MARY SHELLEY
UK/Luxemberg, 2017, 110 minutes, Colour.
Elle Fanning, Maisie Williams, Douglas Booth, Steve Dillane, Tom Sturridge, Joanne Froggatt, Bel Powley, Ben Hardy, Hugh O' Conor
Directed by Haifa Al- Mansour
Mary Shelley is synonymous with Frankenstein. This seems to be her basic reputation. However, as this film highlights, there is much more to her as a person, her life, relationships, her ideas as well as the greater range and depth of themes in Frankenstein.
This is a period drama, set in the second decade of the 19 century. It is the period of transition from the Enlightenment to the Romantic era. The Enlightenment was personified by Mary’s parents, the writer and thinker, Mary Wollstonecraft, and her father, William Godwin, thinker and novelist. They were concerned with political, economic, intellectual issues, writing, discussing, instilling this search for meaning into their daughter, Mary Godwin.
During the action of this film, Mary moves from the age of 16 to the age of 18, a period of life as a teenager but a period of moving from adolescence to adulthood for Mary herself. Given the household that she grew up in and the influence of her parents, it is not surprising that we see Mary as a writer, writing in her journal, confiding in her half-sister, Claire. However, there is tension between Mary and her stepmother. This means being sent off to Scotland for some time, calming her down as well as broadening her horizons.
But, the important person in her life was the poet Percy Shelley, already published, in his 20s, a public figure. He is an apprentice to Mary’s father and she falls in love with him, with a passion that drives her beyond intellectual thought. In the household, it does not matter that they are not married (although it is a shock when Shelley’s wife, Henrietta, the accosts Mary in the street and she discovers the truth). Mary becomes pregnant but loses her child, part of the financial and accommodation difficulties that they encounter.
But the romantic figure of the time was Lord Byron and paths cross, especially when Claire is infatuated with Byron and begins an affair with him, and becoming pregnant.
The occasion of the drama for this encounter is the performance of the play, Phantasmagoria, a lecturer explaining Galvanism, the role of electricity, current enabling limbs to move – and the question of the scientist electrifying a body to make it live. Mary was interested in the science, in the philosophy, in the nature of life and possibilities of creation. And, as is well known – and was dramatised in the 1980s by Ken Russell in Gothic – the famous night on the Lake Geneva where Byron and Claire, Percy and Mary, were present with Byron’s physician, John Polidori and, to wile away the time, they were to write horror stories. Mary, with her love for ghost stories as well as science, created Frankenstein, the new Prometheus, who was to steal, like his predecessor, life from the gods through the new fire, electricity.
The original novel for this film, the adapter, the director and Elle Fanning as Mary bring a strong positive female, feminist perspective to the story and the storytelling. Mary fails to get a publisher until someone agrees that it can be printed with the author as anonymous and an introduction by Shelley himself. Ultimately, the book is published under her name. Shelley dies. Mary lives another 30 years or more into the 19th century.
Elle Fanning is a strong presence as Mary, indicating the intellectual power as well is the emotions. There is an interesting British supporting cast with Douglas Booth the Shelley, Tom Sturridge almost over-romanticised as the narcissistic Byron, Steve Dillane as William Godwin, Joanne Froggatt is his second wife, Bill Powley as Claire and Ben Parker giving an interesting performance as Polidori, subservient to Byron, wanting to write a vampire story, its being published under Byron’s name, his subsequent penury and death.
An immersion into this Romantic period with all its ambiguities of ideas and emotions.
1. Audience knowledge of Mary Shelley? Expectations? In herself, her distinguished parents, her relationship with Shelley? The scenario of the night at Geneva, her writing Frankenstein?
2. The writer, the director, the cast and the female perspective? Performances?
3. Costumes and decor, the 19th century, the move from the Enlightenment to the romantic era, London, the streets, shops, the publishers? The glimpses of Scotland? The home, family? The contrast with the Swiss countryside, Geneva, the mansion, interiors, the storm? The musical score?
4. The title and the focus on Mary? The reputation of her mother, philosophy, liberation, women’s issues? Her personal life, romance, attempted suicide, death after childbirth? Mary and her age, relationship with Claire, half-sister? The clashes with her stepmother, the hostility in the house? Her relationship with her father, admiration for him, his thinking, his books? Life at home, ideas, freedom? Shelley and his presence, apprenticed to Godwin?
5. The portrait of Mary, from age 16 to 18, her poise, her diary and her writing, her loving stories, telling the ghost stories? Sensible and practical? The encounter with Shelley, the romantic involvement, of a teenage girl? Clashes with her stepmother, her father sending her to Scotland, the effect of the welcome of the family, adding to her experience?
6. The relationship with Shelley, romantic, sexual, her focus on Shelley and not wanting sexual freedom? The advertisement for the theatre, the phantasmagoria? The style of its staging, the compere, the influence of electricity and galvanising? Mary and her fascination with a life, the creation of life? The influence on her thinking? The later discussions with Polidori, life, power? All this as a preparation for her novel?
7. Shelley, his age, passion, the touch of the fop, his poetry and reputation? Running away with Harriet, the marriage, the children, the separation? His wanting freedom, freedom and commitment, in love and sexuality? His response to Mary? And a quotation from his poems?
8. Harriet accosting Mary in the street, Mary’s reaction, the children? Confronting Shelley? The later news of Harriet’s death?
9. The introduction of Byron, his reputation, manner, a rake, narcissistic? Claire, the attraction, going to the theatre, the note, the casual relationship, her pregnancy? Byron and his accomplishments, poetry, plays? Adventures?
10. Claire, contrast with Mary, her character, flighty, attraction to Byron, pregnancy, wanting to go to Geneva?
11. Geneva, the exotic company, the holiday, their being bored? Mary and her reaction to Byron? Reaction to Polidori? The issue of stories, Mary and the ghost stories?
12. Polidori as a character, Byron’s dcotor, quiet, wanting to write on the vampire, his being ridiculed? The publication, attributed to Byron, Polidori as penniless, visiting Mary, the discussion, the news of his suicide?
13. Mary, her dreams, the themes of life, electricity, power? Writing the novel, the title and the focus on Prometheus? Science, life, the creation of a monster, the dependence of the monster on the creator and vice versa? Electricity as the contemporary fire? Symbol of loneliness, isolation? The monster and killing? The symbol of Mary and her life and isolation?
14. The visits to the publishers, rejection of the manuscript, of her as a woman, of the theme? The range of publishers? The final agreement, anonymous authorship, the introduction by Shelley?
15. Shelley, his behaviour, his drinking, the note about Harriet’s suicide and the effect on him? His moving away from Mary?
16. Mary, her independence, her father, his organising the gathering for the novel, Shelley announcing the truth, the reconciliation?
17. The information for the aftermath, Shelley’s death, Mary’s longer life and achievement?
