Mary Shelley

"Beware: I am fearless, and therefore powerful'. 

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797 – 1851) was an English writer most famous for her classic novel Frankenstein (1818). Writing and activism was in her blood – both her parents were feminists, writers, and philosophers. Tragically, her mother died soon after Mary’s birth and she and her elder sister were raised by their father and later a stepmother with whom they did not get along.

Though Mary received little formal studies, her father ensured that she had a good education, raising her to be a ‘cynical philosopher.’ her father tutored her in a broad range of subjects and made sure she had a governess and tutor, as well as surrounding her with his own philosophical acquaintances. Thus, Mary had a better than average upbringing for a girl of her time. When she was fifteen, her father described her as: "singularly bold, somewhat imperious, and active of mind. Her desire of knowledge is great, and her perseverance in everything she undertakes almost invincible."  Her father also sent her for stays in Scotland with his radical friends in the hope that they would raise her as a ‘philosopher and cynic’.

Around the time of her stays in Scotland in 1814, Mary met the radical poet Percy Shelley. Ostracised from his family and estranged from his wife, Percy began to spend a great deal of time with Mary. He tried to bail her father out of debt, but his family would not grant him the funds. Mary and Percy began meeting each other secretly at Mary's mother’s grave and they fell in love when she was 16 and he was 21. On 26 June 1814, Shelley and Godwin declared their love for one another and – tradition says – they made love on her mother’s grave (#stayclassy). She saw Percy Shelley as an embodiment of her parents' liberal and reformist ideas, however both their families disapproved of the match. Thus, on 28 July 1814, the couple eloped and secretly left for France, taking Mary's stepsister with them, abandoning Percy’s pregnant wife in the process. 

They travelled through wore-torn France to Switzerland where they continued to write and read extensively. However, a lack of income forced the to return to England in September 1814. They returned to a difficult situation. During their time away, Mary became pregnant and her father disowned her. She and Percy moved in together, but he often fled to avoid debtors leaving her alone and unwell. In late 1814, Percy’s wife gave birth to a son, to Percy’s obvious delight which greatly hurt Mary. She also had to contend with her lover’s affair with her step-sister Claire.  Mary had harboured belief in “free love”, and Percy suggested that she too took a lover, however Mary could love only percy and was extremely jealous of Percy’s other women. In February 1815, she gave birth to a premature babygirl who died soon after.

Her daughter’s death trigged acute depression in Mary, who was said to be haunted by visions of her lost child. However, things improved when Percy inherited some money and she conceived again, this time with a healthy son she named William.

In May 1816, Mary and Percy, together with William and Claire, spent a summer in Geneva as guests of Lord Byron – who had recently impregnanted Claire. Mary now began to identify as ‘Mrs Shelley’. It was a late-night conversation during this trip which gave Mary the idea for her most renowned novel, Frankenstein. She began Frankenstein as a short story, but it was published as a full novel in 1818. Her husband helped her edit the book, and thus she was dismissed for years as a mere co-writer of the novel – not surprising given the patriarchy’s obsession with diminishing the achievements of women. However, it has since been concluded that the majority of the work was Mary’s own.

On their return to England,  Mary and Percy moved with Claire to Bath, hoping to keep Claire’s illegitmate pregnancy a secret. Shortly after their return, Mary’s half-sister and Percy’s wife both committed suicide. The suicides were hushed up, and Mary and Percy sought custody of his children. This was opposed by his late wife’s family, so on legal advice he married Mary – who was pregnant again – in 1816. Nonetheless, Percy was ruled “morally unfit” to assume ustody of his children and they were placed in the church’s care. The Shelleys, Claire and her daughter moved Buckinghamshire where Mary gave birth to her third child.  

Early in the summer of 1817, Mary Shelley finished Frankenstein, which was published anonymously in January 1818. However, readers assumed that Percy was the author. Later that year, highly in debt, in bad health, and in fear of losing their children, the family fled to Italy. Claire was forced to hand over her daughter to Lord Byron, and she travelled with Mary and Percy around Italy writing, reading, and socialising. Tragically however, Mary lost two of her children within a year of each other during this trip, which sent her back into a deep depression.:

Writing was the only thing which comforted Mary during this time, along with the birth of her fourth child. Italy provided the Shelleys with a political and intellectual freedom unavialble to them in England and she began to regard it as ‘paradise’, despite her grief. However, she remained mentally and physically unwell, and was stressed by her father’s debt and her husband’s frequent philandering. However, she began to embrace this non-monagmous lifestyle and sought connection with other men herself. However, the couple and Claire locked themselves away for three months and in 1819 a baby was registered with various rumours about her parentage –most likely Percy’s but by which of his women? Definitely not Mary. Her mother remains a mystery, but she died at less than a year old.

