A Shadow of Darkness: The Early Life of Mary Shelly

A detailed Summary of A Shadow of Darkness: The Early Life of Mary Shelly

"It's alive!!!" These are just some of the words that come to mind when

you think of classic horror writing. I hear you asking yourself, "Just who wrote

those famous words?" The answer, Mary Shelly. She is one of the masters of the

genre of gothic horror. This isn't just by chance. Mary's life was a total mess

from the beginning to the end. Because of these traumatic events she was to cast

such a darkness on her writing, which has never again been recreated in

First off, ever since Mary Shelly's birth, her life was to be disseminated

with death. "In some ways the death of Mary's mother was one of the lowest

points in her childhood life" (Great Writers of the English Language 3). with her

mother dead she was very lonely, this was because her father didn't give her the

love and security that a child needs. In her book, Frankenstein, there is a direct

correlation with this event in her life. In the story Mary tells of the monster,

herself, and how it kills it's creator's wife. This, in turn, would be it's mother.

Thus creating a situation for the monster with no mother.

Next, when Mary turned the age of sixteen years she meet a man. This

man, who went by the name Shelly, took a liking to Mary. This was even so

conception, she loved all her children very much. After her first child's death

being, after some searching, the rolling hills of France. This was a significant

world. Mary and Shelly's next baby was to fair a better life. He was born in

Weather she intentionally, or subliminally correlated her life's events with the

was granted a loan by a very, very close relative of Mary's. This seemed to be

same, we yet again see Mary playing the role of the monster, and something else

unblemished health record, that was, of course, until Mary allowed her child,

was chased about the community. The villagers chased the monster, planning on

none other than a nice gesture, but those people would be wrong. "Mr. Godwin

deed was part of a plan, yet again, to destroy the relationship between Mary and

from bailiffs. If the Bailiffs were to find out where Shelly was hiding, they

Mary, it had a consequential affect in her life. These events are what led me to

woods. Also, another interesting fact that appeared to me in my research was

not one that many people would exactly call advantageous. There were many

Approximate Word count = 1243
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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