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1. Birth/ Childhood
a. Aug 30, 1797
b. Mother dies Sept. 10, 1797/puerperal fever
c. Wollstonecraft believed in educating women so Godwin decides to do this for his
daughters, Mary and Fanny
i. She believed that women shouldn’t be restricted
ii. Both Godwin and Locke believed this as well
d. Mary is encouraged throughout childhood by Godwin to write
i. Believed to have first been published when she was 10 years old
e. Godwin, though, isn’t completely sure that he is doing the right thing
f. He then meets Lady Margaret Mountcashell who is the first to assure him that he is
doing the right thing
g. In 1801 Godwin meets Mary Jane Clairmont
i. Notes in his journal on May 5th that he met her
ii. Three weeks later Fanny and Mary are brought to meet Mary Jane’s children,
Charles and Claire
iii. In December he is trapped into marriage by pregnancy
iv. Has two marriage services in one day with one more performed after birth of
William Godwin in 1803
v. Mary Jane is seen as vulgar and dishonest though she is noted as a good wife
vi. Mary does not have a good relationship with her
h. In 1812 Mary goes to live with family friends in Scotland, the Baxter’s
i. They are the model, closely-knit, loving family which she will aspire to the rest
of her life
i. Percy Shelley become acquainted with the Godwin’s and he and his wife, Harriet dine
with them
2. Meets Percy Shelley
a. November 12, 1812 the Shelley’s dine with the Godwin’s again
i. This is when Mary meets Percy Shelley
b. 1813 Mary lives with the Baxter’s again
c. May 1814 Mary is back in London and meets Percy again when he dines with her family
once again
i. After this they begin to spend nearly every day together
d. June 26, 1814 Mary declares her love for Percy at her Mother’s grave
3. Runs off with Percy
a. July 28, 1814 Mary, Claire, and Percy flee to France
i. Percy leaves pregnant wife Harriet
b. Mary’s family is scandalized and Godwin doesn’t talk to Mary for 2 years after she does
this
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c. They travel for 6 weeks before returning to London because of financial troubles
d. Shelley is also cut off from his allowance because his father disapproves of him running
off and leaving his pregnant wife
4. Life with Percy before marriage
a. Percy set himself up as tutor, mentor, and lover to Mary
b. But, Percy is deeply in debt and because he is cut off from his allowance he spends
several months running from creditors and apart from Mary
c. Mary wants a stable family but Percy is also for Free Love
i. Tries to set up community with Mary, Claire (Jane), himself and his friend
Thomas Hogg
ii. Everyone in the community is to share everything, even sexual partners
iii. Mary gives birth to a daughter, Clara, in Feb. 1815, but she is born prematurely
and dies in early March
iv. Mary becomes pregnant again 2 months later and this time has a son on Jan. 24,
1816
1. Named William after Mary’s father
v. In April of 1816 Claire pursues Lord Byron and becomes his mistress
vi. May of 1816 Mary, Percy, baby William, and Claire travel to Lake Geneva,
Switzerland to join Lord Byron
5. Frankenstein
a. In Switzerland Byron leases a house and the others lease a cottage nearby
b. Byron’s friend John Polidori, a doctor, is there as well
c. The friends discuss philosophy and tell ghost stories
i. A contest is suggested to see who could write the best ghost story
d. Byron and Percy quickly drop out and Mary is horrified to find she doesn’t have any
ideas
e. Then an idea comes to her in a “waking dream” on June 16, 1816 and she begins to
write Frankenstein
f. She finishes it May 14, 1817 and it is published in March of 1818
g. Most critics believed it was written by a man
h. In Frankenstein Shelley discussed desire explicitly within an archetype of individual
maturation
i. Keats called this maturation “soul-making”
ii. Wordsworth devoted his longest completed poem to it
i. Shelley’s model of maturation begins with a realistic depiction of Lockean psychology
i. Frankenstein is a tabula rasa whose character is formed by his childhood
experiences
ii. She asserts that circumstances activate and direct an individual’s capacity for
imaginative activity
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iii. More in keeping with eighteenth-century moralists than with Godwin or Percy
1. Mary characterizes innate desire not as neutral or benevolent but as
characteristically egotistical
iv. The creature’s moral development follows the theories that Locke propounded
in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding
1. It’s first experiences are purely physical
2. Gradually the creature learns to distinguish his sensations
3. At the same time he learns the causes of his feelings of pain or pleasure
and how to produce the effects he desires
4. The creature’s education is completed in just the way Locke advocates,
by providing him with examples of moral and intellectual virtue
j. Frankenstein is unique in content and origin
i. In all other creation myths a woman is involved in one way or another, but her
story is of a man’s single-handed creation of a living being from dead matter
6. Suicides/Marriage
a. On Oct 9, 1816 Mary’s older sister Fanny travels to a nearby inn and commits suicide
i. She is buried anonymously; Godwin refuses to identify or claim the body
b. December 10, 1816 Harriet Shelley’s body, advanced in pregnancy, is found in the
Serpentine River, where she had drowned herself
c. December 30, 1816 Mary Godwin and Percy Shelley finally marry
d. January 12, 1817 Claire gives birth to daughter Allegra Alba, Byron’s daughter
e. September 1, 1817 Mary gives birth to daughter Clara Everina
f. The Shelley entourage travels to Italy for Percy’s health and to deliver Allegra to Byron
g. Aug 1818 Percy accompanies Claire to Venice to see Byron and her ill daughter
h. Later that month Mary hurries to them at Percy’s insistence and Clara dies from a fever
i. June 1819 William Shelley dies of malaria
j. November 12 1819 Percy Florence is born, the only child of Mary and Percy to survive
7. Miscarriage and Percy’s death
a. June 16 1822 Mary miscarries during her fifth pregnancy and would have bled to death
but Percy saves her by placing her in an ice bath
b. July 8, 1822 Percy Shelley and Edward Williams set sail to meet Leigh Hunt, a family
friend and they are found drowned 10 days later
8. Life after Percy’s death
a. After Percy’s death Mary lived with the Leigh Hunt family for a year
b. Sept. 1823 Mary and her son returned to England
i. Move to Brunswick Square
c. June 1824 she moves again, this time to Kentish Square, to be near Jane Williams, wife
of the man who died with Percy
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d. Sept. 1826 Harriet’s son Charles dies and Percy Florence becomes heir to the family
estates.
