The life of Mary Shelley

Since I really enjoyed reading the novel, Frankenstein, of Mary Shelley, I wanted to know about the author after I completed reading the story. What I found was that the author's life was quite miserable just like the one of the creature that Frankenstein created.

Mary was born as a second kid of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. She had an older sister, Fanny Imlay, whose father was American who left her and her mom. After Fanny Imlay's dad left, Mary Wollstonecraft fell in love with William Godwin and they married.

But right after the birth, Mary Wollstonecraft passed away. After several years, Mary’s dad, William Godwin, remarried a neighbor named Clairmont. She already had her two kids when she remarried. After the marriage, Clairmont did not care the kids of Mary Wollstonecraft and only cared her own kids. As a result, Mary Shelley and Fanny Imlay became hostile toward their stepmother.

When Mary Shelley was a teenager, she fell in love with Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was one of her dad’s students. But Percy was married, and his wife was pregnant at that time (Actually I don’t like this part because it was definitely an affair!). Anyway they fled together with Mary’s stepsister, and traveled Europe. During this period, Mary gave birth to a daughter, who died soon. What makes me more shocking is that the stepsister also got pregnant. The baby’s dad was Lord Byron.

It is quite shocking that people at the time was really disorderly. I mean, Mary and Percy at that time were not married, but they had a baby. And Percy had a wife at that time. Mary’s stepsister, Jane, also was not married Lord Byron, but they had a baby! I don’t understand, no I actually can’t understand it.

Anyway, after several months, Mary’s older sister Fanny Imlay committed suicide. So did Percy Shelley’s wife. Finally, Percy Shelley and Mary Shelley got married, but Mary’s suffering was still in progress. Mary delivered four babies in her life, but only one survived. Her husband, Percy Shelley also died early because he was drowned.

So Mary’s loss of her lovely sister, husband, and her kids was a total tragedy, and I am sure the loss affected her stories, especially the horrible part of Frankenstein. The love that Mary Shelley sought from her husband was not normal, I believe, because he was already taken when they fell in love each other. I think this point is connected to the Dr. Frankenstein whose family was quite strange and abnormal that caused his lack of humanity.

An interpretation for "when we two parted" by Lord Byron

I chose "When we two parted" for this week's topic because I really enjoyed reading this poem. Maybe it is because the poem was really easy to understand, but anyway I liked it. After I interpreted this poem and posted it on DTL, I searched some information about the poem and found other interpretation.

Anyway, here is my interpretation.
I thought this poem was about a couple who promised marriage each other instead of their different social rank. What made me think like this were the 21st and 22nd line, "They know not I knew thee / Who knew thee too well." So I thought maybe their relationship is in secret because of their social rank. But since one of them (I think it is the woman) is forced to engage or get married other person instead of the speaker, their relationship has to end. So I thought this poem was about the despair about losing a lover because of the social system. Well, this is what I have interpreted.

But I found some interesting fact about Byron that he had many affairs with women when he was alive. So this poem is also can be about the affair he had. 
According to Shmoop.com, the lady who is another main character of this poem is Lady Frances Wedderburn Webster. She had some affairs with several men, and Byron was one of them. It is not sure if their relationship was sexual or not, but this interpretation insists that the speaker is Byron, of course, and he is writing about his sadness in this poem.

My interpretation is quite different from the one I searched, but I really did enjoy interpreting this poem, and it is interesting how many people can interpret one single poem in various ways!