For my next instalment of Women's History Month, allow me to introduce a woman whom I consider one of the greatest authors in history: the Queen of Darkness, the Monarch of the Morbid and Macabre, the Goddess of Gothic and the Ruler of Romance—the one and only Mary Shelley!
Ok, we get it, you like Mary Shelley.
Why's that, then?
Well, besides being one of the greatest Gothic authors to ever have existed and being the mother of Science Fiction (a hill I will gladly die on!), Mary Shelley was the epitome of free-thinking, confidence and independence. Born on the 30th of August to William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft - a women's rights activist who penned the powerful and timeless piece A Vindication of the Rights of Woman- Mary Wollstonecraft-Godwin, was raised in an incredibly progressive household which would lay the foundations for her decisions, achievements and failures throughout her life. I’m going to address each of these areas as best and as succinctly as I can.
Let’s begin at the beginning.
I’ve already mentioned the foundations of Mary’s life. Tragically, however, Mary was introduced to Death extremely early on—her mother died mere days after giving birth to her daughter. A terrible loss for the women’s rights movement.
Now, you're probably thinking that because it was the 1700s, Mary’s father, William Godwin, was that guy who patted his wife on the head, pinched her cheek and told her how cute her efforts were, however futile. That was absolutely not the case as William was also passionate about promoting radical thinking and anarchical beliefs, going so far as to educate his daughter to his fullest extent, making sure to impart his political beliefs as he went. He even sent Mary away to Scotland twice to spend time with the radical politician William Baxter in the hopes that Baxter and his family would further influence Mary to break away from any and all societal norms and expectations. Which, they did. And, boy, did Mary deliver. Thanks to her mother’s activities and beliefs, and thanks to her father’s efforts, Mary Wollstonecraft-Godwin became the living embodiment of free-thinking and rebellion.
And she did so by causing a massive scandal.
Now, personally, I like women who cause trouble. Rarely have women made progress without causing some form or another of trouble. This is something I will touch upon in my final Women’s History Month blog post, due on March 31st. In the meantime, I’ll give you this quote by Jane Goodall which sums it up pretty perfectly: “It actually doesn’t take much to be considered a difficult woman. That’s why there are so many of us.”
Is she right, or is she right?!
Anyways, back to my hero, Mary. So, her father has [rightfully] placed Mary on the path to independence. Society, predictably, didn’t see Mary in this way. In fact, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin soon became the subject of controversy and gossip as she began an affair with a married man, Percy Shelley. As you can imagine, the scandal shook the society Mary and her Father kept. Mary, however, didn't give a rat's ass what anyone thought of her and proceeded to love Percy openly and freely.
This is a fantastic blueprint for women seeking independence and attempting to push away the stigma of women having sex and enjoying themselves. Not the married man part but the part where Mary didn't care what people thought about her or her sexual activities.
However, I will stop here and address the more serious side of Mary's and Percy's actions. Whilst I'm all for women fighting to change how women are viewed in society, including the serious judgements and derogatory comments automatically assigned to them by way of their sexual activities, there are always consequences for one's actions—a brutal lesson Mary would learn at a very young age. . .
As I said earlier, Percy was married.
His wife's name was Harriet Westbrook (1811) and, back in the early 1800s, divorce was only obtainable if you were very wealthy, if adultery had been committed and if one could prove that life-threatening assault and battery had also taken place. Side note: seeing as men didn't need to prove the whole physical harm thing—that was an additional step awarded to women who sought divorce between 1700 and 1857—most divorces were initiated by men. To give you an idea of how rare divorce was back then, around 300 divorces were granted between 1700 and 1857.
How does this tie in with Percy and Mary? Well, not only did Percy do the dirty on his missus, but he also eloped with Mary to Europe in the summer of 1814, just 3 years into his marriage. Arsehole. Not only that but at the time, Harriet Shelley was pregnant with Percy’s second child (their son, Charles Shelley), their first child being a daughter, Miss Eliza Shelley. So, poor Harriet was abandoned, alone with the children, unable to seek divorce and utterly humiliated. Looking back, Percy should have done the right thing and initiated the divorce himself. . . but that would mean admitting to everyone (including himself) that he actually had done something wrong. He did not, so, Harriet was left tied to a man who had no honour or self-control.
