Author: Mary Shelley
Date of First Publication: 1831
Place of Publication: The Keepsake for 1831 (anthology)
Type: Short Story
Characters: No Character
Themes: POSTHUMAN; BYRONIC HERO; WOMEN WRITING MONSTERS; RACE/POLITICS
Critical Summary: The story begins with the protagonist, Guido, a young boy from the city Genoa, who loses his mother. The story progresses as he grows into adulthood; he decides to travel through Europe with an inheritance left to him by the death of his father. Guido squanders his inheritance with friends in Paris, and once his money is gone, he nearly becomes a beggar. He decides to return to his hometown to claim the hand of his childhood love, Juliet. However, if he is to take his daughter’s hand in marriage, Juliet’s father stipulates Guido restrict his financial carelessness. Guido is overwhelmed with disdain and returns to Paris. It isn’t long before Guido is walking along a beach with no money or food, and sees a ship battling a storm that ultimately leads to its destruction. A hideous, magical dwarf then washes up on shore with a treasure chest. The dwarf makes Guido an offer that he cannot refuse: he will give him the treasure chest, along with some food, in exchange for three days’ use of Guido’s attractive body. When the dwarf doesn’t return after the third day, Guido travels back to his hometown and finds that the dwarf has impersonated him and married Juliet. Guido quickly decides to break the spell by stabbing both himself and the dwarf. Guido wakes up in his beautiful body, and realizes the consequences of being prideful.
Mary Shelley explores various themes in this piece such as Posthuman/Last Man. This theme is revealed through the forced evolution of Guido when he transforms into the dwarf. Although the character Guido reveals the theme of Posthuman, he also represents the Byronic Hero. Like Victor in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, Guido loses his mother. As a child, Guido and his father take guardianship of his cousin Juliet because of the loss of her mother, similar to what happened with the Frankenstein family when they took in Elizabeth. Like Victor and Elizabeth, Guido and Juliet had a love for one another since they were children when Guido rescued her from their older cousin. Guido is adventurous, prideful, and needs to escape his home and family to discover himself like Victor. On the other hand, Juliet is gentle and quiet, which resembles Elizabeth. Guido proves to think himself superior to all others by disobeying his hometown and Juliet’s father, and is too arrogant, haughty, and prideful to admit to his mistakes and fix them. Women Writing Monsters is another a theme in this work being that Mary Shelley created a monster in the character of the magic dwarf, who exchanges bodies with a human. One can also see the theme of Race and Politics woven through this story because Guido frequently grapples with issues of social class. This is seen when he becomes poor on various occasions, when he is exiled from his hometown, and when he transforms into the dwarf, who is clearly repulsive to other human beings, much like the abjectly poor.
Administrative Notes: Leslie Morgan, CSUF; Adam Shelley, CSUF (editing)