Nightmare by Henri Fuseli, 1782. click on image to go back

This image has been analyzed in numerous ways in reference to its jumpstart of the Gothic movement in art, but also for its meaning in reference to his life and his relationship with the Godwins, including Mary Shelley. When this painting was first exhibited, "Painting was meant to be uplifting--heroic historical subjects, picturesque landscapes, flattering portraits of aristocracy (or in other words, pastoral). But Fuseli's painting suggested strange powers we can neither fully understand nor control" (Brown, par. 3).

When I first viewed this painting, I believed it to be a statement on Mary Wollstonecraft's attempt to keep herself in Fuseli's life with the platonic menage a trois. I thought the incubus and the horse (given it's more feminine nature) represented Fuseli and his bride Sophia respectively, and the woman represented Wollstonecraft, but the painting came eight years too soon for this to be possible. Although this site tells of a second version of The Nightmare being introduced in 1790!

This same painting was also analyzed as being related to a dream of Victor's in Frankenstein. It has been said that the "eyeless horse (though Brown believes his eyes are wide open) that is peering through the bed-curtains resembles the Monster's appearance at the end of Victor's dream" (Tropp, 2).

More interestingly, it has been claimed that the death of Elizabeth, is based on this painting. The descriptions of Elizabeth dead on the bed match the orientation of the woman in the painting. Also, it's said that Mary is purposely presenting to us Victor's fear of sexuality again (Mellor, 121), (see Wollstonecraft). This particular analysis of this painting supports my argument that Shelley did want to provide a statement about her mother's support of sexual freedom which I've said challenged the ideas on sexuality during Mary Shelley's life.