Mary Shelley Zitate

Mary Shelley , geborene Mary Godwin, häufig auch als Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley bezeichnet, war eine britische Schriftstellerin des frühen 19. Jahrhunderts. Sie ist als Autorin von Frankenstein oder Der moderne Prometheus , einem der bekanntesten Werke der romantischen und fantastischen Literatur, in die Literaturgeschichte eingegangen. Zu ihrem Gesamtwerk zählen mehrere Romane, Kurzgeschichten, Theaterstücke, Essays, Gedichte, Rezensionen, Biografien und Reiseerzählungen. Sie gab außerdem das Werk ihres früh verstorbenen Ehemanns Percy Bysshe Shelley heraus. Ihr Vater war der Sozialphilosoph und Begründer des politischen Anarchismus William Godwin. Ihre Mutter war die Schriftstellerin und Feministin Mary Wollstonecraft, die mit Verteidigung der Rechte der Frau eine der grundlegenden Arbeiten der Frauenrechtsbewegung verfasste.

Mary Godwins Mutter starb elf Tage nach der Geburt ihrer Tochter. William Godwin zog seine Tochter gemeinsam mit ihrer älteren Halbschwester Fanny Imlay selbst auf. Sie erhielten durch ihn und seine zweite Ehefrau Mary Jane Clairmont eine zwar informelle, aber durchaus umfassende Erziehung, während dieser William Godwin seine Töchter ermutigte, seinen liberalen politischen Theorien zu folgen. 1814 verliebte sich Mary Godwin in den verheirateten Percy Bysshe Shelley, einen Bewunderer der Werke ihrer Mutter und Anhänger der politischen Ideen ihres Vaters. Gemeinsam mit ihrer Stiefschwester Claire Clairmont folgte die erst 16-jährige Mary Godwin Percy B. Shelley auf eine Reise durch Europa. Bei ihrer Rückkehr war Mary Godwin schwanger. Während der nächsten zwei Jahre war das unverheiratete Paar wegen seiner offen unkonventionellen Lebensweise einer gesellschaftlichen Ächtung ausgesetzt.

Den Sommer 1816 verbrachte das Paar gemeinsam mit Lord Byron, John William Polidori und Claire Clairmont am Genfersee. In einer der am häufigsten beschriebenen Episoden der Literaturgeschichte entwarf Mary Godwin dort ihre Idee für ihren Roman Frankenstein. Erst gegen Ende des Jahres 1816, wenige Wochen nach dem Selbstmord von Percy Shelleys erster Ehefrau Harriet, heiratete das Paar. 1818 ließen sich die beiden für längere Zeit in Italien nieder. 1822 ertrank Percy B. Shelley während einer Segeltour im Golf von La Spezia. Ein Jahr später kehrte Mary Shelley mit ihrem letztgeborenen und einzigen überlebenden Kind nach England zurück, wo sie erfolgreich ihre Karriere als Schriftstellerin fortsetzte. Ihr letztes Lebensjahrzehnt war von Krankheiten gezeichnet. Sie starb im Alter von 53 Jahren vermutlich an einem Gehirntumor.

Bis in die 1970er Jahre wurde Mary Shelley vor allem als Nachlassverwalterin ihres Ehemanns sowie als Verfasserin des Romans Frankenstein wahrgenommen. Ihr bekanntestes Werk wird auch zweihundert Jahre nach seiner Erstveröffentlichung noch gelesen und wurde mehrfach für Bühne und Film adaptiert. Die Literaturwissenschaft ist seit den 1970er Jahren zu einer umfassenderen Wertung ihres vielseitigen Werkes gelangt und würdigt heute auch ihre späteren Romane wie den historischen Roman Valperga , Perkin Warbeck , den apokalyptischen Roman The Last Man und ihre zwei letzten Erzählungen Lodore und Falkner . Eine genauere Auseinandersetzung mit ihren weniger bekannten Arbeiten wie dem Reisebericht Rambles in Germany and Italy und den biografischen Aufsätzen für Dionysius Lardners Cabinet Cyclopaedia zeigt, dass Mary Shelley bis an ihr Lebensende radikale politische Ideen vertrat. In ihren Arbeiten findet sich häufig die Ansicht, dass eine gesellschaftliche Reform durch ein kooperatives und verständnisvolles Verhalten seitens der Frauen angestoßen werden könne. Mit dieser Überzeugung stand sie im Gegensatz zu der individualistischen Romantik, wie sie Percy Shelley vertrat, und den politischen Theorien ihres Vaters, William Godwin. Wikipedia  

✵ 30. August 1797 – 1. Februar 1851   •   Andere Namen ਮੇਰੀ ਸ਼ੈਲੀ
Mary Shelley Foto
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Mary Shelley Berühmte Zitate

Diese Übersetzung wartet auf eine Überprüfung. Ist es korrekt?

„Zwar werde ich meine Gedanken zu Papier bringen, aber das ist ein unzulängliches Medium für die Mitteilung von Gefühlen.“

Frankenstein oder der Moderne Prometheus - Brief 2
Original engl. "I shall commit my thoughts to paper, it is true; but that is a poor medium for the communication of feeling." - '

Mary Shelley: Zitate auf Englisch

“No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.”

Variante: No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.

“Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

Quelle: Frankenstein

“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

Quelle: Frankenstein

“Some years ago, when the images which this world affords first opened upon me, when I felt the cheering warmth of summer and heard the rustling of the leaves and the warbling of the birds, and these were all to me, I should have wept to die; now it is my only consolation.”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

The monster to Robert Walton
Frankenstein (1818)
Kontext: Some years ago, when the images which this world affords first opened upon me, when I felt the cheering warmth of summer and heard the rustling of the leaves and the warbling of the birds, and these were all to me, I should have wept to die; now it is my only consolation. Polluted by crimes and torn by the bitterest remorse, where can I find rest but in death?

