Victor Frankenstein and his brothers, Ernest and William, are encouraged to seek a greater understanding of the world through science. As a young boy, Victor is obsessed with studying outdated theories that focus on simulating natural wonders. When Victor is four years old, his parents adopt an orphan, Elizabeth Lavenza, with whom Victor later falls in love. Witnessing a lightning strike on an oak tree inspires Victor to harness its power for his experiments. Weeks before he leaves for the University of Ingolstadt in gery, his mother dies of scarlet fever, creating further impetus towards his experiments. At university, he excels at chemistry and other sciences, soon developing a secret technique to reanimate dead tissue, which eventually leads to his creation of the Monster. (Excerpt from Wikipedia)
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (née Godwin; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818). She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her father was the political philosopher William Godwin, and her mother was the philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. (Wikipedia)