Mary Shelley and Motherhood

Upon reading Mary Shelley’s brief biography I noted that her mother’s death had a huge impact on her writing. With Shelley’s mother dying shortly after her birth a void was created in her life that is reflected in her written works, Frankenstein comes to mind. Frankenstein as many know, is about a monster that has no mother or father and is rejected by its creator. This lends to the theory that Mary Shelley has some strong feelings about growing up without a mother. From the Selected Letters, the first letter to Thomas Jefferson Hogg, definitely distinguished itself as Mary Shelley dealing with pain from past and present with the idea of her mother and motherhood itself. In a strange way Shelley is experiencing a sad reversal of her birth, instead of her mother dying and Shelley living, her child dies and she lives. In the end of the letter she says, “Will you come—you are so calm a creature & Shelley is afraid of a fever from the milk--for I am no longer a mother now.” I found this to be a strange reaction to the loss of a newborn child and the strangest statement was her saying she is no longer a mother. My response to this letter is that Shelley feels motherhood to be foreign, as she did not have a mother in childhood. The quick dismissal of the title “mother” informs the reader that she was reflecting on motherhood but feels like she is separated from it now that her newborn has passed. Did anyone else think of Mary Shelley’s childhood when they read this letter?