For Mother’s Day several years ago, I wrote about the common Gothic trope of absent mothers, which many authors use to turn their protagonists into vulnerable orphans and deny them the comfort and sense of safety that mothers provide. But just because mothers are often absent in their fiction, doesn’t mean that mothers have been absent from these authors’ real lives. In fact, several authors of Gothic fiction owe much of their literary career to the influence of their mothers. This Mother’s Day, I want to highlight two of my favorite literary moms: Mary Wollestonecraft and Lady Jane Wilde.
Mary Wollstonecraft (mother of Mary Shelley)
You cannot truly understand Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, without first understanding her mother and namesake, Mary Wollstonecraft. Wollstonecraft was a radical philosopher, writer, and advocate of women’s rights, whom many today view as a founding figure of modern feminism. She is best known for her feminist essay, A Vindication of the Rights of Women. In this work, she argues for the value of educating women and refutes the idea that women are naturally inferior. Wollstonecraft also wrote several novels which criticize the patriarchal institution of marriage and show women finding fulfillment in friendships and affairs. Wollstonecraft was widely respected and her writings celebrated during her lifetime, but after her death revelations about her illegitimate children, extramarital affairs, and suicide attempts soured her reputation.
Mary Wollstonecraft died of childbed fever, just eleven days after giving birth to her daughter Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (later to become Mary Shelley). Though little Mary hardly got the chance to meet her mother, she grew up surrounded by her literary works and legacy. She learned to write her name by tracing the letters on her mother’s gravestone and was deeply familiar with her mother’s life and works. When she first met Percy Shelley, the teenaged Mary would stroll with him through the graveyard where her mother was buried, and accounts in her diary mention that she and Percy would often read aloud to each other from Wollstonecraft’s books. Though Mary Wollstonecraft did not live to see her daughter surpass her in fame and cultural salience, she nonetheless played a formative role in shaping Mary Shelley’s philosophies and literary aspirations.
Lady Jane Wilde (mother of Oscar Wilde)
Oscar Wilde’s mother is not quite as well known today, but in her time she was quite an influential figure. As a young woman, she published poetry and essays in the Irish nationalist newspaper The Nation under the pseudonym Speranza. Later in life, she channeled her national pride into writing an influential collection of Irish folklore titled Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland. In addition to supporting Irish independence, Lady Jane was also a vocal supporter of women’s rights, particularly when it came to education and owning property.
But even more than her literary accomplishments, it was her literary social life that would have the most profound effect on her son Oscar Wilde. Throughout Oscar’s schoolboy and university years, Lady Jane hosted a popular literary salon in their home, which attracted such well-known figures as Bram Stoker, Joseph Sheridan le Fanu, and Charles Lever. It was among these literary giants that young Oscar Wilde first honed his wit and became comfortable in his role as a social figure. Lady Jane was fervently supportive of her son’s literary endeavors as his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and his various plays propelled him into fame. Unfortunately, she also supported Oscar Wilde in pursuing his ill-fated libel case that backfired and saw him arrested for criminal homosexuality. Lady Jane died of bronchitis while Oscar was in prison, and her deathbed request to see him was denied. It is said that Lady Jane’s spirit appeared to Oscar in his cell on the night that she died.
Like Mary Shelley and Oscar Wilde, I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for my own mother (who reads all my posts and is the blog’s biggest fan). Happy Mother’s Day, mom!