My Hideous Progeny: Mary Shelly, William Godwin, and the Father-daughter Relationship

William Godwin, a radical political philosopher and novelist, brought up the daughter he had with his lover Mary Wollstonecraft to be a thinker and writer. Unusual for the times, he trained her in literature, history, and the powers of the rational mind. Yet as Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin grew into womanhood, her once supportive father rejected her. He distanced himself from her physically and emotionally during her adolescence, perhaps because of the incestuous feelings her developing womanhood called up. After Mary Godwin eloped to France at age sixteen with the married, atheistic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, Godwin refused to speak with his daughter for almost two years. After Percy Shelley's death by drowning, Godwin changed once again: he relied on Mary Shelley heavily for emotional comfort and sustenance, and made it clear he wanted her continued financial support. Mary Shelley and her father maintained an intimate, troubled relationship until the day he died.