Frankenstein By Mary Shelley Essay Help

Frankenstein By Mary Shelley Essay Help

Mary Shelley was an English novelist born in the year 1797 who is well known for her gothic Novel Frankenstein or even The Modern Prometheus. Her books are considered to be an early instance of science fiction. She has also edited as well as promoted the works done by her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher P.B Shelley (Percy Bysshe Shelley). Mary Shelley’s father was the political philosopher William Godwin and her mother was also a very well- known philosopher and feminism activist Mary Wollstonecraft. The full name of Mary Shelley thus has been Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Godwin. She was born in the Somers Town in London in the year 1797. She was the second child of her mother and the first child of her father. Mary Shelley’s mother died shortly after she gave birth to Mary. It was Godwin who was left alone to bring up his daughter along with the elder daughter of his wife Fanny Imlay, who was also the daughter of Gilbert Imlay. It was a year after the death of Wollstonecraft that Godwin published his Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1978) that he initially intended as a sincere and as a compassionate tribute. However, as these Memoirs revealed the affairs of Wollstonecraft and her illegitimate child, they were perceived as very shocking.

The earliest years of Mary were very happy as per the letters from William Godwin’s housekeeper and nurse, Louisa Jones. However, Godwin at that time was greatly in debt and feeling that he could not raise the children by himself, he married again to Mary Jane Clairmont, who was a well- educated woman with two children of her own- Claire and Charles. Most of the friends that Godwin had disliked the new life that he had. Mary received little formal education, yet her father tutored her in a broad range of subjects. She was sent to stay with the dissenting family of the radical William Baxter. Mary met P B Shelley in the interval between her two stays in Scotland.

What was Mary Shelley's dream?

A British poet of the Romantic era, Lord Byron was the one who suggested Mary and P B Shelley to write a ghost story, that one Mary would complete. That night, Mary Shelley dreamt of a plot for a take that “haunted her midnight pillow” as per her opinion in the Introduction to the 1831 edition of her novel. This is where she was able to plot the whole story of Frankenstein and delivered it as a novel to the world.

Mary Shelley mother

Mary Wollstonecraft was the mother of Mary Shelley who was also English writer, philosopher, and also advocate of the rights of women. Until the late 20^th century, the life of Wollstonecraft that encompassed several unconventional personal relationships at the time, even received more attention than her writing pieces. Today, Mary Wollstonecraft is considered to one of the founding feminists and often cite both her life as well as her works as significant impact. On 30^th of August, 1797, she gave birth to Mary Shelley, her second daughter and even though the delivery seemed to go well at first, the placenta broke apart during the birth and it became infected. She has post -partum infect which is known as the childbed fever that was common and often a fatal occurrence at that time. After few days of agony, Wollstonecraft dies of septicemia on 10^th September. William Godwin was extremely devastated by her death even wrote the following to his fried Thomas Holcroft “I firmly believe there does not exist her equal in the world. I know from experience we were formed to make each other happy. I have not the least expectation that I can now ever know happiness again.” Mary Shelley’s mother was buried in the churchyard of St Pancras Old Church where her tombstone read “Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: Born 27 April 1759: Died 10 September 1797.”

How did Mary Shelley's baby die?

Mary Shelley and P B Shelley were not allowed to get married until the first wife of Shelley was still around. However, on January 24^th, 1816, Mary gave birth to a healthy son William, an extremely happy child of both Percy Shelley and Mary Shelley; yet he was an “illegitimate nobody”. Percy and Mary were allowed to get married after the death of Percy’s first wife; they married on 30^th December, 1816 and on September 2, 1817, Mary gave birth to her second child Clara; unfortunately, Clara became ill and died on September 26^th 1818. Her death affected Mary to a great deal and Mary went into a severe depression. The death of Clara was more devastating to Mary as compared to her previous miscarriage. While this time, when she was so grief- stricken and lonely, she wrote to her father explaining her depression and how P B Shelley was unsympathetic towards her; as a result, Mary began to retreat herself and did not even talk to Percy.

Mary Shelley death

Mary Shelley’s final years were blighted by her illness. From the year 1839, she had been suffering from headaches and some bouts of paralysis in certain parts of her body that sometimes held her back from writing or reading. On 1^st of February, 1851, at Chester Square, she died at the age of 53 and what was expected to be a brain tumor. Mary Shelley had requested to be buried with her mother and father, yet Jane and Percy judged the graveyard of St Pancras to be dreadful which is why they buried her at St Peter’s Church, Bournemouth.