Adapting Mary Shelley on Screen in-between Biopic and Gothic Fantasy

This article contributes to a new understanding of Mary Shelley's life adapted to the screen. Starting from the famous ghost story competition that was held at Villa Diodati, Switzerland, in 1816 – and which inspired Mary Shelley’s Gothic novel "Frankenstein" this article investigate how it has been represented in several film adaptations. Such films tend to focus solely on the sensational aspects of the episode – on «dark» gatherings, sexual debauchery and supernatural events, for example. These adaptations typically oversimplify the dynamics of the literary circle, overlooking the significance of individual contributions, specifically, those of Mary Shelley, Percy B. Shelley and Lord Byron. Haifaa al-Mansour, in her recent biopic Mary Shelley (2017), endeavours to capture the frenzy of the young Romantics during the years 1812-1818, documenting the early stages of their paths to literary success. In this article, I discuss al-Mansour’s biopic from a feminist critical standpoint and how it depicts (or, rather, fails to depict) the interesting, intense and exceptional life of Mary Shelley. The author is all too often portrayed as an ambivalent literary figure, and her personality has been distorted by the Gothic language that she adopted for Frankenstein. Moreover, her individual literary reputation has long been overshadowed by those of the members of her immediate literary circle. However, in order to understand Mary Shelley fully – and fairly – I contend that modern biopics must shift their attention from the Gothic elements of Shelley’s first novel to the cultural significance of her other extensive works, taking into account the complex literary and social environment in which they were created.