Mary Shelley seems to pull her own experiences from childhood into the writing of Victor's background, which is the topic of this chapter. Mary Shelley came from a family of half siblings and a stepmother; Victor's family includes his two brothers and an adopted "cousin" Elizabeth. Mary's mother and Victor's mother also share an interest in visiting the poor. The care for the poor and the uneducated was a theme in Mary Wollestonecraft's life. Also, note that Elizabeth's mother and Mary's died during childbirth.
While on a summer visit to Lake Como, near Milan, Italy, Caroline comes upon a poor family who has five children to feed and little income. Mary's own mother was a champion of the poor and this autobiographical concept of her own life made its way into this novel. Caroline offers to take a girl child and adopt her for their own. The poor family reluctantly gives this adopted child, Elizabeth Lavenza, to the Frankenstein family. Elizabeth is almost the same age as Victor and described as "none could behold her without looking at her as a distinct species, as being heaven-sent, and bearing a celestial stamp in all her features."
Elizabeth is a beautiful and striking child."Her mother was a German and had died on giving her birth," much like Mary Shelley's own mother, Mary Wollestonecraft, had done. Elizabeth is seen not as a mere orphan, but as a child the Frankenstein's had wanted for their own. Victor sees Elizabeth as a "pretty present" from his parents. Victor tells how Elizabeth was so much more than family to him; she was "more than sister, since till death she was to be mine only." These words have a true, ominous ring to them later in the novel.
