When Cindy Porter was twenty five, a single mother, and living in the projects of Philadelphia she wrote a novel. Her novel was a story about a teenage boy who had grown up in poverty. The boy's daily confrontations with the hardships of his own life proved him to be incapable of dealing with such matters as he slipped into destructive patterns at school, home, and on the streets. From the known facts about Cindy Porter, it can be assumed that the novel played off of her fears and daily experiences of living in the projects of a major city. Just as it can be seen that Cindy's life and time influenced her writing, many ideals in Mary Shelley's life can be connected with themes in her classic novel Frankenstein. Abandonment, Romanticism, and parenting are all themes that were a part of Mary Shelley's life and highly influential in her writing of Frankenstein.

A theme of abandonment by women is exhibited not only in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, but in her own life as well. Just after Mary Shelley's birth, her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, died of complications from the childbirth. Mary was left, disastrously, without a female role model (Bloom 15). Her great loss can be seen played out

In Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein can be seen most explicitly as "the modern Prometheus." Once intoxicated by the idea of creating a true being, Victor, like Prometheus, will stop at nothing. Even the prospect of his own destruction does not stop Frankenstein from chasing his dreams. Above all, he sees his pursuit of "forbidden fire" or, in this case, artificial man as wholly virtuous and inoculated from criticism. The Promethean fever causes Victor to be dangerously out of touch with reality through the misuse of imagination and creativity. Just as Prometheus is tortured and put to an end by Zeus, Frankenstein's eventual death is a direct result of his creation of the creature. Victor Frankenstein is often referred to as the "modern Prometheus", as related in the subtitle, due to the obvious ties of ultimate downfall he has with the Prometheus legend (Florescu 85).

Clearly, Mary's dream was her inspiration for her novel Frankenstein, but the true merit of the story is found not in the plot, but in the themes she was able to incorporate. She let her life influence her writing. Mary's past, present, and fears of the future are all illustrated graphically in Frankenstein. The personal touch helps to give Mary depth as a young writer and surely is a sizable reason for the novel's success (Cazacu 24).

The monster is motherless as well. Victor in male pride takes the role of the mother and the father of his creation. The Monster's introduction to the female comes through the peek hole of a hovel in the De Lacey house. Even with the De Lacey family however, the mother is absent. It seems rather obvious that having been denied female companionship, the monster would grow to yearn for it (Florescu 84)

The creature's childhood is condensed into the first few months of life. Just after its creation, it is deserted by its "father". The creature was forced to learn about life solely through its own experiences. He doesn't understand that what killing really is or even that killing is a bad thing at first. It isn't until he is secretly living with the De Lacey's that the monster has positive emotions. The De Lacey's provide the creature with an example of a loving, kind, and virtuous family. They stimulate his emotions and inspire him to do good deeds for others. In addition, the DeLacey's introduce the creature to spoken and written language. The creature even manages to acquire a small library including such books as; Paradise Lost, Lives of the Noble Romans, and The Sorrows of Werther. From Paradise Lost

In the story, Victor is raised a very spoiled child. He grows up only thinking of himself and what outcome would be the best for himself. Victor is self-taught. No one ever offers him any guidance as to what is ideally right and wrong. Therefore, Victor Frankenstein possesses a dangerously one-sided view of reality. He only knows science and other basic things found in books. Never does Victor learn morals or the social ski

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Approximate Word count = 2010
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)