Reality and the Imagination

"Jealousy and disquiet were unknown among us; nor did a fear
or hope of change ever disturb our tranquility" (90).
M. Shelley's The Last Man (1826)

Points for Reflection

Mary Shelley's The Last Man, Introduction & chps 1-9

1. Why does the narrator choose to relate this tragic story to the audience?
2. In what ways does the first page of chapter one engage the poetry by P. B. Shelley that we have read thus far?
3. What leads to the early deaths of Lionel’s parents?
4. Consider the differing temperaments of Lionel and his sister Perdita. Do their natural proclivities accord with traditional, western gender stereotypes?
5. Does Lionel’s living off the land develop or enervate (weaken) his humanity?
6. What do you think of Shelley's futuristic vision of the year 2073? Does it seem at all plausible?
7. Does the male narrator, Lionel, strike you as prototypically masculine, effeminate, or as a man confident enough in his masculinity to be in touch with his feminine side?
8. What of Adrian’s masculinity, or Raymond’s?
9. Is the "sensibility" displayed by Adrian and, increasingly, by Lionel a typically gendered trait?
10. While not quite Shakespearean, the narrator's diction is rather elevated. Lionel Verny uses lots of big words, complicated syntactical constructions, classical allusions, epic similes, and elaborate metaphors as he narrates his life story. Does Mary Shelley's decision to give Lionel such an educated voice attract or repel the modern reader (you)?
11. Does Lionel’s erudite (highly educated) syntax and vocabulary seem appropriate, given what we know about his upbringing?
12. What causes Adrian's unexpected mental instability?
13. Does Lionel’s affection for Adrian ever strike you as more intense than friendship, as, perhaps, homoerotic? What accounts for Lionel’s profound attraction towards Adrian?
14. 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?
15. Do flights of imagination provide Shelley’s characters a reliable means to combat the pains and frustrations of life?  Do strong powers of fancy improve the lives of these characters?
16. Does Mary Shelley join her father, William Godwin, in placing a high value on humankind’s power of intellect? Does she too believe that our powers of reason will inevitably improve humanity’s situation?
17. 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?
18. 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?
19. Does Mary Shelley’s tale seem to be validating or questioning the doctrine of necessity espoused by her father, William Godwin?
20. Does the novel contain events too intense to be the mere imaginings of a creative novelist? Are there moments where one feels one is reading about an experience that characterized the life of the author—something Shelley was so close to that she had difficulty maintaining an objective distance?
21. Does today's reading reiterate or contest the connection between insanity and love introduced earlier in the novel?
22. 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?
23. Does the mother of Adrian and Idris betray any good qualities that would humanize her and take the edge off her villainy?
24. What is the nature of Raymond's internal struggle? Does the decision he finally makes seem consistent with his character?
25. Does Raymond ultimately come across as hero or anti-hero? Does he gain or lose our sympathies as we move through today's reading?
26. Does Mary Shelley's intensely idealized description of the happy days and years shared by Lionel and company strike you as romantic or schmaltzy?
27. 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?
28. 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?
29. Which woman seems a better match for Raymond, Perdita or Evadne?
30. Does Perdita grow into the kind of ideal woman envisioned by Wollstonecraft?
31. How does Lionel's posture towards and opinion of Raymond shift around and change, and is the reader supposed to feel the same as Lionel?

Caligula's Palace and Bridge (1831)
J. M. W. Turner

Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu