Influence of Mary Shelley's life on Frankenstein Since its publication in 1818, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein has grown to become a name associated with horror and science fiction . To fully understand the importance and origin of this novel, we must look both at the tragedies of Mary Shelley's past and at her own origins. Only then can we begin to examine what the "Frankenstein" icon has become in today's society. Mary Godwin was born in London in 1797 to the famous philosopher William Godwin and the noted feminist and author Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin. Shortly after Mary's birth, her mother died of complications from childbirth, and this event set the stage for the strained relationship between Mary and her father. Godwin blamed Mary for her mother's death and placed her in the care of her unqualified stepmother, who favored her own children and forced Mary to do tedious housework. Godwin felt that punishing Mary would satisfy his grief, and as a result Mary retreated to her studies. Her talent for writing is believed to have saved her from premature suicide. Perhaps as an attempt to be accepted by her father, Mary immersed herself in her father's literary studies and intellectual conversations with other philosophers. She attempted to compete with her mother's legacy by continually writing. It was reported that Mary's "attempts to compete with her dead mother reached obsessive proportions by the time she turned seventeen." "When Mary was seventeen," writes Samuel Rosenburg, "she began carrying her books and writing materials to the nearby church of Old St. Pancras, where her parents had married and where her mother was buried. There, sitting in the cemetery behind the church, the...... middle of paper......scientific fiction Many other versions arose from this novel, each of them the legendary novel by nineteen-year-old Mary Shelley.Works Cited Florescu, Radu. Finding Frankenstein. Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1975. Glut, Donald F. The Language of Frankenstein: A Homage to Mary Shelley and Boris Karloff: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1973. Shelley, Mary London: Puffin Books, 1818. Rosenburg, Samuel. "Happy 150th dear Frankenstein", Life, 15 March 1968. taken from "The Life of Mary Shelley" online: http://www.desert-fairy.com/. life.shtml Works consulted http: //www.mountwashingtonvalley.com/frankenstein/http://www.cityu.edu.hk/ls/research/frankenstein/http://www.frankensteinwaxmuseum.comhttp://www.rrfrankenstein.comhttp https://www .godsandmonsters.net