Title: Mary Shelley’s Body

Author: David Templeton

Date of First Publication: 2016

Place of Publication: Eternal Frankenstein

Type: Short story

Characters: Mary Shelley; Percy Shelley; Lord Byron

Themes: ANDROID; WOMEN WRITING MONSTERS

Critical Summary: Mary Shelley finds herself reanimated, regaining consciousness in her grave. She has lived her full life from Aug 30, 1797 to Feb 1, 1851, having died from a brain tumor but after being buried, somehow regains her consciousness. Told from a first-person perspective from Mary Shelley’s point of view, Shelley narrates two plot lines. One is of the experience she is presently having of life after death and juxtaposes it to the experiences her creature had in Frankenstein and the other are flashbacks of her personal life and how each event shaped not just who Mary Shelley was but also how these personal experiences shaped the plot and symbolism in Frankenstein. Shelley provides very intimate details of her whole life, from her childhood, adolescence, and adulthood and connects these personal experiences to all the creative choices that accumulated into becoming the novel Frankenstein.

Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, and Lord Byron appear as significant characters in Mary Shelley’s Body for the narrative is a type of autobiographical account told by Mary Shelley’s undead consciousness. The themes of women writing monsters and Android are relevant in this narrative because Shelley questions what it is to be human as she is reanimated but also vents her personal feelings of frustration and anger for the opposition she faced as the author of Frankenstein.

Administrative Notes:  Paul Jae Yi CSUF; Allison Archer CSUF