Dear Reader,
I decided to chose Mary Shelley as the topic of my research project for the simple reason of wanting to dig deeper into the great woman who inspired not only a generation of writers, but who single handily caused me to read countless hours on end. The first time I read Frankenstein, I absolutely fell in love with the novel. The story was so rich with many different themes that all meshed together, the language was challenging and new and the astonishing detailed depiction of the scenery overwhelmed my passion while reading. If you haven't already noticed, I was extremely excited to take on the challenge of researching Mary Shelley in order to get a better understanding of how the woman's life experiences intertwined with the novel. Additionally as she was a female writer in a mainly male dominant time, I found it very interesting how her work maintained a high standards.
When beginning my research there where a few details I had already acquired about Mary Shelley. Having read her novel I knew she was very young when she wrote Frankenstein and that she had come from a family of writers. The basic structure of her life in very broad points where familiar to me, however much of the tragedy was left out in the small biography in the novel cover. I knew much more about the novel itself then about Mary Shelley's life, as I had read the novel several times and with each gaining a little more knowledge and insight into possible meaning in the novel. Mary Shelley was one of the few writers who's life I hadn't studied, yet I knew she was one of the greatest British female writers of her age.
My biggest question I for this research project was, how Mary Shelley's life interacted with the plot of her famous novel Frankenstein? Questions such as, what other themes of the ages were particularly represented in the novel and for what purpose and In what way did her work influence history, tagged along side the biggest question. Lastly I wanted to uncover how the image and story had been changed from its literary work and to what effect was that the reason Mary Shelley's novel is known world wide.
For my research the most helpful sources to get me started were documentaries about Mary Shelley's life. Some of these were rather short but provided to be a good bases for my research, while others where longer and described more about her works then her life. Each documentary provided me with a little different and more detailed guide of Mary's life and work's. Other resources that where handy in my research were online databases from which I could read essays and biographies to search for the answered to my questions. Some websites where also particularly helpful in cataloging Mary's life and how parts would be reflected in her literature.
Through my research I learned that not only was Mary Shelley a great female write of her time, that she was part of the beginning of the horror industry, but also that she was the creator of the genre Science Fiction. Her life's work was carried on throughout history even if he name has been forgotten on occasions. Her writing inspired hundreds of expansions on her own work as well as in the field of science fiction. She overcame so many tragedies in her life and still managed to keep such a high state of rank and remembrance not only based on her tragedies.
The research made a big difference in the way I look at novel now, because I never fully realized how much of someones life and history could be reflected in literary pieces. Not only is it reflected but it is also of significant importance to the work as a whole, even more when tied together with the developments of that age. Mary Shelley has changed changed our world and without her our literature and even our culture would not be the same.
Sincerely,
Nicole Telega
I decided to chose Mary Shelley as the topic of my research project for the simple reason of wanting to dig deeper into the great woman who inspired not only a generation of writers, but who single handily caused me to read countless hours on end. The first time I read Frankenstein, I absolutely fell in love with the novel. The story was so rich with many different themes that all meshed together, the language was challenging and new and the astonishing detailed depiction of the scenery overwhelmed my passion while reading. If you haven't already noticed, I was extremely excited to take on the challenge of researching Mary Shelley in order to get a better understanding of how the woman's life experiences intertwined with the novel. Additionally as she was a female writer in a mainly male dominant time, I found it very interesting how her work maintained a high standards.
When beginning my research there where a few details I had already acquired about Mary Shelley. Having read her novel I knew she was very young when she wrote Frankenstein and that she had come from a family of writers. The basic structure of her life in very broad points where familiar to me, however much of the tragedy was left out in the small biography in the novel cover. I knew much more about the novel itself then about Mary Shelley's life, as I had read the novel several times and with each gaining a little more knowledge and insight into possible meaning in the novel. Mary Shelley was one of the few writers who's life I hadn't studied, yet I knew she was one of the greatest British female writers of her age.
My biggest question I for this research project was, how Mary Shelley's life interacted with the plot of her famous novel Frankenstein? Questions such as, what other themes of the ages were particularly represented in the novel and for what purpose and In what way did her work influence history, tagged along side the biggest question. Lastly I wanted to uncover how the image and story had been changed from its literary work and to what effect was that the reason Mary Shelley's novel is known world wide.
For my research the most helpful sources to get me started were documentaries about Mary Shelley's life. Some of these were rather short but provided to be a good bases for my research, while others where longer and described more about her works then her life. Each documentary provided me with a little different and more detailed guide of Mary's life and work's. Other resources that where handy in my research were online databases from which I could read essays and biographies to search for the answered to my questions. Some websites where also particularly helpful in cataloging Mary's life and how parts would be reflected in her literature.
Through my research I learned that not only was Mary Shelley a great female write of her time, that she was part of the beginning of the horror industry, but also that she was the creator of the genre Science Fiction. Her life's work was carried on throughout history even if he name has been forgotten on occasions. Her writing inspired hundreds of expansions on her own work as well as in the field of science fiction. She overcame so many tragedies in her life and still managed to keep such a high state of rank and remembrance not only based on her tragedies.
The research made a big difference in the way I look at novel now, because I never fully realized how much of someones life and history could be reflected in literary pieces. Not only is it reflected but it is also of significant importance to the work as a whole, even more when tied together with the developments of that age. Mary Shelley has changed changed our world and without her our literature and even our culture would not be the same.
Sincerely,
Nicole Telega