Utopic Dystopia

"'Oh, that death and sickness were banished from our earthly home! that
hatred, tyranny, and fear could no longer make their
lair in the human heart!" (76).

Points for Reflection

The Last Man (1826), chps 1-10

1. consider the differing temperaments of Lionel and his sister Perdita. Do their natural proclivities accord with traditional, western sexual stereotypes about gender roles?
2. does Lionel’s living off the land help develop, or actually weaken, his humanity?
3. is Shelley's futuristic vision of the year 2073 plausible?
4. what does chp. 1 contribute to the nature vs. nurture debate? Which has a greater formative influence on personality development, according to Mary Shelley's narrative, inherited traits, or one's environment?
5. do Perdita’s and Lionel’s powers of the imagination provide an anchor for their difficult lives?
6. according to Lionel, do either love and passion or intellect and study provide a steady, reliable salve for the pains of life?
7. does Lionel’s erudite syntax and vocabulary seem appropriate, given what we know about his upbringing?
8. what accounts for Lionel’s profound attraction towards Adrian?
9. what lessons does Mary Shelley indirectly reveal about the workings of the human mind? Is she consistent in her implied claims, or does she contradict herself?
10. does Mary Shelley rely on the facile, popular physiognomic formulae of her day, or does she question the reliability of reading another person’s character in his/her facial features?
11. does Mary Shelley join fellow Romantic-era writer Jane Austen in interrogating the cult of sensibility (see Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility), or do Mary Shelley’s novel suggest that extraordinary emotional sensitivity (ie. sensibility) is always a positive and useful character trait?
12. does this novel contain events that are too intense to be the mere imaginings of a creative novelist? Are there, that is, moments where one feels one is reading about an experience that probably characterized the life of Mary Shelley herself—something she was so close to that she had difficulty maintaining an objective distance from her narrative? As always, be specific.
13. does the novel thus far suggest that love and sanity are inextricably linked?
14. does the mother of Adrian and Idris betray any good qualities that would humanize her and take the edge off her villainy?
15. what is the nature of Raymond's internal struggle? Does the decision he finally makes seem consistent with his character?
16. does Raymond ultimately come across as hero or anti-hero? Does he gain or lose our sympathies as as we move through the reading?
17. Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem “Mutability” identifies the plenteous changes that characterize human life, but he avoids applying either an overtly celebratory or unmistakably despairing tone to the poem. Does Mary Shelley do the same in this novel, or is change given a positive or negative character?
18. as suggested by Mary Shelley’s variable use of the words “mad” and “insane,” what constitutes “madness”? Is it a permanent or temporary state? Are only certain kinds of people likely to experience it? Is madness always harmful?
19. Percy Bysshe Shelley had a great faith in the powers of science to improve the human condition and help bring about a more ideal society. Does Mary Shelley share her husband’s optimism?
20. which woman seems a better match for Raymond, Perdita or Evadne?
21. is Raymond justified in his censure of Perdita’s imagination and the assumptions she has made about his behavior?
22. does Mary Godwin Wollstonecraft Shelley join her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, in decrying the inferior social position of women in patriarchal societies?
23. does Adrian ever manifest any faults or character flaws?

