Mary Shelley and Frankenstein

Proverb has said that, “One who walks in another’s tracks leaves no footprints.” If this is so, then Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein deserves no acclaim. As the daughter of radical thinkers William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, and the wife of the celebrated poet Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley was intimately acquainted with and heavily influenced by all the ideas of the leading literary figures of her time. As a result, Frankenstein is nothing more than a conglomeration of other’s ideas. Some of the works where she obtained her ideas from were John Milton’s Paradise Lost where she modelled the “creature” after the character Satan; Caleb Williams by William Godwin where she adopted the theme of perilous knowledge; and the Promethean Legend, where she found her scientist, Frankenstein, who is a modern Prometheus. It is evident therefore, that Mary Shelley derived many of her ideas for Frankenstein from other literary works, and as a result, we should not give her any credit.

The most influential work on Mary Shelley is the epic poem Paradise Lost by John Milton. Not only does she dedicate the epigraph of her novel to this book, but also incorporates many aspects of it into Frankenstein, none less by having the poem as one of the books that the “monster” reads during his education. Other less obvious instances can be seen by drawing parallels between the two novels. In Paradise Lost, Satan’s jealousy after spying on Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden can be likened to the “creature”’s envy after watching the De Laceys through the aperture in the wall. The quiet contentment of the cottagers remind the “creature” of his eternal misery while Adam’s and Eve’s happiness reminds Satan of his eternal pain and isolation. “Imparadis’t in one another’s arms…while I to/Hell am thrust” reflects Satan while hiding in Eden. It was then that he decides to tempt Adam and Eve into sin, unable to bear the inequity of the situation. In Frankenstein, the “creature” experiences a similar torment while watching the