious relationship with her stepmother
and a complicated bond with her father drove
her into the arms of poet-philosopher Percy
Bysshe Shelley. Separated from his pregnant
wife and estranged from his aristocratic family
due to his radical politics, Bysshe Shelley was a
kindred spirit. Their passionate affair – allegedly
consummated on Mary Wollstonecraft’s grave in
St Pancras cemetery – caused scandal and a rift
with Mary Godwin’s father.COMPLETE GUIDE
MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN
080 |MARY SHELLEY’S
FRANKENSTEIN
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FrankensteinFrankensteinFrankenstein The Modern PrometheusThe Modern PrometheusThe Modern Prometheus
WORDS GEM WHEELERTHE COMPLETE GUIDE TO
FEW NOVELS CAN HOPE TO HAVE THE CULTURAL IMPACT THAT
FRANKENSTEIN HAS HAD, ITS INFLUENCE SPREADING ACROSS ALL
MEDIUMS EVEN TO THIS DAY. WE TAKE A LOOK AT THE LEGA CY OFFRANKENSTEIN HAS HAD, ITS INFLUENCE SPREADING ACROSS ALL
MEDIUMS EVEN TO THIS DAY. WE TAKE A LOOK AT THE LEGA CY OFFRANKENSTEIN HAS HAD, ITS INFLUENCE SPREADING ACROSS ALL
MARY SHELLEY’S CLASSIC NOVEL
COMPLETE GUIDE
MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN
080MARY SHELLEY’S
FRANKENSTEIN
Young FrankensteinYoung FrankensteinYoung Frankenstein
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