Novels such as “Pale Horse, Pale Rider,” have demonstrated to me the power of literature as a means of confronting and recognizing one's own trauma through a fictionalized version of one’s own experience. Thus, I chose to begin my series with an image of Shelley’s painful experience of losing her first child, as this is the likely origin of her construction of her protagonist, Victor. Despite the clear flaws that Victor embodies as a parent to his monster, as an audience, we cannot help but feel a sense of understanding toward him as well. This is due to the fact that Shelley herself likely harbors feelings of guilt and or depression toward the notion of birth, thus she is able to impart these feelings to Victor. In the following piece of my series, I will explore the depths and details of Victor's failures, as well as the intergenerational impact of a parent’s traumas.
In many ways, Mary Shelley’s tale of Frankenstein is one of empathy. Shelley’s own experience of the pains of failed birth and of eventual motherhood are translated through Victor’s failed upbringing of the monster he creates as well as the guilt and responsibility he develops. Mary Shelley’s firstborn daughter survived only for a few days, and in the following summer, Shelley began to imagine her story, Frankenstein. As the first drawing in my 3-part series, this sketch of Shelley holding her newborn child closely amidst a backdrop of lightning (that which is capable of giving and taking life), represents the beginning of the trauma that Shelley will eventually work through in her novel.
Novels such as “Pale Horse, Pale Rider,” have demonstrated to me the power of literature as a means of confronting and recognizing one's own trauma through a fictionalized version of one’s own experience. Thus, I chose to begin my series with an image of Shelley’s painful experience of losing her first child, as this is the likely origin of her construction of her protagonist, Victor. Despite the clear flaws that Victor embodies as a parent to his monster, as an audience, we cannot help but feel a sense of understanding toward him as well. This is due to the fact that Shelley herself likely harbors feelings of guilt and or depression toward the notion of birth, thus she is able to impart these feelings to Victor. In the following piece of my series, I will explore the depths and details of Victor's failures, as well as the intergenerational impact of a parent’s traumas.
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