Mary shelley on her mother and father

Shelley ]. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, by Richard Rothwell. Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, was the foremost feminist thinker of her generation, remembered today for her A Vindication of the Rights of Woman , a passionate plea for state- regulated education for girls. She laid the utmost stress on female independence. Mary's father, William Godwin, was a radical political philosopher and novelist he wrote both Political Justice and Caleb Williams.

What is mary shelley's mother still known for

Mary's parents adhered to revolutionary principles both in politics and in their private lives, but in spite of despising the institution of marriage they took the step after all to facilitate Mary's entrance into society. However, Mary Wollstonecraft died ten days after the birth of her daughter from puerperal fever. Her daughter from an affair with Gerald Imlay, Fanny, lived with William Godwin and his new-born child.

Before her marriage to poet Percy Bysshe Shelley , despite the fact that she had grown up without ever knowing her birth mother Mary always referred to herself as "Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin. William Godwin courted various women looking for a new mother for the two girls until he finally met Mary Jane Vial better known as Clairmont and married her on 21 December Mary Jane had two children, Charles and Jane, who later called herself Claire.

Her stepmother did not encourage Mary Godwin's intellectual curiosity and did not bring her up according to her mother's principles. Mary never went to school, but was taught to read and write at home. Her father encouraged her to use her imagination, so she started "scribbling" at a very young age. He also gave her access to his extensive library of English authors.

He allowed her to sit quietly in a corner and listen to his political, philosophical, scientific or literary discussions with his friends, among them the literary lions William Wordsworth, Charles and Mary Lamb, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and William Hazlitt.