Title: The Mortal Immortal, A Tale
Author: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Date of First Publication: December 1833
Publisher: The Keepsake for MDCCCXXXIV, ed. Frederic Mansel Reynolds (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman [1833]) 71-87.
Bibliographic Reference: Charles Robinson, Notes to Mary Shelley: The Collected Tales
Type: Short story
Keywords: BYRONIC HERO; FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER; POSTHUMAN; SYMPATHETIC MONSTER; WOMEN WRITING MONSTERS
Critical Summary: The Mortal Immortal deals with the cursed life of Winzy, a young man that who has lived for 323 years. He recollects the events that led to his immortality. Winzy worked for the professor and alchemist Cornelius Agrippa. At first, he did not accept the employment offer made by Agrippa. However, Winzy’s love for Bertha, his childhood sweetheart and love of his life, prompted him to accept the offer in hopes that the money he made could be sufficient to give her a comfortable living.
Cornelius Agrippa spent many days working on an elixir. Winzy was not aware of the complete purpose of the elixir, but he chose to drink it when he felt Bertha had left him for Albert Hoffer, a favorite of her protectress. Winzy drinks it in an attempt to cure himself from love. To his surprise, Winzy wakes up the next day rejuvenated, but with no knowledge of what he has consumed, discovering that Bertha is still true to him. Agrippa sets back to work, unsuccessfully, on the elixir once again since Winzy drank half of it and dropped the rest. Five years later Agrippa is onhis deathbed and reveals the purpose of the elixir. Winzy has to live with the fact that Bertha is getting older while he continues to look twenty years old. Bertha is confused, but does not know the reason behind Winzy’s continual youthful look. She believes that it is a spell that he must break in order for him to get old with her. Winzy confesses the truth and tell Bertha that he must leave her so that she may continue on with her life. Bertha accepts the situation and tells Winzy that she wants to start a new life with him somewhere neither one of them can be recognized.
Winzy and Bertha move to western France to begin their new life. It is here that Winzy witnesses the slow death of Bertha. He cares for her until she perishes. Bertha’s death causes him to realize that there will never be another woman that he can love the way that he has loved Bertha. Winzy also discovers that he feels the effects of old age taking a physical toll on him despite the fact that his outward appearance continues to be that of a twenty year old. The elixir does not prevent the aging process, but only keeps the drinker from dying.
The Mortal Immortal is a short tale dealing with the loneliness that comes from losing everything that is important. Agrippa loses control of his experiment by entrusting it to the young Winzy. Yet, Winzy loses control of his emotions and the action he takes causes the misery he must endure as an immortal. This concept of being immortal brings forth the question of whether Winzy can continue to be classified as a human due to his transcendence of death. Winzy lives a post-human existence as soon as he becomes immortal. Because of that, he no longer shares that human companionship that he had with Bertha. The Mortal Immortal is a story similar to Shelley’s Frankenstein because it deals with solitude and loss. Like Winzy, The Creature in Frankenstein endures solitude and the loss of his creator. Both Winzy and The Creature are doomed to live a life without affection or connection to another being.
Administrative Notes: Diego Lopez, CSUF. Edited by Adriana Lora and Samuel Ortiz, CSUF