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.