Comparative Essay Sample: Elizabeth Lavenza and Mary Shelley

“Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works.” (Virginia Woolf). This is proved overwhelming throughout Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein. Elizabeth Lavenza is a character directly based on Shelley’s life, the expectations placed upon her and the family relationships she has reflect upon Shelley’s experiences and upbringing. This similarity ultimately points toward Shelley’s recurring topic of family and the lasting impact they have on one another. Elizabeth has many unrealistic expectations placed upon her, much the same as the expectations Percy Shelley put on Mary. The tragic events in Elizabeth’s life also have close ties to Shelley’s life and affected how Shelley chose to write the novel. On top of that, Elizabeth is also a light and role model to her family just the same as Mary is to hers. 

Both Elizabeth Lavenza and Mary Shelley were thought of by their families to exist solely for them. As a result of this, Elizabeth would conform to whatever she believed would make them, especially Victor, happy: “Do not answer [my letter] tomorrow, or the next day, or even until you come, if it will give you pain” (Shelley 186). Elizabeth knows what Victor wants and how he feels since she is so close to him, but that only makes it easier for her to conform to her family's expectations about how she is supposed to act. Another reason Elizabeth is stuck in her role is that everyone close to her is operating from the point of view that Victor is above Elizabeth, this leaves her with no option of just cutting off Victor and their relationship, she is required to continue being oppressed or lose her family. Another situation that is a more indirect representation of Shelley, is when Elizabeth’s mother, Caroline, died, she told Elizabeth that “my firmest hopes of future happiness were placed on the prospect of your union” (Shelley 40). Elizabeth was not allowed to choose who she spent her life with, she was almost  required to marry Victor, and her opinion was never taken into account. 

Mary Shelley’s feelings were very similar to Elizabeth’s, they just took on a different form since she was a writer, so she had to continually conform her writing to fit what Percy Shelley wanted. He would edit all her work, and even took credit for the first version of Frankenstein, publishing it under his own name. It is clear that the stuck feeling Shelley had, being under her husband’s watch, was translated into Elizabeth and her situation. Percy also continually wrote in Mary Shelley’s journal, which really wasn’t her own but a joint journal between the two. “In terms of form, a shared journal is fundamentally different to a private journal because both the text and the writing of the text is affected by the knowledge that another person, who is also participating in the compositional process, will read what is written.” (Mekler and Morrison 16). Mary Shelley was conforming to Percy’s expectations in her public writing, but also in her journal, where she should have been able to safely let out all of her feelings. Some of Percy’s entries in Mary’s journal make him look like he is trying to alter Mary’s life to how he wants it to be. Instead of letting Mary’s opinions be her own he alters them just like he edited her book.  

Other similarities between Shelley and Elizabeth revolve around their parent’s deaths. Shelley’s mom died when Shelley was a newborn, leaving her to be raised by her father, who wasn’t the motherly figure she needed at the time. 4 years after Mary Wollstonecraft died, William Godwin remarried to Mary Jane Clairmont. Mary grew up greatly disliking her stepmother, which kept bringing her back to wanting her own mother. This long to a mother led her to Elizabeth’s story, who’s parents died of scarlet fever when she was a newborn. She was then adopted by the Frankenstein family, because Caroline Beaufort had always wanted a little girl. This left Elizabeth living with a family, but not her family. Both of these events in the ladies' lives changed how they would be forever. One more relationship that reflected itself into Frankenstein, is uncommon, and distinctly came from Shelley’s life.  When Mary was growing up, her dad’s friend was Percy, who she later fell in love with and married. Elizabeth’s mom married her dad’s best friend. This is clearly a direct reflection of Shelley’s life, just the same as all of the tragic events that took place in both of their lives. 

All the devastating deaths in Mary Shelley’s life and how she was required to react to them, comforting the rest of her family, are expressed in the character Elizabeth Lavenza and what she went through with her family. Mary Shelley and Elizabeth Lavenza both had a William, who was close to them, die. Shelley’s William was her oldest surviving child, but he then contracted malaria at age three and died shortly after. Elizabeth’s William was killed by the monster, which led to Justine being framed, and was later put on trial and was found guilty. She died in jail a little while later, when Victor and Elizabeth were visiting her. Justine was one of the only people Elizabeth was around during her childhood, and her death took a toll on Elizabeth, but she had to continue supporting her family in their grief, even though she was closer to Justine than the rest of them. In a similar situation, Mary Shelley’s step-sister, Fanny,  died of an overdose when she was 22. Similar to Justine and Elizabeth’s friendship, Shelley and Fanny’s relationship was tight, and she was one of Shelley’s only close friends. Elizabeth and Shelley were also both cut off from one of their loved ones for a time period of two years. Elizabeth had no communication with Victor for the entire time he was at college, he was so self absorbed, he didn’t ever write home. And Shelley’s dad didn’t talk to her for two years after he found out that Mary and Percy were dating and pregnant. 

Throughout Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, Elizabeth Lavenza is a character directly based on Shelley’s life, the expectations placed upon her and the family relationships she has reflect upon Shelley’s experiences and upbringing. All of the tragic deaths in Mary Shelley’s life greatly impacted her writing and how violent the monster was toward the Frankenstein family. Our families play a large role in shaping us, which is proven in how often Shelley’s characters and their experiences are the same as the ones she had in her life.