To be a feminist was a crime against society and to be an atheist was a crime against nature. Mary Shelley was the daughter of both, here, in England.

Everyone one has heard of Frankenstein, either through movies, magazines, the news or the novel itself. Mary Shelley anonymously published her work in 1818, perhaps because it was thought to have been the work of her husband, Percy Shelley. Taking inspiration form the Romanticism movement and scientific discoveries at the time, she developed the novel; a woman’s perception of society, in a time when women lacked rights and were treated as slaves that ‘couldn’t produce a work of horror’. But she managed to disprove the ideology that ‘literature is not the business of a woman’s life’ through the publication of her work.

Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft wrote the famous ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’ confronting society for its double- standards: how can it be acceptable for a man to commit adultery but be a crime for a woman? Mary Shelley continued the path her mother had left behind, inspiring many more female writers to reject society’s low expectations of women and rise.

If it wasn’t for the dedication and persistence of Mary, then perhaps Frankenstein would have been published under her husband’s name because people didn’t want to believe that women had something called an ‘imagination’ as it would call for a revolution. But despite the calamaties she faced: the suicide of her sister- Fanny Imlay and the death of three of her young children, she continued to write, reinforcing her mother’s beliefs about the importance of educating women.

Though some may argue Mary Shelley used Frankenstein to explore her tragedy and loss, other’s believe it was a way to confront society, covering her voice with use of multiple male characters to reveal the ugly truth society bares within itself (symbolised through the monster) and showing the guilt it must bare for its unfair treatment of women and the lower class through the despaired character of Victor Frankenstein.

Frankenstein is still read, watched and talked about to this day. A novel that changed society, argued for impartiality and improved gender equality.