Spoilers! Watch it before reading!
This film gave me everything I wanted and more. The aesthetic, the story, the characters, the ending. Perfect. Cinematic Masterpiece. It's one of those melodramas that had be walking around afterwards feeling like a ghost in this world.
Given that it's based on a true story, it was both an inspiring. Mary was taken advantage of by the man she loved, lost a child, was cheating on, sexually assaulted, betrayed, abandoned. She poured all of it into a book that reflected her abandonment, only for it to be published anonymously and her husband credited.
The movie had every element of a tragedy, but where they ended the movie was surprisingly uplifting. Percy publicly gave Mary credit for her book.
After watching Big Eyes and Colette, I did not see this coming. In both of those, the husbands took advantage of their wives; and even came to locking them in rooms to work. They were manipulative and the more they got, the more they wanted. The wives got credit in the end, but only against the husbands will.
In Mary Shelley, Percy volunteered this information. After seeing her hand him her finished book so easily, and then taking it to show various publishers, I had been anxious that she would lose her work like those other two women had. Then again after a publisher said yes and she told Percy it would have to be anonymous and he was to write the preface which would give him the illusion of having written the book. I figured he would steal it out from under her, having said he would be glad to write it. And for awhile, he did. He got the credit. The book was becoming more popular yet Mary was never praised - until she went to her dad's book store, where there were people gathered, and Percy announced that he had only inspired the abandonment expressed in the book. The words belonged to Mary.
I was brought to tears by that part. Finally, after all she had been through, she wasn't only getting credit, but respect. And Percy, a man who had royally screwed up their relationship, looked full of regret. I think after his ex wife killed herself and their daughter, he realized he was not a good man. He looked depressed, struggling, and he had turned to drinking. Then in the last scene we see him and Mary together until he reveals the truth at the bookstore, it's Mary telling him that he has destroyed their lives. And by the looks of it, he took that to heart.
Since it is based on the actual person who wrote Frankenstein, I was able to look up what happened after the movie ended. Which I did the next day to not spoil the ending it gave, which was a much happier note, but not nearly as badass.
Mary Shelley married Percy, they had 3 more kids together, but only one lived. She struggled with depression. Percy died at 29, and she carried his calcified heart around with her for almost 30 years. She invented scifi and apocalyptic novels, and was at the forefront of romanticism and gothicism. She continued writing novels and poetry for the rest of her life and never married again. Oh, and she was 17 when she published Frankenstein.
I've been absolutely captivated by this movie and her life, and now I'd like to get inside her mind. I've never read Frankenstein, but I'll have to, along with any of her other works I can find. Her poetry especially.
feel free to discuss with me below!
