'Frankenstein' by Mary Shelley

Mary Godwin came up with the idea for Frankenstein one night whilst staying with Lord Byron and Percy Shelley in Geneva. As those in his company were authors, Lord Byron suggested a ghost writing contest to pass the time, and thus Mary Shelley came up with the idea for Frankenstein. Initially the contest was only supposed to be of a short story, but Percy Shelley convinced her to adapt it into a full novel. When Frankenstein was originally published there was no name connected to it, which caused much speculation as to whether the book was actually written by Mary Shelley. 

The title of the book 'Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus', is one of the first things that the reader sees when they open the book. This implants the idea of 'playing God' into the mind of the reader from the outset of the novel, and also creates a link between the character of Frankenstein and Prometheus, thus causing the reader's opinion to already be a negative one. The myth of Prometheus tells the story of how Prometheus stole fire from the Gods, but by taking this power he was punished by being chained to a rock and having his liver pecked out by an eagle by day and have it grow back by night. Having Frankenstein tied to this myth from the outset foreshadows the eventual actions and fate of the titular character. 

The novel deals with numerous themes, each of which have a significant place within the plot. The themes which stand out the most to me are; women/mothers - or more specifically the lack of them in the novel-the lack of mothers in the plot is the key theme that brings the Creature to life, along with Frankenstein's need to 'play God'. The absence of a mother is seen to be the reason behind the violent behaviour of the Creature, and as to why Frankenstein decided on creating him in the first place due to his want to re-animate life after his mother's death. Another important theme is death; with the Creature being made from death and also causing death to those around him, which is also a symmetry with Frankenstein's life. The final theme I found to be important was sexuality. This theme does connect with the theme of mothers and how Frankenstein wanted to make a life without the need for a woman. He also makes excuses to not marry Elizabeth right away, and finds ways to not include her where he does include Henry Clerval- which could be him avoiding his sexuality and trying to fit in with the society in the novel.