Safie=Mary Shelley

                   As I have mentioned, the novel Frankenstein incorporates aspects of Mary Shelley’s life. In class, we had discussed Mary Shelley’s connection to Margaret Saville since they “coincidentally” shared the same initials, M.S. However, I felt that Mary Shelley had a more deep connection to Safie, Felix’s new bride. Safie like Shelley had a profound connection with her independent mother who eventually died. Safie’s mother “instructed her daughter in the tenets of her religion, and taught her to aspire higher powers of intellect, and an independence of spirit, forbidden to the female followers of Mahomet” which resembles to Mary Wollenscraft’s pro-feminist views (110). Also, Safie’s decision to marry Felix despite her father’s opposition strongly resembles to Mary’s marriage to poet, Percy Shelley.  (Mary married Percy which resulted in an estrangement between Mary and her father.) Safie marries Felix for love but also because of “the prospect of marrying a Christian, and remaining in a country where women were allowed to take a rank in society” (110). She was simply intrigued by the rights she could obtain by moving into this country. In my opinion, Safie seems to desire independence more than her love for Felix because of her mother’s powerful guidance. However, she does indeed love Felix as well since she even defies her father to “arrive in safety at the cottage of her lover (113). It can be said that her dangerous journey to Germany symbolizes her first steps toward independence. Shelley’s marriage as well seems to signify her desire for independence. Shelley elopes with Percy at the age of 16 despite the fact that he is married and both parents strongly forbid their matrimony. It seems likely to me that Mary defied her family in order to discover her self-identity. Shelley disliked her stepmother, Mary Jane Clairmont, who objected to Mary’s education and was jealous of the relationship between Mary and her father. Therefore, Shelley was forced to remain at home under the watchful eyes of her step-mother. Mary, who greatly respected and loved her biological mother, recognized her duty to her mother which led her to make this drastic decision. (Her mother’s wish was for Mary to become an assertive woman which her father failed to fulfill.) Mary and Safie both chose to listen to the advice of their strong willed mothers presenting themselves as an opposite of passive women. The last similarity I noticed was that both women were strongly encouraged by their respective husbands. Felix symbolizes as a door of endless possibilities to Safie because he can offer her freedom she desperately wants. For instance, he encourages her freedom by helping her father escape prison so he can make her his bride. He even faces great dangers for Safie despite the devastating consequences he receives.  He further encourages Safie by persuading her to “learn their language” helping her to become an educated woman as well (105). Percy Shelley displays his great support by encouraging Mary to write the novel Frankenstein. Percy was well aware of Mary’s outstanding talent so he taught her that writing can be the means of expressing independence and creativity. Both Safie and Mary Shelley value feminism but the strong presence of men in their lives contributes to their self-discovery.

Frankenstein: A Revelation of Mary Shelley's Life

            Mary Shelley was born to the great writers, William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, which most likely gave her an innate skill for literature. She did indeed justify this assumption by releasing her book Frankenstein to the public. The novel Frankenstein was praised for its revelation on human nature such as unjust society, danger of knowledge, birth and creation and the overreacher. Some might wonder how a young woman could come up with such themes that still mystify and surprise readers. Fortunately, I believe I have the answer. A look into Mary Shelley’s life raises a great deal of connections between her and her famous novel.

                Mary Shelley’s birth serves as a connection to the theme of birth and creation. Mary Shelley’s mother died 11 days after the birth of Mary leaving her to lose an important female parental figure. Therefore, Mary Shelley seems to emphasize the significant role of women in the process of birth and creation. She reveals her admiration for a female parental figure when she describes Victor’s mother. Victor states that “my mother’s tender caresses and my father’s smile of benevolent nature pleasured while regarding, are my first recollections” (29). The admiring tone and diction of “my mother’s tender caresses” reflects Mary’s nostalgic emotions toward motherhood and quite possibly a yearning for a mother’s love (29). Also, she further romanticizes the role of a mother by depicting the death of Victor’s mother as pure and angelic. She states that Victor’s mom “died calmly and her countenance expressed affection even in death” (38). Maybe Shelley was imagining her own mother’s death which led her to incorporate an angelic tone in the depiction. Also, Shelley must have wanted to imagine her mother as a beautiful creature and not a woman who died so tragically. Shelley’s feelings towards her mother’s death is also portrayed in Victor’s quote “It is so long before the mind can persuade itself that she, whom we saw every day, and whose very existence appeared a part of our own, can have departed for ever -- that the brightness of beloved eye can have been extinguished, and the sound of a voice so familiar, and dear to the ear, can be hushed, never more to be heard” (39).  This quote is embodied with such passionate emotions of grief and sadness which most likely infers that Shelley was sharing her intimate feelings.

