‘I want my mummy’

The face that only a mother can love: Maybe Frankenstein would not have been such a monster if he had had a mummy to tuck him into bed. — AP

MOTHERHOOD is getting considerable attention, even if much of the news is concerning. Fertility rates are falling in America as millennials decide not to have children. This should hardly come as a surprise. The cost of raising a child to adulthood has been increasing and real median household income has only just regained its 1999 level.

At this time, when it could be argued that maternity is in decline, Mary Shelley’s classic work of literature, Frankenstein, celebrating its 200th anniversary this year, invites us to reflect on the deeper importance of mothers in our lives.