Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Mathilda Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Mathilda by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Mathilda is a novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley that explores the life of Matilda, a woman isolated from society due to her unconventional upbringing. Matilda's mother dies immediately after giving birth, leaving her father devastated. He passes parental responsibility to Matilda's aunt and leaves. Sixteen years later, the father returns only to confess his undying and incestuous love for his daughter and then proceeds to commit suicide by drowning.

After the death of her aunt and father, Matilda falls into a cycle of loneliness, unhappiness, and suicidal tendencies. Drowning in a deep depression, she fakes her death and withdraws completely from society, choosing to live in total isolation with only one servant for the company. Haunted by the same fate as her father, she plans to commit suicide. Matilda enlists the help of her close friend, who is a poet and entrusts him to make her death as romantic as possible by consuming poison together.

Unwilling to commit suicide, the poet tries to divert Matilda from committing suicide without success. He tries to help her find a purpose in life, but she dies after contracting tuberculosis. The poet is relieved that Matilda did not follow in her father's suicidal footsteps. There is hope that Matilda will meet his father in the afterlife and return his incestuous love.

Mathilda is a novel full of melodrama and controversial themes that were suppressed for a century due to its unfettered exploration of incestuous affection and the suicidal urge. After Matilda's father confesses his sexual feelings to her, it is hinted that Matilda began to develop those same feelings for her father as well. His sudden death devastates her completely as she feels that everyone who loved her had abandoned her. All she can do is find peace in death, where she hopes to reunite with her father and her lover.