Frankissstein

Mary Shelley arrives at the home she is renting with Percy Shelley, her husband. They are with Lord Byron, a poet like Percy; Polidori, Byron’s physician; and Claire Clairmont, Mary’s stepsister and Byron’s lover. It is raining, and Mary laments how everything is wet. In the morning, Mary walks outside naked, enjoying the rain on her body. She thinks she sees a man nearby. When Mary goes inside, Percy caresses her. That night, Mary and Percy drink wine by the fire with Byron, Polidori, and Claire.

Byron does not believe in God, and Polidori rejects the idea of fetuses having consciousness. Mary asserts that her child was conscious in the womb, though the child died shortly after being born. Byron says women are passive by nature, while men are active. Mary disagrees, but Polidori overrides her by agreeing with Byron. Percy agrees with Mary, citing A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, an early feminist treatise written by Mary’s mother, Mary Wollstonecraft. Byron subverts this citation by noting that Wollstonecraft attempted suicide out of grief over a man. Claire does not contribute to the conversation. Polidori excitedly reports the finding of an Albanian vampire, and Byron suggests that they all write a scary story while they are trapped by the rain.