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Mary Shelley's Journey

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Shelley also learned a great deal from the steady stream of guests that filtered through the house. She was inquisitive and loved asking questions to gather information to write her own short stories. When she was older, a certain guest named Percy Shelley (who frequented the house as a pupil of Godwin) taught her what it was like to feel love. Unfortunately, Percy was married and his wife would not finalize their divorce. Deciding to take matters into their own hands, the couple ran off in 1814, hiding out in various locations across Europe. The story of their adventure is told in a series of letters they wrote together called A History of a Six Weeks Tour. (Shelley, History of a Six Weeks' Tour) This further ostracized her from her father and, since the couple was cut off from his fortune, they suffered through great financial difficulty. (C. Editors) …show more content…

Then, during a spell of particularly bad weather, they decided to have a horror story contest. That contest was the birth of Frankenstein. When Shelley told her story, Lord Byron reportedly ran out of the room shrieking. (C. Editors) Encouraged by her husband, Shelley continued writing and editing her story until it was published in 1818. Frankenstein was one of her very first published works and is lighter than her later works despite its dark themes. In the book, there are two major themes that jump out at the reader: that we must be wary of our creations, for science can push man beyond the scope of what he should control and, that there’s an inane darkness in people. (C.

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