Denial is bliss, isn't it, Percy?
Anyways.
In Dec. of 1816, Harriet committed suicide by drowning herself in Hyde Park, London. It’s rumoured that she had a lover (on account of being pregnant at the time of her death) but it’s clear she felt abandoned by said lover. Her suicide note can be found by clicking here
I will warn you, though, it’s absolutely heartbreaking and I can’t help but feel a great sense of sympathy for her. Sure, she, too, took a lover, but look under the circumstances of why that happened, on why she took her life: men, and the systems and laws they put into place to keep women quiet and ‘in line’.
Thanks, Percy.
You may be wondering why I'm being so hard on Percy Shelley here. Surely it takes two to tango? Why yes, yes it does. And I'm so glad you brought that up because as said earlier, Mary was younger than Percy when they met. Let's pick this apart further: Percy Shelley first met Mary when she had come home from her first visit to William Baxter in Scotland, making her either 14 or 15 at the time. She returned to Scotland in the summer of 1813 making her 15 or 16 years old. It was during her 16th year that Percy (who was 21) couldn't control himself and finally declared his love for her. In Mary's mind, this was amazing because she, too, loved him as his beliefs aligned with hers and her father's. Back in the 1800s, the age of consent for girls was 12 so, whilst what Percy did wasn't illegal at the time, his actions today would be seen as nothing short of predatory. He preyed on a child just because he and Harriet had (supposedly) become estranged and he was having a hard time with that and was in serious debt.
Diddums.
Still wanting to throw out the whole 'takes two to tango' line? Stop and listen.
Child marriage is still a major issue even in places like the US, where only SEVEN of the 50 States have outlawed child marriage. Of the 47 States where child marriage is legal, TWENTY of them do NOT require any minimum age for marriage. It also comes as no shock whatsoever that of all the child marriages recorded between 2000 and 2018, the vast majority (87%) were between girls and adult men. Of this 87%, 4% were 15 years old or younger (including 12-year-olds).
Oh, you’re still going to say ‘Well Mary should have known better, especially because she was clever?”
Remember: “—Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. He is not a good man who, without a protest, allows wrong to be committed in his name, and with the means which he helps to supply, because he will not trouble himself to use his mind on the subject.” —John Stuart Mill, 1867.
Allow me to simplify.
If you see bad shit happening, and do nothing, then you’re just as bad as those committing the bad shit! So, take that blame and place it squarely on your own shoulders! Or, even better, cram it where the Sun doesn’t shine. That might make the message stick better. And I mean that with the utmost disgust and disrespect.
Mary soon learned of Harriet’s death in 1816. Mary was just 19 years old at the time. Whilst I’m sure this must have carried out a certain amount of grief and guilt for her, she, still being young and heavily influenced by Percy, married him not long after on Dec. 30th, 1816.
Not exactly honourable, is it? Especially for a young woman whose mother fought hard for women’s rights? Under normal circumstances, I’ll agree to that. But these weren’t normal circumstances—Mary had been groomed from a young age. Furthermore, allow me to harken back to Percy here for just a moment—Percy had said that he and Harriet were estranged, right? This is how he justified his pursuit of Mary and subsequent marriage to her so soon after Harriet’s passing. And yet, Percy made sure that Harriet was comfortable (financially speaking) and got her pregnant twice. Very estranged, no? Sounds to me like Percy was telling porky pies to both women and one of them paid the price dearly.
There were probably other reasons that Mary decided to marry Percy, and I will touch on that in just a moment but first, allow me to clarify further why am I being harsh on Percy.
Because I’m blaming him.
