Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley was born on August 30, 1797 Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin. The mother, Mary Wollstonecraft was an eighteenth century feminist and author of the renowned essay “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” (“Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin) (1797-1851)”). The father, William Godwin, was a novelist and a political philosopher (“Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley”). Even though both parents objected to the institution of marriage, the married while Wollstonecraft was five months pregnant with Mary only to make their child be accepted in society (“Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin) (1797-1851)”). Mary Wollstonecraft died due to childbirth complications ten days after Mary Shelley was born. Mary Wollstonecraft also had a child named Fanny Imlay from a previous relationship (“Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin) (1797-1851)”).
Four years after Wollstonecraft’s death, William Godwin married a new wife. The Mrs. Godwin brought along her two children from a previous relationship into the newly formed marriage. Mrs. Godwin favored her children over Mary and Fanny. The lack of attention Mrs. Godwin gave to Mary made Mary discontented with her step mother (“Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin) (1797-1851)”). Also Mary did not receive an education as prestigious as Mrs. Godwin’s daughters received. One of Mrs. Godwin’s daughters even was sent to boarding school to learn French, while Mary stayed home and received no encouragement from her stepmother to learn. Although Mary didn’t receive help from her stepmother, “she learned to read from … Godwin and his wife, and followed Godwin’s advice that the proper way to study was to read two to three books simultaneously” (“Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwi...
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..., and “in 1848 she began to suffer what were apparently her first symptoms of a brain tumor that would eventually killed her” (“Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley”). She died on February 1, 1851 in London. She was buried with her mother and father.
Works Cited
“ ‘Frankenstein: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.” DISCovering Authors. Online Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center – Junior. Gale. St. Francis High School – GA. 17 Feb. 2011
“Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.” DISCovering Authors. Online Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center – Junior. Gale. St. Francis High School – GA. 17 Feb. 2011
“Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin) (1797-1851).” DISCovering Authors. Online Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center – Junior. Gale. St. Francis High School – GA. 17 Feb. 2011
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Mary Shelley (born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin) was born on August 30, 1797, in London, England. She was the daughter of a philosopher/political writer William Godwin and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, an author. Despite her lack of a formal education, Shelley made great use of her fa...
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Mary Shelly was born in 1797 and died in 1851; she was the second wife
Mary Godwin was born in London in 1797 to prominent philosopher William Godwin and well-known feminist and author Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin. Shortly after Mary's birth, her mother died of complications from childbirth, and this event set the stage for the strained relationship between Mary and her father. Godwin blamed Mary for her mother's death and put her in the care of her unqualified stepmother, who favored her own children and forced Mary to do tedious housework. Godwin felt that punishing Mary would satisfy his grief, and consequently Mary became withdrawn in her studies. Her talent for writing is believed to have saved her from premature suicide.
Mary Shelley was born in 1797 to Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, two of the greatest liberal thinkers of the time. Her mother died after two weeks of giving birth to her, leaving Shelley feeling both abandoned by and guilty of her mother’s death. Her father was left with the responsibility of raising her; however, he did not fulfill his duties to her as a father. He gave her only a haphazard education, and largely ignored her emotional needs. She met Percy Shelley when she was only fifteen, and when they ran away together two years later, her father disowned her (Duncan, Greg. "Frankenstein: The Historical Context."). Percy was married at the time, but left his first wife when Shelley was pregnant with their first child. His first wife, Harriet, killed herself s...
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Mary Shelley, the author of the novel Frankenstein, was born on August 30th 1797. He father, William Godwin, was a philosopher, and her mother was Mary Wollstonecraft, who is still well known for being an author and one of the first feminists. But unfortunately Mary Shelley’s mother died of puerperal fever ten days after giving birth to her daughter. As Mary’s father was a philosopher, Mary had to listen to many intellectual talks. Mary was strongly impressed by the brilliant talks she listened to since she was young as she was surrounded by famous writers and philosophers. The intellectual environment in which she lived stimulated her Romantic sensibility and the political revolutionary ideas of the time. Later on in life Mary married a man named Percy Bysshe Shelley. Percy was a poet and a member of the Romantic Movement. But unfortunately Mary had to elope with Shelley at the age of 16 as he was...