Mary Shelley Research Paper

Mary Shelley was born on August 30, 1797, in London, England. She was born to a father who was a philosopher and a political writer and a mother who was a popular feminist but not long after giving birth to Mary she passes. Growing up Mary didn't have a formal education so she used her fathers library to read. During the summer of 1812, Mary was sent to Scotland and on a visit back home she meet Percy Shelley who was with his wife, Harriet Westbrook. Percy was a student of Mary's father.
In March of 1814, Mary is sent back to England to stay. When Mary came back it was during a time where Percy and his wife were having problems in their marriage. This was the beginning of Percy and Mary’s relationship and eventually they ran off together secretly.

A couple of months later in October, Mary’s half sister, Fanny, committed suicide. Just a month later Percy’s wife, Harriet, drowned herself. This left Mary and Percy free to marry each other, so on December 30 they got married at St. Mildred's Church in London. Early the next year they moved to Marlow, England, and had their third child, Clara. In 1818, after struggling with debt for a couple of years they decided it would be best if they moved to Italy to get away from their financial struggles in England. During this time both William and Clara died and Mary was miserable. For about a year Mary couldn't be consoled after the death of her children but started improving when her son, Percy, was born in November 1819. Percy ends up being the only child that

On July 8, 1822, her husband ended up drowning at sea in a boating accident off the coast of Livorno, Italy, at the age of twenty-nine. When he died they decided to cremate him, but his heart wouldn't burn. Scientists now believe that the heart was calcified due to suffering earlier with tuberculosis. The heart was originally given to a friend of Percy’s, but he thought it was better to be given to Mary. Instead of burying it with the rest of his remains she decided to keep it and many believe that she carried it where ever she