That’s right, I’m blaming him. I'm blaming him for Harriet’s death, for Mary’s struggles, for Mary's mental health illnesses and for everything that went wrong in Mary’s life.
Allow me to impart this quote which beautifully justifies my point here: “Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman. Always.” —Kahled Hosseini (A Thousand Splendid Suns).
Time for men to be held accountable. Especially men who are older and should know better.
Please don’t think for one second, however, that Mary and Percy rode off into the sunset and lived happily ever after—Mary would have to deal with her fair share of Percy’s bullshit, but I’ll get to that in just a mo'.
Let’s visit the month of July, 1814.
Mary (who is still 16 years old) and Percy (who was still married) have eloped and are now travelling through Europe. Mary documents in letters and a journal that she believed this trip was a romantic tale and that she and Percy were characters in the story. If this doesn’t tell you about Mary’s mindset when it came to Percy, then I don’t know what will. Though Mary and Percy were not alone–her stepsister Claire Clairmont was travelling with them. As I said earlier, Harriet's and Percy's son was born in late 1814 and it’s said that Percy was pretty excited about the birth of his upcoming second child. During this time, Mary, whilst on the road with Percy and Claire, had fallen pregnant with her first child by Percy and it was a very difficult pregnancy. So, Mary, whilst sick and suffering during her own pregnancy, and who had been disowned by her father, had to endure her foolish lover sending her mixed messages about the pregnancy with the wife he had abandoned. Not only this but Percy is also said to have intensely enjoyed the company of Claire Clairmont who was about a year younger than Mary herself (she would have been 15 or 16 at the time, for context). To top this off, Mary believed that Claire and Percy were lovers, and I don’t blame her. And if that wasn’t enough to deal with, poor Mary lost her baby in Feb. 1815. It was a little girl, and she was born two months prematurely when Mary was aged just 17 years old.
No surprise, then, that Mary fell into a deep, deep depression at this time.
Let’s fast forward to May 1816.
Claire, who was still hanging around with Percy and Mary, introduces them both to Lord Byron, at his holiday home in Switzerland. Lord Byron was a major influencer of the Romantic movement but he, too, was a bit of an arsehole when it came to treating women with respect. It was common knowledge that he had bedded Claire many times but was more interested in meeting her sister. And, when he did, his interest in Claire all but evaporated. Hm.
Anyways. All of them are in Switzerland, confined to their grand manors by the heavy rain and bored senseless. It was then that Lord Byron suggested that they all go away for a while, write a ghost story, come back and tell it to the group. Unfortunately, Mary seriously struggled with this task. Try as she might, she just couldn't come up with a story. Then, sometime in mid-June 1816, Mary had a nightmare. I'll let Mary herself tell you more about it:
"I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half-vital motion. Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world—"
I’m sure you can guess what book this inspired.
I mean, I hate that she woke terrified from this dream but if it wasn't for this dream, one of the most beautiful and deeply philosophical books of all time wouldn't have been written. So, there's that.
After working on the book for almost two years, Frankenstein (also titled The Modern Prometheus) was published in Jan 1818 when Mary was just 20 years old. Remember when I told you about Charlotte Brontë and her sisters publishing under male pseudonyms? Mary did something similar–she published Frankenstein anonymously, probably for the same reasons that the Brontë sisters published under their false names (that is, men tend to immediately discredit and devalue anything women do). Think I'm talking out of my butt here? No—because society proved Mary and the Brontës assumption right once again: when Frankenstein was published, Society automatically assumed that Percy Shelley was the author.
Cue groans of frustration from women everywhere.
Tragically, things didn't get much better for Mary after this.
Thanks to her husband's problems with debt and creditors, Mary and Percy spent many years living on the road and he spent an increasing amount of time away from Mary (funnily enough, this was also what he did to Harriet). Again, Mary’s stepsister Claire joined them. Now, Claire had fallen pregnant with Lord Byron's child during their visit. She then gave birth to the baby—a little girl by the name of Allegra in Jan 1817. Lord Byron actually agreed to take in the baby girl, which he did sometime after March 1818. Byron, however, only took in the child on the promise that her mother, Claire, would have nothing more to do with her. Again, I’m not surprised—Lord Byron was an arsehole. He notorious for having many love affairs, including one with his half-sister, Augusta.
