The chilling visual loop between a painter's toxic heartbreak and the ultimate scene in Frankenstein

In 1781, Swiss artist Henry Fuseli was obsessively rejected by his crush, Anna Landholdt. Consumed by rage, he channeled his despair straight into his canvas, creating the legendary Gothic masterpiece The Nightmare—which depicts a grotesque demon sitting heavily on a sleeping woman’s chest.

Decades later, a teenage Mary Shelley took that exact visual blueprint and used it to frame the foundational climax of modern horror: the monster's wedding-night murder of Elizabeth Lavenza. The text of the book and the layout of the canvas match identically. It's a gorgeous, tragic artistic loop.