Mary continued to write and upon becoming pregnant again moved to a villa with Percy, Claire and two friends. On 16 June, she miscarried – her life saved only by Percy placing her in an icebath to stop the bleeding. However, their marriage was less than happy at the time – Percy was having an affair with their house-guest Jane and largely ignored his depressed and sickly wife. In 1822, Percy was killed in a boating accident, which was discovered when his body was washed up on the beach. 

After her husband's death, Mary dedicated her life to writing and to her son. However, in 1823 financial straits necessitated her to return to England to live with her father until she was able to afford a small house nearby thanks to the reluctant support of her father-in-law. Mary Shelley busied herself with editing her husband's poems, among other literary endeavours, but concern for her son restricted her options. She remained ostracised by society for her elopement and could not afford to socialise in well-to-do society.

In 1824, Mary Shelley moved to London near her husband’s ex-lover, Jane Williams, who it was rumoured Mary held a soft spot for herself. However, they later fell out when Jane claimed that Percy had loved her more than his “inadequate wife”. In London, she received a proposal from an American actor, but refused him saying she could only marry another genius.

In 1827, Mary plotted to help her friend Isabel Robinson and her lesbian lover (posed as a man) Mary Dods to elope to France and live ‘as husband and wife’.  

During the period 1827–40, Mary Shelley was busy as an editor and writer publishing both her own work and that of her late father and husband. Shelley continued to practice her mother's feminist principles by extending aid to noblewomen whom society disapproved of – such as lesbians or those who had had affairs.Howveer, she avoided romantic liasons herself – despite several offers – and instead focussed on the welfare and education of her son. In 1840 and 1842, mother and son travelled together on the continent – finally financially independent.

In the mid-1840s, Mary Shelley found herself the target of three separate blackmailers, who had little success in exhorting money from her. She lived with her son and his wife until the end of her life, which was blighted by illness that left her unable to read or write. She died at the age of 53 from a suspected brain tumour. After her death, her son discovered that she had kept locks of her dead children’s hair and a parcel containing her husband’s ashes and the remains of his heart.

Certain aspects of Mary’s novels are often interpreted as autobiographical – for example the centrality of father-daughter relationships and the similarities of characters to her friends such as Lord Byron. Shelley’s writings were also used to comment on gender relations. Mary introduced women excluded from historical record and uses their voice to question established theological and political narratives.  She frequently portrays the male protagonist's compulsive greed for conquest in opposition to a female alternative of reason and sensibility. In later centuries, feminist decried the neglect of Shelley in literary circles. They claimed that Shelley's loss of her mother and children were a crucial influence on the writing of Frankenstein, which clearly deals with notions of birth, creation, and death.

Shelley's writings also focus on the role of the family in society and women's role within that family. She celebrates the "feminine affections and compassion" associated with the family and suggests that civil society will fail without them. Many of her novels dissect  patriarchal society which denies women an education thus forcing their dependence on men. However, only one of her novel sees the triumph of the feminist agenda – Falkner which proposes that when female values triumph over violent and destructive masculinity, men will be freed to express the "compassion, sympathy, and generosity" of their better natures. This is basically a very englightended take-down of toxic masculinity before “Toxic masculinity” was considered to be a thing.

Mary Shelley believed in the Enlightenment idea that people could improve society through the responsible exercise of political power, but she feared that the irresponsible exercise of power would lead to chaos and in this she differed from the radical politics of her parents. However, in recent years Mary has been hailed as a lifelong reformer who was extremely involved with the political and feminist campaigns of her day, although it has been suggested that her politics became more conservative throughout her life. However, her stories reveal a theme of egalitarianism against monarchy, class and gender distinctions, slavery, and war.

Shelley also turned to writing biographies, which she intended to be ‘a school in which to study the philosophy of history" and to teach "lessons". Most often and crucially, these became criticism of patriarchal institutions. She stresses the domesticity, romance, family, and compassion in the lives of her subjects and thus her: "use of biography to forward the social agenda of women's historiography became one of her most influential political interventions"

Soon after Percy’s death, Mary decided to write his biography as her only ‘consolation’. Her father-in-law forbade it, but she managed to accomplish this by annotating and reflecting on her husband’s work. She reinvented him as a romantic poet rather than political radical, stressing his benevolence and domesticity. In doing so she proved herself a professional and scholarly editor.

In her own lifetime, Mary Shelley was taken seriously as a writer, though reviewers often missed her writings' political edge. After her death, however, she was chiefly remembered as the wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley and as the author of Frankenstein.

The attempts of Mary's son to "Victorianise" her memory by censoring biographical documents contributed to a perception of Mary Shelley as a more conventional, less reformist figure than her works suggest. Her own timid omissions from Percy Shelley's works and her quiet avoidance of public controversy in her later years added to this impression. She became to be seen as a one-book wonder, with most of her work out of publication until recently. Her habit of intensive reading and study, revealed in her journals and letters and reflected in her works, is now better appreciated.  Her conception of herself as an author has also been recognised and she is now considered a major Romantic figure, significant for her literary achievement and her political voice as a woman and a liberal.