After reading the works of Mary Shelley, I was intrigued to find out more information about the author. After doing some research online, it became obvious her dark and tragic works seem to be the result of an even darker past. With the sudden death of her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, the author of Vindication of the Rights of Women, she was left with only her father, William Godwin, another great intellect. Shelley soon became very close to her father and her half-sister. In fact, it was through Godwin that she met her soon to be husband, Percy Bysshe Shelly. With the loss of her half-sister, three of her children, and the unfortunate death of her husband she was left lonely and deranged. A great tragedy at such a young age obviously impacted her literary style. Suffering from paralysis and a brain tumor at the age of 53 she was unable to read and write which eventually lead to her death. After having a miserable and hard life, her last wish was to be buried next to her mother and father. Even this did not go as planned, ending this dark life in despair.
Mary Shelleys life is definitly a very tragic story. Even her own mother and father were plagued with depressing times. Her own mothers death inspired the famous painting "The Funeral of Shelley." At least it was early in Mary Shelleys life that she published Frankenstein and surly her family at the time inspired her greatest work.
ReplyDeleteMichael Garcia
Thats interesting, i didnt know that about mary shellys life.
ReplyDeleteYvette ORtiz
Its cool how she connected her personal life with her writing. She had such a tragic life, nothing I could even imagine to go through. I have gained a lot of respect and pity for her after learning about everything she went through, especially being out of her control.
ReplyDeleteBrandy Wilson
I didn't really see a lot of feminism in the story at first. However, I really see a lot of it now that I think about it, I agree that her personal life greatly influenced the story of Frankenstein, I don't see how it would not have.
ReplyDeleteAlex Stofferan
i like the way she also connected her life to her novel especially when i kind of figure out why she had use to be married to parcy and she kind of compared him to victor
ReplyDeleteNow its no wonder she wrote about the males side of creation. She wasn't able to connect fully with the female's side since she did not receive the nurturing most of us receive as young children. I think Mary Shelley put a bit of herself into the creature, maybe also in Victor as well. All of the people she loved were taken from her tragically. Shelley could relate to this emotion. What a sad life.
ReplyDeleteCassidy S
I didn't understand why people were writing their research papers over Shelley's past, I didn't take the time to research her past, so I found this blog entry to be very interesting.
ReplyDelete-Cassidy Park
To lose her mother at such a young age, I bet she read her mother's work many times over and began to take on similar views. The story of Frankenstein certainly conveys a lot of subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle influences of Shelley. To have all that loss through nature, it almost seems as though she treats the monster as an unstoppable force much as nature was in her own life. Might be overreaching, however.
ReplyDeleteBrian McNulty
It is heartbreaking to read someones tragic life story. A story full of death and despair. Even though these event took place after Frankenstein was published, it seems that Victor and Shelley lost everyone they had ever loved. It is such a sad way to die, alone.
ReplyDeleteMichael Trammell
wow, Shelley had a horrible life all of her life. kinda sucks she was sucha good writer, i would have loved to read more amazing novels from her.
ReplyDeleteI believe that an individual should show their talents to the society she was a great writer its tragic she had to face many hardships
ReplyDeleteShelly's past also intrigued me so I read her biography from an encyclopedia in the library and found out a lot of interesting facts that help understand where her characters in Frankenstein come from. I agree with Cassidy idea was to why she wasn't able to connect fully with the female's side.
ReplyDeleteGilberto Flores
This was another great point that I made as well in my paper over Frankenstein. After researching Shelley and learning about her past I began to notice how certain parts of her story would somewhat relate back to an event that had happened in her life. For instance, her not having a mother as well as the creature not having a mother is a great example.
ReplyDeleteGilbert Rangel
Oh wow I didn't know that about Shelley. That's a pretty crazy life. I guess that partly explains why she wrote Frankenstein in such a way.
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