If you´re interested in literature and you feel like
learning a bit more about Mary Shelley (1797- 1851), the author of Frankestein, you shoud watch Mary Shelley, the biopic directed by
Haifaa al –Mansour. The novel Frankestein was published in January
1818 so this year we commemorate the bicentenary of the publication of the
classic novel. Watching this film can be a good way of celebrating this
anniversary as all of us are familiar with the story of Frankenstein but how many of us are are acquainted with the story
of the author of Frankenstein,
that is, the story of Mary Shelley? Haifaa al-Mansour gives us the opportunity
of discovering the life of the young woman who gave birth to a monster at the
age of 18 and her creation changed our views not only from a literary point of
view but also from a philosphical and metaphysical one. If you wish
to learn more about the influence that her work has had since its publication,
you can have a look at:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/13/frankenstein-at-200-why-hasnt-mary-shelley-been-given-the-respect-she-deserves-.
However, what the film shows us is not the effect that the
novel had after its publication but what lies behind the unsettling story of a
new creature, which implies depicting the life of a young girl who lost her
mother – the writer and feminist
campaigner for women´s rights Mary Wollstonecraft – at childbirth and was raised
by her father – the writer and philosopher William Godwin – among books, her
relationships with her stepmother and her stepsister and the moment she met
Percy B. Shelley, which led to her elopement with him and her life with him in
good times and in bad times, the loss of their baby, their meeting Lord Byron
and Doctor Polidori , and the idea of writing
a ghostly story in Geneva – a
well - known anecdote; all these
episodes of her life undoubtedly contributed to her writing her most important
work but in my view, what makes this film a great biopic is that it helps to
depict Mary Shelly as a brave woman who loved her freedom and dared to challenge
the conventions of her time.
Being a woman, it wasn´t easy
for her to have her novel published and she could only get it published anonymously
and accompanied by a prologue by Percy B. Shelley, which made the public think
that the writer was him. Finally, her father William Godwin managed to get the novel published under the
name of his daughter.
Haifaa al-Mansour, a Saudi
Arabian film-maker who also dares to challenge the conventions of Saudian
society, which doesn´t allow women to direct films ( post “ In the
summertime” 18th August 2013), seems the right person to make this film.