One good thing did come out of this, though–his wife, Lady Byron (Anabella), took their daughter and left Lord Byron. And when I say left, she left left - going the whole nine yards and divorced him. Good for her! Oh, it gets even better - the reason that Lord Byron was in Switzerland in the summer was 1816 is because he had fled England. The scandal of his divorce, the rumours of his incestuous relationship with his half-sister and also major problems with debt and money proved too much and Lord Byron left England in April 1816 and never returned. Well, well, well - if it isn’t the consequences of one's own actions.
Alright, that’s enough time wasted on that jerk.
Back to Mary, Percy and Claire.
The trio arrived in Italy in 1818 also with the intention of never again returning to England. Whilst their time in Italy was incredible for both Mary and Percy in terms of creativity and productivity, Mary began to experience increasing episodes of deep, dark depression. This was exacerbated further by Percy's wandering eye and interest in other women. I know, I know. Trust me, I am just as shocked as you are at this.
From here, things continued on a downward trajectory for Mary. In Sept 1818 and again in June 1819, poor Mary (aged 21) lost two children: Clara and William respectively. Letters from Mary to friends indicate that Mary blamed herself for her children’s death—they had travelled to Italy and whilst Mary intended for the journey to improve Percy’s health, her children contracted malaria and died there. It’s only natural that Mary would blame herself. I can’t even begin to imagine the depths of despair that Mary, in her early 20s and having experienced the worst life had to offer (all thanks to Percy), felt.
I want to say that things improved for Mary after this, but I would be lying to you.
In June of 1822, Mary tragically miscarried and began to bleed so heavily that she almost died (are you listening, anti-abortion activists? See how denying girls and women access to abortions and bodily autonomy kills them? See how filling little girls' heads that they should all strive to be mothers and that they have little value in society if they choose not to have children is nothing short of lethal?!).
Percy, however, is the person credited for saving her life after he placed her in a bathtub full of ice. Alright, alright, I’ll give him that one. Thanks, Percy!
This act, however, was probably his last good deed: about two weeks later Percy Shelley met his demise. This is how it happened: at the time, Percy was incredibly focused on a lady named Jane Williams, who was the wife of Percy and Mary's friend, Edward Williams. When Percy wasn't writing copious amounts of love poetry to Jane or about Jane (while Mary suffered mentally), Percy spent a lot of time with Edward and the pair enjoyed sailing in their newly-purchased sailboat. Then, on 8th July, 1822, a storm rolled in whilst the men were out sailing and Percy drowned.
Take all the time you need with that.
After Percy's death, Mary, ever the devoted wife and talented author, continued to edit Percy's work and have them published. She resolved to live by her pen and support her son, Percy Jr. Which, incredibly, she managed to do. She also managed to convince her father-in-law Sir Timothy Shelley of giving her a yearly amount on which to live by. She prided herself on being difficult and stubborn and eventually, Sir Timothy paid her the money but would only deal with her through lawyers and never in person. Win! Despite this, things were still pretty rough financially for Mary and her son. Mainly because Sir Timothy couldn't let the past go and still disapproved of Mary's and Percy's relationship and subsequent marriage even though his son was dead. Talk about petty.
This is where Mary Shelley's life actually begins to turn around and Mary begins to show her many other qualities. 'Till now she had suffered tremendously—physically, mentally, socially and emotionally and it's most likely that due to the events in her life she gave us the most incredible Gothic stories of in modern history. Nevertheless, she persevered and continued to read, write and edit. She met all kinds of interesting characters including a French writer and an American actor (this actor proposed to Mary but the turned him down). She also continued to socialise in her father's circles and enjoyed the company she found there. Not only that but Mary continued to write and edit and promote her mother's beliefs about women's rights. Need more reason to love her? Okay, here you go: Mary helped a same-sex couple, Isabel Robinson and Mary Diana Dods, escape to France to live in peace under the guise of husband and wife. Mary's role in this scheme was to obtain false passports for the couple, which she did gladly. After this, Mary continued to support women that society had cast out by offering support and money to help them through their tough times. On top of this, she was still supporting her son by ensuring he got a good education, going so far as to move closer to his college so he didn't have to pay boarding fees there.
