4.1.2

Loss & Maternal Anxiety

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Loss and Maternal Anxiety

Mary Shelley experienced a great deal of loss in her family.

Percy Shelley

Percy Shelley

  • At 15 years old, Mary met Percy Shelley, a 19-year-old poet who was similarly liberal in his politics, creative and charismatic but was married.
  • Love blossomed between them and in 1814, when Mary was 16, they fled to Europe and Percy abandoned his wife.
Tragedy

Tragedy

  • One year later, Mary gave birth to her first child who sadly died after a few days.
  • Tragedy followed the couple in the preceding years, with Mary’s half-sister Fanny committing suicide and Percy’s wife, Harriet, also taking her own life after being so heartbroken from his abandonment.
  • This all happened between 1816 and 1818 which is the period in which Mary was writing Frankenstein.
Critical acclaim

Critical acclaim

  • After its publication, Mary Shelley was not able to enjoy the critical acclaim the book received.
  • Most people believed that her husband had written the novel; strengthened by the fact he wrote the preface.
Troubles

Troubles

  • Many years of troubles followed with rumours of Percy’s infidelity, a miscarriage, the death of two more children soon after birth and financial difficulties.
  • Then in 1822, when Mary was 24 years old, Percy died in a boating accident in Italy.
  • She was left a widow with one surviving child, Percy Florence.
Mourning

Mourning

  • She spent the rest of her life writing to support her child, never able to repeat the success of Frankenstein.
  • On a more Gothic note, she spent the rest of her life mourning the death of Percy, refusing to remarry and instead carried his heart around in her handbag for the rest of her life after a friend recovered it from his funeral pyre.
Death

Death

  • Mary died at the age of 53 from a brain tumour in 1851.

Loss Influencing Frankenstein

Some critics have argued that the novel is about the anxieties Shelley had from the death of her firstborn child.

Significance of the narrative

Significance of the narrative

  • This may be why the Monster’s narrative is placed in the ‘womb’ of the novel and the theme of abandonment is such a key issue to the text.
Mary Shelley's Diary

Mary Shelley's Diary

  • Shelley even wrote in her diary of the death of her child, two years before writing Frankenstein: 'I awoke in the night to give it suck it appeared to be sleeping so quietly that I would not awake it’, yet in the morning she writes ‘Find my baby dead’.
Blame and dreams

Blame and dreams

  • She blamed herself for the child’s death, believing she was becoming ill because of the milk in her breasts.
  • She writes that her sleep becomes troubled, stating ‘Dream that my little baby came to life again; that it had only been cold, and that we rubbed it before the fire, and it lived. Awake and find no baby’.
Parallels to Victor's dream

Parallels to Victor's dream

  • This dream is comparable to Victor’s dream in Chapter 5 after he has created the Monster.
    • He dreams of death and yet wakes to find his creation still lives, whereas Shelley’s dream is sadly reversed.
Jump to other topics
1

Narrative Structure

1.1

Narrative Structure

1.1.1Narrative Structure1.1.2Narrative Distancing1.1.3End of Topic Test - Narrative Structure
2

Character Summaries

2.1

Walton & Frankenstein

2.1.1Walton2.1.2Victor Frankenstein2.1.3End of Topic Test - Walton & Frankenstein
2.2

The Monster

2.2.1The Monster2.2.2The Monster 22.2.3End of Topic Test - The Monster
2.3

Elizabeth, Justine & Henry

2.3.1Elizabeth Lavenza2.3.2Justine Moritz2.3.3Henry Clerval2.3.4End of Topic Test - Elizabeth, Justine & Henry
2.4

Families & Other Characters

2.4.1The Frankenstein Family2.4.2The De Lacey Family2.4.3Other Characters2.4.4End of Topic Test - Families & Other Characters
3

Intertextuality & Allusions

3.1

Intertextual References

3.1.1The Modern Prometheus3.1.2The Rime of the Ancient Mariner3.1.3The Bible3.1.4Mutability & Tintern Abbey3.1.5End of Topic Test - Intertextual References
3.2

Philosophical & Scientific Theories

3.2.1Edmund Burke3.2.2Thomas Paine3.2.3John Locke3.2.4Jean-Jacques Rousseau3.2.5Historical Figures3.2.6End of Topic Test - Philosophy & Science Theories
4

Biographic Context

4.1

Biographic Context

4.1.1Shelley's Parents4.1.2Loss & Maternal Anxiety4.1.3Literary Legend4.1.4End of Topic Test - Biographical Context
5

Chapter Summaries

5.1

Letters

5.1.1Letters 1 & 25.1.2Letters 3 & 45.1.3End of Topic Test - Letters
5.2

Chapters

5.2.1Chapters 1-25.2.2Chapters 3-45.2.3Chapters 5-65.2.4Chapters 7-95.2.5Chapters 10-115.2.6Chapters 12-155.2.7Chapters 16-195.2.8Chapters 20-235.2.9Chapter 24 & Walton’s Last Letters5.2.10End of Topic Test - Chapters 1-65.2.11End of Topic Test - Chapters 7-155.2.12End of Topic Test - Chapters 16-235.2.13End of Topic Test - Chapter 24 & Walton's Letters
6

Key Themes

6.1

Key Themes

6.1.1Curiosity & Knowledge6.1.2Science & Society6.1.3Loss & Companionship6.1.4Connection to Nature6.1.5Injustice
6.2

Key Locations

6.2.1Extreme Landscapes6.2.2Industrialised University Cities6.2.3End of Topic Test - Key Themes & Locations
7

Recap: Main Quotes

7.1

Characters Quotes

7.1.1Walton - Quotations7.1.2Victor Frankenstein - Quotations7.1.3The Monster - Quotations7.1.4The Educational Texts - Quotations7.1.5Elizabeth Lavenza - Quotations7.1.6Justine Moritz - Quotations7.1.7Henry Clerval - Quotations7.1.8Alphonse Frankenstein - Quotations7.1.9The De Lacey Family - Quotations
7.2

Quotes by Chapters

7.2.1Letters 1 & 2 - Quotations7.2.2Letters 3 & 4 - Quotations7.2.3Chapters 1-6 - Quotations7.2.4Chapters 7-13 - Quotations7.2.5Chapters 14-20 - Quotations7.2.6Chapters 21-24 & Waton's Last Letters - Quotations

Practice questions on Loss & Maternal Anxiety

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  1. 1
    What losses did Mary and Percy Shelley experience between 1816 and 1818? True / false
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Shelley's Parents

Literary Legend