This was inspired by Frankenstein 2025. The wonderful Shiela O'Malley, whose writing I regularly read, was one of the few contributors to the film. I had read the book, and naturally was excited to see the movie. But to explain the first ever Science Fiction Book, we need a bit of a History lesson.

Mary Wollstonecraft was born in 1759. She was born in an initially middle class family which lost most of it's wealth later. She later, despite her safest option being choosing a career as a teach, moved to Paris to be a writer. In the middle of the French Revolution. She wrote the foundational text ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’.

Her work was based on her belief that women and men, despite various physical and sexual differences, were ultimately human. Women were taught to make themselves weaker to appeal to men. Wollstonecraft instead asked women to build an understanding of the world in themselves. She encouraged her readers to teach their young daughters to have a playful childhood not restricted by social pressures. She asked women to strive to attain the same values: truth, courage and selflessness, to the extent that they could. She asked men to get rid of the notion that women were fundamentally less than them since if that were the case, women would never have been able to shoulder any responsibility. Her work was radical for the 18th century. It is still quite radical, in some ways.

Some quotes first, because there are only one word to describe her writing: Metal -

I don’t want women to have power over men; I want them to have power over themselves.

The tyrants only want slaves, and the sensualists only want toys.

Rousseau declares that a woman should never for a moment feel herself to be independent, that she should be governed by fear to exercise her ‘natural’ cunning, and made a coquettish slave in order to make her a more alluring object of desire, a ‘sweeter’ companion to man whenever he chooses to relax himself. He carries his arguments (which he claims to infer from the indications of nature) still further, and indicates that truth and fortitude—the corner-stones of all human virtue—should be cultivated with certain restrictions, because with respect to the female character obedience is the great lesson which ought to be impressed _on the woman with unrelenting rigour. What nonsense!

What nonsense indeed.

Whatever effect circumstances have on people’s abilities, everyone can become virtuous by the exercise of his or her own reason; for if just one being was created with vicious inclinations—i.e. was created positively bad—what could save us from atheism? or if we worshipped a god, wouldn’t we be worshipping a devil?

If we worshipped a God, wouldn't we be worshipping a devil?

But as you can see from the first quote, she wasn't exactly easy on women either. The book is a tough read, you still recognise some of the behaviours we see today in it. It is in such strong favour of rationality, of development of character, of mental toughness. And she was all of those things. But she was a flawed human too. You can tell by reading the book how much these principles mean to her. But she herself fell short of them, often that too. She fell in love with a certain George Imlay. He was not really into her as much though. She did have her first child with him, even though they were never married. She went around Europe pretending they were so that she could be safe. It was brutal. When he rejected her, she made a few suicide attempts. It's so human, you know such people. They are principled, they believe a lot in those principles, but their real life struggles make them never quite reach those heights. You can tell they are tough on themselves for it.

But still, it wasn't all bad for her. She always kept up her writing ofcourse. And she found another person - William Godwin. They got married, both revolutionaries in many ways. Mary Wollstonecraft died while giving birth to her second child, Mary Godwin. Pregnancy was the "Valley of Death" for her.

But her daughter read her writing, was really inspired by it. When she started her romance with Percy Shelley they would MEET AT HER MOTHER'S GRAVE. They then ran away together. She was 16, he was 22. Amazing. 1816 was the "Year without a Summer" in Europe. A volcano exploded in Indonesia, releasing ash and gases into the atmosphere. It literally blocked the sunlight. And thus the monster was born. Mary Shelley was 19 when she wrote it.

The book was a sensation. Her Husband died a few years later. His boat sank. She spent her life writing, and maintaining his legacy as well. She had a few kids with him too, many died during childbirth, or a little while after. It was a difficult life, but she lived till 53. And she wrote a book so good it is still making me think today. Perhaps that is the best gifts these two women gave us. More about the book and the movie in the next part.

Refs

1. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

2. More for Fun - Percy Shelley's Insane Wiki Page

More Quotes from Mary Wollstonecraft

The passions that have been celebrated for their durability have always been unfortunate.

Fondness is a poor substitute for friendship.

By its very nature, love must be transitory.

Searching for a secret that would make it constant is as wild as searching for the philosopher’s stone.