Identity And Intimacy In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Professor Sherry Ginn goes through the psychosocial perspective of Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. She discusses Mary's life before and after Frankenstein using Erik Erickson’s theory of psychosocial development. She contends that Mary’s life can be understood by her failures in two crises, those of identity and intimacy. Based on Mary’s upbringing and childhood this seems very likely, it’s almost as if she lived her life through Frankenstein. There are several sources that Professor Ginn uses to support this theory, along with others who agree. Mary Shelly’s failures of identity and intimacy, translated into the book we have today known as Frankenstein.
Professor Sherry Ginn obtained both her MA (1984) and PhD (1988) in General-Experimental
Later she eloped with a man who would become one of the greatest poets in the English romantic tradition. Although she published many works on her own, she was best known for the work she did as the literary executor for her husband. While we know her as the author of Frankenstein, many at the time believed that Percy Shelly had written it and simply published it under her name. Ginn believes that Mary meeting Percy gave her a sense of identity, more then she had by being the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin. He molded her into the wife he wanted; he created her similar to the way Victor Frankenstein created the Creature. By the time she had finished the book it concluded just as her life until that point had concluded. She had rejected Percy after the death of her baby William, and it made her life misery. Some have speculated that guilt motivated her to continue to publish and perfect Percy’s work. Stuart Curran, in his piece about Mary Shelly agrees. He writes that, “The conjunction of the works suggests a self-assured young writer assuming a professional identity.” As the book was in its final chapter Mary had finally developed to the point that she now was her own being, her own