By the mid-1840s, Mary was the target of three different blackmail attempts. Mary easily thwarted these plans by telling her son about them. Her son then got a friend of his to bribe a police chief, who raided the home of one of the blackmailers and who seized the letter's he was using to blackmail Mary. Another blackmail attempt was also thwarted when Mary simply refused to give in and pay the ransom demanded.
Nice.
Sadly, Mary's final years were besieged with agonising headaches and extreme bouts of dizziness and paralysis. It was later discovered she had a brain tumour. This prevented her from enjoying her favourite past times of reading and writing in her final years - something which greatly saddens me.
There is one more fact that only deepens my love for Mary - after her death, her son and his wife looked through Mary's box desk and discovered locks of hair from her children who had passed away—and a segment of her husband's heart.
Epic.
So, there you have it. A very brief summation of the great Mary Shelley. I feel I’ve done her a great injustice but I’ve included links below for further reading about her and the people she knew throughout her life.
Notice how I haven't focused much on her literary achievements–this is deliberate. You can Google Mary and find page after page about all the things she's written. What I wanted to do was explore who she was, where she came from, who influenced her and why we should admire, honour and respect her.
I also want to point out that I am aware of how much this article talks about Percy and the men in Mary's life. The irony isn't lost on me but I hope it highlights something: how much a woman's life is controlled and influenced (whether directly or indirectly) by men, both good and bad. Her father worked hard to give Mary an education. He believed in her. William Baxter, too. Percy, on the other hand? Different story. Some may argue that if it wasn't for Percy, Mary wouldn't have achieved half of what she achieved. I cannot disagree with this enough. Mary was imaginative, rebellious and loved to travel, read and write. She would have travelled with or without Percy, perhaps even more so if she hadn't married him and therefore been plagued by his health problems, infidelity and money issues. She would have created stories regardless. I firmly believed she would have written Frankenstein eventually - after all, the inspiration for that story came from her own mind. Neither Percy, nor Lord Byron, or indeed, anyone else in that group, had anything to do with it.
Mary lived her life not caring one iota about societal norms. Scandal followed her and her family wherever she went but still, she continued to practice what she had been taught and what she believed in, including non-exclusivity. The concept of 'free love' was something Mary believed in, and whilst she did form several strong emotional bonds with men and women outside of her marriage, there is absolutely no evidence to support that she engaged in any physical or intimate relations other than with her husband. Yet still, history will, and does, demonize Mary by labelling her a 'husband stealer' and a ‘swinger’ and all that. I've also had friends tell me "Oh, yeah, Mary was awesome because she ran off with her sister's husband haha."
Well, now we know that's not true and I’ve tried to really pull away from this impression by providing context to Mary’s life and environment. She was an incredibly intelligent and imaginative woman, set in her ways by liberal-minded parents who sought to shake up the status quo and promote rights and equality for women. This is something Mary continued to do throughout her life, especially in her later years, all the while dealing with Percy’s bullshit and many a failed pregnancy, one of which nearly claimed her life. Throughout it all, though, Mary continued to shine like the beautiful obsidian jewel she was. She focused on her writing and editing and striving to be the best mother she could be and, by the end of her life, was highly regarded by all she came into contact with.
All of this in the 1800s, when women were seen, judged and discriminated against but never heard.
Mary Shelley
30th August 1797 - 1st Feb 1851 (54yo)
Links and Further Reading:
Harriet Shelley - Harriet Shelley (upenn.edu)