Comparing Mary Shelley's 'The Last Man And Mathilda'

Mary Shelley is a famous writer, who was never really given her props . She is famous for writing the story we all know as Frankenstein. Mary Shelley had many tragedies throughout her life and many special moments which are expressed through her writings in two books of hers “ The Last Man” and “Mathilda”. Mary Shelley was born on August 30,1797 in Somers Town , London, England. She is the daughter of philosopher and political writer William Godwin and famous feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. She never really knew her mother because she died shortly after her birth who she was a eventually named after. Her dad was left to care for her and her half-sister and Imlay Wollstonecraft. Imlay Is the daughter from an affair her mother had with a …show more content…
During her lifetime Mary was taken very serious as a writer. Viewers would often miss the political edge that Shelley would have throughout her writing. Shelley had many tragedies that also reflect in her writings. Two of her writings that really showed the tragedies that happen in her life are “The Last Man” and “Mathilda”. “The Last Man” is a science fiction novel which was first published in February 1826. It was published by Henry Colburn in London. It wasn't republished until 1965. The book has three volumes to it and it has many chapters in each volume. The book tells of a future world who has been ravaged by the mysterious plague. It also provides a fresh insight into one of England's most famous, yet least read authors. At the time it was virtually unknown and harshly reviews until a scholarly revival beginning in the 1900s. The last man in the story is Lion Verney who is an orphan of an impoverished nobleman. He was originally lawless, self-willed and resentful of nobility for casting aside his father. “The Last Man” laments the loss of Shelley's friends, but also questions the romantic political ideals for which they stood. One thing that Shelley wrote in her book that reflects on her life is “ she became a widow, she urged all her thoughts to educating her son Adrian”. This is just like when Shelley became a widow at the age of 24 because her husband drowned. …show more content…
It is the second longest work fiction of Mary Shelley. It was written between August 1819 and February 1820. Mathilda exists in a rough draft and a final copy. Mathilda is a book that deals with common romantic themes of incest and suicide. The book uses fantasy to study a far more personal reality. It is about a young woman barely in her twenties who is narrating from her deathbed. She writes her story as a way of explaining her actions to her friend Woodville. Also her narration follows her lonely upbringing and the climaxes at a point when her unnamed father confesses his incestuous love for her. This is then followed by the suicide of her father who drowned. This eventually leads to her death. But her relationship with the young poet fails to reverse her emotional withdrawal or prevent her lonely death. Writing this book distracted Mary from the loss of two kids. The loss of her one year old daughter Clara at Venice in September 1818 and the loss of her three year old son William June 1819 in Rome. Because of the losses it plunged Mary into depression that distanced emotionally and sexually from Percy. It left her as he put it, “ on the hearth of pale despair”. The book Mathilda is narrated in first person. When reading this book you will quickly recognize that she is narrating from her deathbed. Because she is narrator this is the only reason she is exposing what seems to be a