 With the rise of feminist literary criticism in the 1970s , Mary Shelley 's works , particularly Frankenstein , began to attract much more attention from scholars . Feminist and psychoanalytic critics were largely responsible for the recovery from neglect of Shelley as a writer . Ellen Moers was one of the first to claim that Shelley 's loss of a baby was a crucial influence on the writing of Frankenstein . She argues that the novel is a " birth myth " in which Shelley comes to terms with her guilt for causing her mother 's death as well as for failing as a parent . Shelley scholar Anne K. Mellor suggests that , from a feminist viewpoint , it is a story " about what happens when a man tries to have a baby without a woman ... [ Frankenstein ] is profoundly concerned with natural as opposed to unnatural modes of production and reproduction " . Victor Frankenstein 's failure as a " parent " in the novel has been read as an expression of the anxieties which accompany pregnancy , giving birth , and particularly maternity . 