                Another vital person in Shelley’s life is her husband Percy Shelley who depicts the theme, overreacher. Here’s a brief story: Mary and Percy Shelley fell in love in 1814 despite the fact that Percy was already married. They went through great adversities such as estrangements from both parents, miscarriages, and the suicides of their loved ones. Anyhow, Percy is incorporated in the novel due to the fact that he is an overreacher. Percy first showed these tendencies when he secretly published a writing on atheism. In his writing, he berated God which was extremely radical in 19^th century England. What is ironic is that Mary implies in her novel that Victor’s attempt to play God is misguided when her own husband is condescending toward God. Most importantly, the death of Percy hints the consequences of being an overreacher. Percy drowned when his boat sunk during a storm which is coincidentally similar to Walton’s voyage. Percy was traveling to meet a fellow writer in order to establish a radical magazine which reflects his overbearing dreams and selfish tendencies as well.(He left Mary when she had just suffered a miscarriage) This strongly connects to Walton again since Walton abandons his family for a journey “to unexplored regions” (18). Finally, Mary reiterates her point by presenting herself as Margaret Saville in the hopes of cautioning readers of this theme. For instance, she states as Margaret that Walton’s enterprise is of “evil forebodings”.

            One must admit that Shelley has brilliantly incorporated herself in the novel in such a surreptitious way. Yet, the fact that Shelley’s life is reflected in this book is a sad reminder that she did not have a happy ending after all.

The Common Dilemma

Countless writers love to address the issue of society’s obsession with appearances. Even Abraham Lincoln states that “Character is like a tree and reputation its shadow. The shadow is what we think it is and the tree is the real thing.” So of course, a great writer like Mary Shelley brings up this point even from the beginning of her prominent novel Frankenstein.

It is evident that the creature in Frankenstein suffers from severe ostracism due to his “unusual appearance”. Every person he encounters runs away from fright or berates him when they behold his not-so-normal features. (He’s eight feet tall and made of decaying body parts!) One over-the-top reaction to the creature’s appearance comes ironically from his creator, Victor. Upon seeing the creation for the first time, Victor states that “breathless horror and disgust filled [his] heart” (Shelley 51).  What makes his reaction more dramatic is that he runs away from his own creation and falls into a “nervous fever, which confined [him] for several months” (55).From this, we can definitely infer that Victor is overreacting since the creature who had “a grin wrinkled [to] his cheeks” at that time obviously did not pose as a great danger (52). As a result of society’s unjust bias, the creature becomes isolated, spurned by the De Laceys and even gets shot for saving a girl’s life. All of these extreme events lead to the creature’s realization that he will be truly alone in this world. However, there is good news for the creature: he is not alone. There is a special individual who isolates himself to conceal his deformed face, The Phantom. 

            As many people know The Phantom is the main character of the famous book/musical The Phantom of the Opera. The Phantom serves as an epitome of an isolated being who is driven to “unconventional” acts. (I must admit that I am euphemizing his actions since most people consider his acts as insane.) One instance, he murders a man and displays his body in front of a crowd who were just simply trying to enjoy an opera! Yes, I’m not kidding but thankfully he too has a pretty good reason for his unscrupulous acts. The Phantom also known as Erik was born with a deformed face which even aroused disgust from his own mother. Like the creature, the Phantom is abandoned by his own parent and is led to believe that his appearance is of cursed ugliness” (Leroux). The Phantom faces even more adversities when he joins a circus. The circus takes advantage of the naïve Phantom and locks him in a cage where he is displayed to the audience. At the circus he is treated like an animal which destroys his self-esteem and his sense of morality. He eventually escapes the circus and makes the Paris Opera House his home fully aware that society will reject him. He creates a lair in the Opera House and conceals his face with a mask driving him into deeper isolation.

            Despite the revelation that the creature and the Phantom share the same dilemma, they are both destined to an unhappy ending. (The creature decides to kill himself and the Phantom is forced to let go of his love). Hence, it can be assumed that Shelley and Leroux employed these two characters to represent society’s unjust bias towards people who are simply different. Also, they are alluding to the assumption that this bias is a cycle of human nature since we are still cursed by this oppressing issue.