Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

1. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley • Daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft: • republican ideals • feminist: for women’s education & independence • died about 11 days after birth of Mary • and William Godwin: • egalitarian state, free of laws and gov’t, organized in small communities where individuals work and study daily • both against legalized marriage (married 5 months before Mary’s birth) 1797-1851

2. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley • published her first poem at age 11 • at 16 ran away with married Shelley to France and Switzerland • wrote Frankenstein at 19 • out of 4 children only one survived • Percy drowned in a boating accident (1822) • Mary died in 1851 • Frankenstein considered a major gothic work and the first science fiction novel • published her first poem at age 11 • at 16 ran away with married Shelley to France and Switzerland • wrote Frankenstein at 19 • out of 4 children only one survived • Percy drowned in a boating accident (1822) • Mary died in 1851 • Frankenstein considered a major gothic work and the first science fiction novel

3. Other titles: • The Last Man (1826): the end of civilization, gradual destruction of human race, seen as a “total corrosion of patriarchal order” • also: • Mathilde (1819, not pub. until 1959) • Proserpine and Midas, mythological drama (1820) • Valperga (1823) • The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck (1830), • Lodore (1835), Falkner (1837) • Rambles in Germany and Italy (1844) • a variety of short stories, essays and poems

4. Frankenstein (1818, 1831) • The Author’s introduction • changes? • hideous progeny? • Walton’s letters: why does Shelley frame the novel with Walton’s letters? • what issues / themes do they raise? • the scientist and discovery: • benefit to mankind • glory • misguided education • parent-child relationship / responsibility • gender characteristics / separation of sexes • class • friendship / isolation • man vs. nature • reliability of narrative transmission • How are these issues / themes developed in Frankenstein’s narrative?

5. 1818 edition • Cf. p. 16 “But before I continue my narrative, I must record an incident which took place when I was four years of age. My father had a sister, whom he tenderly loved, and who had married early in life an Italian gentleman. Soon after her marriage, she had accompanied her husband into his native country, and for some years my father had very little communication with her. About the time I mentioned she died; and a few months afterwards he received a letter from her husband, acquainting him with his intention of marrying an Italian lady, and requesting my father to take charge of the infant Elizabeth, the only child of his deceased sister. "It is my wish," he said, "that you should consider her as your own daughter, and educate her thus. Her mother's fortune is secured to her, the documents of which I will commit to your keeping. Reflect upon this proposition; and decide whether you would prefer educating your niece yourself to her being brought up by a stepmother." My father did not hesitate, and immediately went to Italy, that he might accompany the little Elizabeth to her future home. I have often heard my mother say, that she was at that time the most beautiful child she had ever seen, and shewed signs even then of a gentle and affectionate disposition. These indications, and a desire to bind as closely as possible the ties of domestic love, determined my mother to consider Elizabeth as my future wife; a design which she never found reason to repent. From this time Elizabeth Lavenza became my playfellow, and, as we grew older, my friend.”

6. Gothic • said to begin with Horace Walpole’s Castle of Otranto (1764) • important tradition of women’s writing (Anne Radcliffe • The “seamy side” of the Enlightenment • Travers: • the supernatural • cultivation of ambiance and mood • nostalgia for the medieval • plot structured around enigma and mystery • sensational violence • most importantly: • exploration of excess and taboo • obsession with otherness • the darker side of human nature