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Character Summary

Analysis of Themes

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Mary Shelley was born August 30, 1797 to 
Mary Wollstonecraft, a famous feminist, and 
William Godwin, a philosopher and writer. 
Her mother died while giving birth to Mary.  
She was brought up with high expectations 
surrounding her potential as a person.

At age 16 she ran away to live with Percy 
Shelley, a Romantic poet and heir to a 
wealthy baronetcy.  Her own father cast 
her out of society and she was left to write 
and live with Percy.  It was in the company 
of Percy and Lord Byron that she was inspired
to write the novel Frankenstein.  The three 
challenged each other to a contest of writing 
a ghost story, so Mary wrote the novel at 
the age of 19, addressing many troubled times 
she was facing.
 
After the suicides of her half sister and 
Percy's wife, Percy and Mary married 
reluctantly.  They moved to Italy, and were 
originally happy before their two young 
children died.  Although, they lived happily 
for the next few years, Mary was plagued 
with tragedy again when Percy drowned, and 
she was left with no money and a young son 
at age 24.

Over the remainder of her life, she was 
forced to move back to England which she 
hated because of the lack of morality and 
the poor social conditions.  The greater 
public disapproved of her relationship with 
Percy, so she was shunned by writers and 
the general public.

She continued to become strong in her beliefs 
and grew to respect her mother's opinions 
about a womans place in society.

At age 48 she became an invalid, and died 
in 1851 of a brain tumor.