It could be said that Mary Shelley’s writing was very advanced for her time, especially since she spoke about science fiction before it was a major genre. Shelley also spoke about Romanticism in Frankenstein. Her novel explored the suicide and doppelganger motifs. Although Frankenstein was one of the last Romantic works, it was also one of the first science fiction novels. Her success of Frankenstein may be due to her having drawn inspiration from her life. To this day, Shelley’s Frankenstein may be considered one of the most important contributions to the Romantic and science fiction genres.
Shelley started composing Frankenstein at age nineteen when she, her husband, Lord Byron, and John Pokidori challenged each other to write a “ghost story” …show more content…
Destruction and suicide could be said to coincide with each other since the outcomes of both would be to destroy or kill one’s self. Shelley’s father said, “we do not think clearly during episodes of self-destructive anguish, we forget that the anguish may pass and that we may, in the future, enjoy periods of ‘tranquility and pleasure’” (Sanderson 51). His words came to life when Victor sets out to destroy the creature near the end of the novel. Victor, consumed with anger and guilt from the murders and deaths of his loved ones, destroys himself by pursuing the creature to the Arctic Circle and never got to exact revenge on the creature. However, if Victor did succeed by destroying the creature, his creation, he would have destroyed a part of himself along with it. Instead, Victor dies before he can “satisfy [his] vengeance in [the creature’s] death” (Shelley 198). The creature sees that there is no point in living since his double is not alive. The creature tells Walton, “Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone” (Shelley 210). The creature has no will to go on without Victor and implies that he will destroy himself, and is the only time in the novel when suicide is explicitly
Shelley started composing Frankenstein at age nineteen when she, her husband, Lord Byron, and John Pokidori challenged each other to write a “ghost story” …show more content…
Destruction and suicide could be said to coincide with each other since the outcomes of both would be to destroy or kill one’s self. Shelley’s father said, “we do not think clearly during episodes of self-destructive anguish, we forget that the anguish may pass and that we may, in the future, enjoy periods of ‘tranquility and pleasure’” (Sanderson 51). His words came to life when Victor sets out to destroy the creature near the end of the novel. Victor, consumed with anger and guilt from the murders and deaths of his loved ones, destroys himself by pursuing the creature to the Arctic Circle and never got to exact revenge on the creature. However, if Victor did succeed by destroying the creature, his creation, he would have destroyed a part of himself along with it. Instead, Victor dies before he can “satisfy [his] vengeance in [the creature’s] death” (Shelley 198). The creature sees that there is no point in living since his double is not alive. The creature tells Walton, “Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone” (Shelley 210). The creature has no will to go on without Victor and implies that he will destroy himself, and is the only time in the novel when suicide is explicitly