Birth, death, and recreation: An archetypical interpretation of Mary Shelley's waking vision

Author

Irish-Ann Burch, Belmont University

Periodical Title

Modern Psychological Studies

Volume

1

Number

2

Page Numbers

pages 49-53

Department

Dept. of Psychology

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Date

1993

Abstract

Mary Shelly, the author of Frankenstein (Shelley, 1831), experienced a waking vision, leading to the creation of Frankenstein. Using Jungian theory, the characters in Frankenstein can be understood as projections of Mary's repressed feelings. These projections occurred because of Mary's strong identification with the mother archetype, consisting of 1) the maternal element and 2) the Eros. Mary had a hypertrophy (exaggerated identification) of the maternal element and a strong identification with the Eros, due to the early death of her mother and the later deaths of her three children. These events combined to produce Mary's unique personality development and her creation of Frankenstein.

Subject

Psychology

Discipline

Psychology

Document Type

article

DCMI Type

Text

Extent

5 leaves

Language

English

Call Number

BF1 .M63 v. 1 no. 2 1993

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Recommended Citation

Burch, Irish-Ann (1993) "Birth, death, and recreation: An archetypical interpretation of Mary Shelley's waking vision," Modern Psychological Studies: Vol. 1: No. 2, Article 9.
Available at: https://scholar.utc.edu/mps/vol1/iss2/9