mary shelley frankenstein mr. raber honors 12 english
TRANSCRIPT
Mary Shelley
FrankensteinMr. RaberHonors 12 English
August 30, 1797-February 1, 1851
Mary Shelley
Mother - Mary Wollstonecraft• famed writer, educator
and feminist• A Vindication of the
Rights of Women • Argued that women are
only inferior because of their lack of educational opportunities.
• She envisioned a society based on reason and rationality.
Father – William Godwin
• Anarchist • Philosopher• Novelist • Journalist• Atheist dissenter
Growing Up – The Stepmother
• Mother died 10 days after birth
• Father remarried – Mary Jane Clairmont
• A shady character with 2 illegitimate children
• Educates her own 2 children “better” than Mary
Education • Governess – Louisa Jones raised her during her early years
• Father • Free access to his
library • “Published” her first
piece at the age of 11
• Many famous guests visited her father
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Mary and her stepsister once hid under the sofa to hear him recite his famous poem “Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”
This poem later influenced her as she wrote Frankenstein.
Percy Shelley
• Godwin’s frequent visitor
• Married to Harriet Shelley
• Well-known romantic poet and lyricist
The Scandal
Percy fell deeply in love with Mary Wollstonecraft-Godwin. They ran away together while Percy’s wife was pregnant with his child. After the child’s birth, Harriet Shelley committed suicide in a lake in London. Mary and Percy married three weeks later.
“Romantic Beyond Romance”
•Traveled - ItalySwitzerland, Germany, •Studied literature, language, music & art
Always a Dark Side
Percy • Narcissistic (excessive self-love)
• “Free love” theory • Affair with Mary’s stepsister Claire Mary• 3 children in 5 years • 2 die as infants, Will as a toddler• Birth and death become primary thoughts in
Mary’s mind
Lord Byron
• Friend - Lord Byron• As the result of an
affair, fathered a child with Clair Clairmont
• Known for his Romantic Period poetry
• The “Byronic” hero
The Challenge
While vacationing in Switzerland with Lord Byron, the friends agreed to a story challenge.
Hollywood’s “Frankenstein”
FRANKENSTEIN
“My imagination, unbidden, possessed and guided me …I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together—I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half-vital.”
Interestingly….
• Mary titled the novel Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus.
• She did not put her own name on the 1818 edition.
• Mary finally received credit when she wrote the introduction and published the 1831 edition.
A Year of Tragedy
In 1822:
• Claire’s daughter dies at the convent where her father has sent her.
• Percy saves Mary from bleeding to death following a miscarriage.
• Caught in a storm, Percy dies while boating.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley died in 1851.