Mary Shelley 1797-1851
Family
• Father- Radical Philosopher, Anarchist, distant
• Mother- Mary Wollstonecraft- Mother of Feminism, died 11 days after birth
• Step-mother- Disliked Shelley preferred own children
• Half-sister- Close to Mary
• Percy Byshe Shelley- poet, philosopher, follower of father- met at age 16 when already married to
Harriet (who later commits suicide), Run away and travel Europe later eloping. Threatened to commit
suicide if Shelley didn’t marry him. Dies 1822 when boat sinks in a storm.
• One child lives to adulthood (Percy jr.)
• Second family she stayed with as a child to escape family situation
Victorian Society Composition of Frankenstein
• Common man empowered - Was staying with Lord Byron beside Lake
Geneva (setting) 1816
• Formal
- Byron challenges them to write ghost
• Class system (social and financial)
stories
• Cult of domesticity
- Frequent discussions of philosophy,
• Rise of Science (Darwinism)
ethics and science (especially Galvanism)
• Devoutly religious - Has dreams of first miscarriage and a
• Industrialisation hideous monster
• Women oppressed - Result of competition was Frankenstein
• New philosophies and schools of first published 1818 anonymously
thought (women)
• Hard work rewarded - Published by Shelley 1831
Family
• Father- Radical Philosopher, Anarchist, distant
• Mother- Mary Wollstonecraft- Mother of Feminism, died 11 days after birth
• Step-mother- Disliked Shelley preferred own children
• Half-sister- Close to Mary
• Percy Byshe Shelley- poet, philosopher, follower of father- met at age 16 when already married to
Harriet (who later commits suicide), Run away and travel Europe later eloping. Threatened to commit
suicide if Shelley didn’t marry him. Dies 1822 when boat sinks in a storm.
• One child lives to adulthood (Percy jr.)
• Second family she stayed with as a child to escape family situation
Victorian Society Composition of Frankenstein
• Common man empowered - Was staying with Lord Byron beside Lake
Geneva (setting) 1816
• Formal
- Byron challenges them to write ghost
• Class system (social and financial)
stories
• Cult of domesticity
- Frequent discussions of philosophy,
• Rise of Science (Darwinism)
ethics and science (especially Galvanism)
• Devoutly religious - Has dreams of first miscarriage and a
• Industrialisation hideous monster
• Women oppressed - Result of competition was Frankenstein
• New philosophies and schools of first published 1818 anonymously
thought (women)
• Hard work rewarded - Published by Shelley 1831