“If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear!”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

Quelle: Frankenstein

“What was I? Of my creation and creator I was absolutely ignorant, but I knew that I possessed no money, no friends, no kind of property. I was, besides, endued with a figure hideously deformed and loathsome; I was not even of the same nature as man. I was more agile than they and could subsist upon coarser diet; I bore the extremes of heat and cold with less injury to my frame; my stature far exceeded theirs. When I looked around I saw and heard of none like me. Was I, then, a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled and whom all men disowned?”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

The monster in Ch. 13
Frankenstein (1818)
Kontext: What was I? Of my creation and creator I was absolutely ignorant, but I knew that I possessed no money, no friends, no kind of property. I was, besides, endued with a figure hideously deformed and loathsome; I was not even of the same nature as man. I was more agile than they and could subsist upon coarser diet; I bore the extremes of heat and cold with less injury to my frame; my stature far exceeded theirs. When I looked around I saw and heard of none like me. Was I, then, a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled and whom all men disowned?
I cannot describe to you the agony that these reflections inflicted upon me; I tried to dispel them, but sorrow only increased with knowledge. Oh, that I had forever remained in my native wood, nor known nor felt beyond the sensations of hunger, thirst, and heat!

“No one can conceive the variety of feelings which bore me onwards, like a hurricane, in the first enthusiasm of success. Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world.”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

Victor Frankenstein in Ch. 4
Frankenstein (1818)
Kontext: No one can conceive the variety of feelings which bore me onwards, like a hurricane, in the first enthusiasm of success. Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world. A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs.

“I desired love and fellowship, and I was still spurned. Was there no injustice in this? Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all humankind sinned against me?”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

The monster to Robert Walton
Frankenstein (1818)
Kontext: You, who call Frankenstein your friend, seem to have a knowledge of my crimes and his misfortunes. But in the detail which he gave you of them he could not sum up the hours and months of misery which I endured wasting in impotent passions. For while I destroyed his hopes, I did not satisfy my own desires. They were forever ardent and craving; still I desired love and fellowship, and I was still spurned. Was there no injustice in this? Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all humankind sinned against me?

“My greatest pleasure was the enjoyment of a serene sky amidst these verdant woods: yet I loved all the changes of Nature; and rain, and storm, and the beautiful clouds of heaven brought their delights with them.”

Matilda (1819)
Kontext: My greatest pleasure was the enjoyment of a serene sky amidst these verdant woods: yet I loved all the changes of Nature; and rain, and storm, and the beautiful clouds of heaven brought their delights with them. When rocked by the waves of the lake my spirits rose in triumph as a horseman feels with pride the motions of his high fed steed.
But my pleasures arose from the contemplation of nature alone, I had no companion: my warm affections finding no return from any other human heart were forced to run waste on inanimate objects.

“I am alone and miserable. Only someone as ugly as I am could love me.”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

Quelle: Frankenstein

“Live, and be happy, and make others so.”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

Justine Moritz in Ch. 8
Frankenstein (1818)

“Nothing contributes so much to tranquillize the mind as a steady purpose- a point on which the soul can focus its intellectual eye”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

Robert Walton in "Letter 1"
Quelle: Frankenstein (1818)
Kontext: I feel my heart glow with an enthusiasm which elevates me to heaven, for nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose — a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.

“I seek not a fellow feeling in my misery. No sympathy may I ever find. When I first sought it, it was the love of virtue, the feelings of happiness and affection with which my whole being overflowed, that I wished to be participated. But now that virtue has become to me a shadow, and that happiness and affection are turned into bitter and loathing despair, in what should I seek for sympathy?”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

The monster to Robert Walton
Frankenstein (1818)
Kontext: I seek not a fellow feeling in my misery. No sympathy may I ever find. When I first sought it, it was the love of virtue, the feelings of happiness and affection with which my whole being overflowed, that I wished to be participated. But now that virtue has become to me a shadow, and that happiness and affection are turned into bitter and loathing despair, in what should I seek for sympathy? I am content to suffer alone while my sufferings shall endure; when I die, I am well satisfied that abhorrence and opprobrium should load my memory. Once my fancy was soothed with dreams of virtue, of fame, and of enjoyment. Once I falsely hoped to meet with beings who, pardoning my outward form, would love me for the excellent qualities which I was capable of unfolding. I was nourished with high thoughts of honour and devotion. But now crime has degraded me beneath the meanest animal. No guilt, no mischief, no malignity, no misery, can be found comparable to mine. When I run over the frightful catalogue of my sins, I cannot believe that I am the same creature whose thoughts were once filled with sublime and transcendent visions of the beauty and the majesty of goodness. But it is even so; the fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone.

“I am an unfortunate and deserted creature, I look around and I have no relation or friend upon earth.”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

The monster to the blind man in Ch. 15
Frankenstein (1818)
Kontext: I am an unfortunate and deserted creature, I look around and I have no relation or friend upon earth. These amiable people to whom I go have never seen me and know little of me. I am full of fears, for if I fail there, I am an outcast in the world forever.

“You, who call Frankenstein your friend, seem to have a knowledge of my crimes and his misfortunes.”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

The monster to Robert Walton
Frankenstein (1818)
Kontext: You, who call Frankenstein your friend, seem to have a knowledge of my crimes and his misfortunes. But in the detail which he gave you of them he could not sum up the hours and months of misery which I endured wasting in impotent passions. For while I destroyed his hopes, I did not satisfy my own desires. They were forever ardent and craving; still I desired love and fellowship, and I was still spurned. Was there no injustice in this? Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all humankind sinned against me?

“I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel…”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

Quelle: Frankenstein

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