i. Mary’s grudging allowance from Sir Timothy Shelley increases to 200 pounds
per year
e. May 1829 Mary settles in Portman Square where she stays until April 1833
f. September 29 1832 Percy Florence enters Harrow
g. April 1833 Mary moves to Harrow to limit the expenses of school and to allow Percy to
continue his education
h. April 1836 Mary engages a tutor for Percy and moves back to London
i. April 7 William Godwin dies and is buried next to Mary Wollstonecraft in St Pancras
churchyard
j. 1844 Sir Timothy Shelley dies at the age of 90 and the estate, which had many debts
passed to Percy Florence
k. Mid 1840’s Mary is the victim of a string of blackmailers
i. Her son’s friend, lawyer Alexander Knox, intervenes the first two times
ii. Third time she refused to pay
l. June 1848 Percy marries Jane St. John
m. 1849 Mary moves in with Percy and Jane
n. Her last years were blighted with illness
i. From 1839 she suffered from headaches and bouts of paralysis in part of her
body, which rendered her unable to write
ii. 1850 she suffered from nervous attacks and partial paralysis
9. Mary’s death
a. February 1st 1851 Mary Shelley dies at the age of 53
i. Suspected brain tumor
b. Had asked to be buried with her mother and father
i. Percy and Jane didn’t like the cemetery that Godwin and Wollstonecraft were
buried in so they didn’t bury her in St. Pancras
ii. Instead buried her in St Peter’s Church, Bournemouth
c. In order to fulfill her wishes they had her parents exhumed and reburied next to her in
St. Peter’s Church
Summary:
Mary Shelley’s life was one filled with grief and death, right from the beginning. Born August 30, 1797
her mother died just 10 days later. Then, when she was an adult she had five pregnancies and only one
child that survived. Just after her fifth pregnancy, a miscarriage in which she almost died, her husband
Percy Shelley died. One of her sisters committed suicide as well as her husband’s first wife. Her sister
Jane’s daughter died and eventually Mary’s own father died. Although Mary’s life was filled with pain,
she also found love. She had a lover, who she eventually married, Percy Shelley, she was surrounded by
friends and loved ones, and she always had someone to help her through her grief. She was encouraged
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throughout her life to write, first by her father, William Godwin, and later by Percy. As a result of this
Mary wrote many things, including her most famous work, Frankenstein. She had many influences in
her life, the greatest being her father and her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft. Another significant
influence was John Locke’s work and theories and all of the influences in her life are visible in her novel
Frankenstein. In the last part of her life, after Percy’s death, she moved around fairly frequently until
her son was married and she lived her final years with him and his wife. She died February 1st, 1851.
Two Test Questions
1. In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, she follows Locke’s theories given in his Essay Concerning
Human Understanding. How are these theories presented in her novel and through what
character?
2. William Godwin believed that your intelligence level is completely a result of your education.
Later he changed his opinion on this matter. Who and what caused him to change his mind?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
References
Mellor, Anne K. Mary Shelley: Her Life, Her Fiction, Her Monsters. Methuen, Inc., 1988.
Veeder, William. Mary Shelley & Frankenstein. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1986.
Poovey, Mary. The Proper Lady and the Woman Writer. Chicago: The University of Chicago
Press, 1984.
Seymour, Miranda. Mary Shelley. London: John Murray (Publishers) Ltd., 2000.
"Mary Shelley." Wikipedia. Wikipedia. 24 Feb 2008
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Shelley>.
Liukkonen, Petri. "Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851)." 2003. 24 Feb 2008
<http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/mshelley.htm>.
Ty, Eleanor. "Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley." Dictionary of Literary Biography. 1992. Bruccoli Clark
Layman. 24 Feb 2008 <http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/shelleybio.html>.
Woodbridge, Kim A. "Mary Shelley and the Desire to Acquire Knowledge: As Demonstrated in
the Novel Frankenstein." 1996. 24 Feb 2008
<http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/maryshel/knowledge.shtml>.