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Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley. The Early Years. Mary Shelley was born on August 30 th , 1797, in Somers Town Great Britain Her mother died of complications only 10 days after her birth Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, had been a well-known author and feminist

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Mary Shelley

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  1. Mary Shelley

  2. The Early Years • Mary Shelley was born on August 30th, 1797, in Somers Town Great Britain • Her mother died of complications only 10 days after her birth • Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, had been a well-known author and feminist • Her father, William Godwin was a well-known philosopher

  3. Family Life • Mary’s father remarried in 1801 and his new wife, Mary Jane Clairmont, openly favoured her own children from a previous marriage • In 1803, Mary’s brother, William Godwin, was born • When Mary was fourteen, her father sent her to live with friends in Scotland in order to remove her from the tense home environment

  4. Percy Shelley • On a visit home in 1812, Mary met Percy Shelley, and in 1814 ran away with him even though he was married • Mary became pregnant, and in 1816 Percy’s first wife drowned herself • Mary and Percy traveled together unwed for a long period of time. (Scandalous!) • Later that same month, Percy and Mary were married • They had four children together, but only Percy Florence Shelley (the last of the four) lived past childhood • In 1822, Percy Shelley died in a boating accident

  5. In Mary Shelley’s Time • Women were taught to be sweet, pleasant, amiable, and to support and obey their husbands. • They were valued by their modesty and chastity and were supposed to be completely ignorant of their sexuality. • In what ways does Shelley defy these norms?

  6. Career • Mary Shelley published her first poem in 1807, at the age of 10 • In 1816, Mary was inspired to write Frankenstein and although it took less than a year to write, it was published in 1818 • After her husband’s death, Mary’s writing became her means of survival and she was under a lot more pressure to publish her work

  7. Body of Work • Four novels • Five volumes of biographical sketches • Several articles and poems • A number of short stories • She also edited and annotated Percy Shelley’s poetry and prose

  8. Frankenstein • Frankenstein is Shelley’s only piece of creative writing that is still widely read today

  9. Who is Frankenstein? • What does he look like?

  10. Differences Between the Frankenstein Myth and the “real thing”: • Frankenstein is the name of the scientist who created the creature, not the monster himself • The creature is not a huge, ugly, inarticulate, mindless monster with bolts in his neck. He is graceful, intelligent, articulate, and has no protruding bolts (he is, however, 8 feet tall and quite ugly)

  11. His brain did not come from a criminal’s corpse • There is no big laboratory scene, where lightning brings the creature to life • There is no hunch-backed assistant • There is no mob of villagers or a burning mill • Most of these ideas come from the 1931 movie version of Frankenstein

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