The Last Man (1826), chps 11-20

1. within the confines of this novel, does the natural world prove itself an ally or antagonist to the characters? Is Nature itself friend or foe to those in need?
2. as the reader sifts among the radically diverging opinions of the various characters, does it become clear which greater power Mary Shelley intends to hold sway in this novel? Does capricious Fate shape humanity’s destiny, or is some sort of monotheistic God in control? If the latter, is this God benevolent, capricious, or indifferent? What role does Nature play? Is Nature personified, or a mindless force of the universe?
3. which character has the most enlightened attitude towards war? Be sure to define your terms.
4. does the wartime dynamic established between the Greek and Turkish forces echo the color and shape of the conflict we have witnessed in the Middle East in our own time?
5. is Lionel's new artistic sensibility and perspective, his new insight into the "internal principles of action" of those surrounding him, more a blessing than a liability?
6. in its character and progress, does the plague seem like a natural or a supernatural agent?
7. does the role played by Nature change in today’s reading? Does it aid humankind’s endeavors, or forestall them? Is it complicit in the spread of the plague?
8. does Mary Shelley’s willingness to foreshadow key events intensify or diminish dramatic tension?
9. do the arts (literature, music, etc.) demonstrate a power to aid humankind amidst widespread tragedy?
10. does this novel suggest that lies and deception can be helpful in the midst of a crisis?
11. following his recovery from madness, Adrian calls on humanity to improve itself by eliminating “death and sickness” as well as “hatred, tyranny, and fear,” asking his fellows to replace these vices with a new spirit of brotherhood (76). Does the growth of disease ironically create the improved social dynamic Adrian longs for, or does humanity grow more selfish as death spreads rapidly?
12. how does the plague impact Lionel's own valuation of family, friendship, literature, love?
13. in what ways does the plague recast global relations?
14. why are Lionel and his compatriots so optimistic, early on, about England's unique ability to stave off the plague decimating the world's population?
15. does the plague alter society's institutions of government, religion, and education, or do these entities bear up admirably under the strain?
16. prior to today’s reading, Britain received immigrants with relatively open arms.  Chapter twenty, however, opens with the arrival of problematic immigrants hailing from where?
17. who speaks these words?   “‘Sheath your weapons; these are your brothers, commit not fratricide.’"
18. like Wordsworth’s narrator in “Tintern Abbey,” who described the emotional benefits of recollecting Nature’s beauty when far way from it, Mary Shelley’s narrator (Lionel) carefully contemplates a particular scene so that he can later recall its details.  What, exactly, does Lionel try to absorb in this way, and is he successful?

The Last Man (1826), chps 21-30

1. what additional insights into the human mind does today's reading offer? As always, form a debatable argument.
2. how does the plague shape attitudes towards the disabled, diseased, mentally ill, elderly and infirm? How do the survivors respond to these types of easily marginalized individuals?
3. does some supernatural power make itself known in the workings of Nature in today's reading, or can every weird event be explained away as the result of characters' over-active imaginations?
4. have we finally seen the end of humankind's belligerent, war-making, polarizing impulses?
5. what does this novel suggest about the relationship between fear and religious faith? Does Lionel disparage all religion as destructive?
6. generate an argument that explains why the plague impacts Lionel as it does.
7. which human values do not lose their old power and influence in the new world order?
8. do men prove more rational than women in this week's reading?
9. Clare finds strength and purpose in what when not serving friends and family?
10. which of Juliet's traits allow her to be of great assistance to the leader of The Elect?
11. are Adrian's references to a "superior and indefatigable spirit" which has "taken up its abode within [him]" but recently "slept, perhaps to show [him] how powerless [he is] without its inspiration" (397) reminiscent of that power celebrated in P. B. S.'s "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty," or does this "spirit" sound more like hope, God, or something else?
12. do the human mind's powers of reason, so glorified by Mary Shelley's Lionel (412) and P. B. Shelley himself in his poems, ultimately prove too limited to be of much use in the face of an apocalypse?
13. why might Mary Shelley choose to reintroduce the powers of both Nature and music at this late point in the novel (418-20), as humanity appears on the brink of extinction?
14. is the notion of an afterlife reified or questioned in the reading?
15. Lionel foreshadows, once again, that he will eventually be the last living being on the planet, and argues that he will become a kind of Oedipus “whose agonizing pangs, and sorrow-tainted life were to be the engines, wherewith to lay bare the secrets of destiny, and reveal the meaning of the enigma, whose explanation closed the history of the human race” (427). Does Lionel, in the novel’s remaining pages, “reveal” an “enigma” which would explain the erasure of humanity?
16. is there a plausible explanation for why Clara loses her joie de vie—her happiness—as she leaves Milan, grows timid around Lionel and Adrian, and hangs out only with Evelyn for a time (432-33)?
17. why does Clara feel peace in the midst of the storm that ravages their boat during their attempt to cross from Venice, Italy to Greec?
18. do the Arts continue to seem irrelevant and inadequate as the novel draws to a close?
19. which proves more powerful in his solitude, Lionel’s imagination or his powers of reason?
20. recall that Lionel once approached a bestial, animal-like state in the days before meeting Adrian (18). Does he return to such a state during his year in Rome?

Constantinople (1873-74)
James Webb

Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu