Title: Blood and Ice
Author: Liz Lochhead
Date of First Publication: 1982
Place of Publication: Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Type: Play
Characters: Mary Shelley; Lord Byron; Percy Shelley; Claire Clairmont; The Creature
Themes: WOMEN WRITING MONSTERS; BYRONIC HERO; SYMPATHETIC MONSTER
Critical Summary: Blood and Ice is a play that sets Mary Shelley along with her husband Percy and half sister Claire and of course Byron back to her young age of eighteen, in the early stages of her and Percy’s relationship. This play explores how Mary Shelley created Frankenstein and his Creature out of past traumas in her life. One trauma that Mary Shelley discusses throughout the play is the death of her mother. This is a trauma set a distance between Mary and her half sister Claire. Claire feels the need to get Mary’s approval, and constantly strives for attention. At the house in Geneva where Mary, Percy, and Lord Byron created a comapct to create the most horrifying story, Mary’s inspiration stems from nightmares she has where the Creature is beginning to make comments; as the play continues, the Creature appears in the midst of scenes between Mary Shelley and other characters in the play, unseen by anyone but Mary and the audience, and speaks.
Blood and Ice is a play written by Liz Lochhead and was first preformed at the Traverse Theatre, in Edinburgh, Scotland. The play is about Mary Shelly’s tragic childhood and how that connects to her creation of the sympathetic monster. Her play takes place in the summer on the shores of Lake Geneva where she is on holiday with her soon-to-be husband Percy Shelley, her friend Lord Byron, and her half sister Claire.
In the play, when the group challenges themselves to write horror stories, Byron and Percy believe that Mary could not rise to the challenge due to the fact that she is a women, and in their minds women do not think of such things. Little did they know that inthe play Mary’s monster was already created from the tragic events of her childhood. As the play progresses we see Mary Shelley start to fear her own creation and come to fear how she could create something so aggressive and destructive. Although Mary was conflicted about what others would think of the creation we see that Mary Shelley also became obsessed with finishing her novel, a trait that we find in common between writers and mad scientists. To stop writing in the middle of a novel is almost unbearable because it is giving up on what you want to believe it could be. This play puts an emphasis on creation, the creation of writing and how your past highly influences creative work.
Throughout the play, the creature whispers to Mary asking the infamous question also asked throughout the novel itself, “Why did you make me?” This is a question that Mary Shelly along with many other writers ask themselves. The answers are not easy to find.
Administrative Notes: Juzana Mares, CSUF; Dr. David Sandner, CSUF (editing)