Mary Shelley: the Young Woman who Created Frankenstein and Modern Science Fiction

Discover the story of the young woman who created Frankenstein, the first modern science fiction novel

Frankenstein belongs in the pantheon of classic monsters that make up the images we associate with the horror genre. Made even more famous by Boris Karloff's portrayal in the James Whale-directed film adaptation, this creature is the protagonist of the novel Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus, considered one of the first modern science fiction novels, both for its plot and for the themes it explores.

But it is not just its plot that made an impression on 19th-century society and continues to make an impression today. It’s the person responsible for its creation: 18-year-old Mary Shelley. Discover her fascinating story below:

A turbulent childhood and adolescence

Born in England in 1797, her mother–the philosopher and feminist activist Mary Wollstonecraft–died a month after giving birth. That left her father–the philosopher, politician, novelist, and first exponent of anarchist ideology, William Godwin–in charge of her education, which, although informal and chaotic, was also very rich and full. However, her father's second marriage to Mary Jane Clairmont, with whom Mary Shelley never had a good relationship, brought tension into her home and made her life difficult.

All this contributed to Mary, at the age of 16, beginning a love affair with the famous poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1814. She eloped with Percy, who was a married man, and they traveled through Europe and lived for a year in a relationship of free love. By the time they returned to England, Mary was pregnant, and they were rejected by the puritanical society of the time. They lived off Percy's family income and got married in 1816 after Shelley's first wife committed suicide.

It was then that life dealt Mary a tragic blow, which she would never get over, and that, sadly, she would be dealt more than once: the death of her daughter, who was born prematurely. Personal misfortunes and a chaotic life contributed to Mary suffering from depression. It was during this turbulent time that one of the most famous monsters in history would emerge.

It all began one stormy night

In May 1816, the couple decided to spend the summer in the Swiss village of Cologny at the Villa Diodati with the famous poet Lord Byron, Mary's half-sister, and some others. This getaway on the shores of Lake Geneva was to be the ideal escape from real life and a mood-boosting way to spend the summer. However, that year the weather took a turn, and rain kept them shut inside for days at a time. Ghost stories became a way to kill time at night while stuck in the luxurious house.

One night, Byron came up with an idea: each person present had to write a horror story that would scare and shock the others. At first, Mary found it difficult: she couldn't think of a story, and anxiety began to take hold of her. However, a conversation came up between Lord Byron and Shelley about the origin of life, experiments of the time, the limits of science, and the idea of reanimating a corpse.

This conversation made such an impression on Shelley that she was unable to sleep when she went to bed. She claims that her mind brought her the vision of a "pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together." So vivid were those images that even she was horrified. That night, Frankenstein's monster came to life in her restless mind.

He’s alive!

Mary Shelley was immediately possessed by the idea: she immediately began to write her story, seeking to terrify her readers as much as she was terrified by the visions she had had the night before.

Everyone knows this story’s plot. The scientist Victor Frankenstein, a medical student, defies the laws of nature by trying to bring a creature made from different parts of corpses to life. He awakens the creature using an unspecified scientific process (while the energy of storms is repeatedly mentioned, Shelley never wrote about the use of electricity). Frankenstein instantly realizes he has made a mistake and, horrified by the being he has created, flees his laboratory. The monster, left to his fate and rejected by society, begins to commit crimes that culminate in the murder of his creator's fiancée and best friend and, finally, the death of Victor.

The first version of Frankenstein was no more than a short story, a few pages, but her husband encouraged her to turn the tale into something more, a novel, and so it was published anonymously in 1818.

Is Frankenstein really the first work of modern science fiction?

Frankenstein explores themes that have become the pillars of modern science fiction: scientific morality, the limits and dangers of scientific development, and fear motivated by the early stages of the industrial revolution that was beginning at the time. It shows how capitalist tendencies attack human freedom and dignity, and the famous creature acts as a punishment for the irresponsible exploitation of scientific and technological advances.

Therefore, although the novel contains typical tropes of Gothic fiction and is framed within the Romantic movement, the writer Brian Aldiss defined it as the first science fiction novel. He believes it is very significant that the central character uses novel laboratory experiments to create an otherworldly character such as the creature. Because of this, and because of its philosophical and moral undertones, this novel has had an enormous influence, both on literature and on popular culture, and has led us down new paths leading to the creation of a range of stories, films, and plays.

However, the enormous success of this legendary novel cannot and should not obscure the other facets of this writer's life and work. Her husband Percy’s death as a result of a boating accident when Mary was just 25 years old, the death of two more of Mary’s children, and the various financial problems had a big impact on her later years, during which she became much less radical and innovative.

Despite this, Mary continued to write while also editing her husband's work up until a brain tumor ended her life at the age of 53. Her literary production (including novels, articles, travel books, etc.) and, above all, her struggle as a liberal ("open-minded," as her father defined her) woman were the pillars that marked her life and her work.

Heavily influenced by her mother's writing ("The memory of my mother has always been the pride and delight of my life," she said), Shelley fought for, just like her mother did before she was born, her political and feminist ideals: the importance of education, social justice, progress based on cooperation, the improvement of society using political power, equality between men and women, the defense of free love… She did all this despite all the barriers she faced as a result of the prejudices that pervaded society at the time.

She was, as her mother had been years before, a true pioneer of feminism. And as she said, "I think that I can maintain myself, and there is something inspiriting in the idea."

English version by @eloiseedgington.

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