Mary Shelley & Emily Dickinson

Women's Roles Then and Now: A Dialogue between Mary Shelley and Emily Dickinson

Mary and Emily are having an afternoon tea at Emily's Homestead garden. In the midst of enjoying the different flowering plants that Emily had planted in the garden, the women talked about and compared their lives way back in 19th century Western society and in the present time.

MARY: I know I should not be surprised anymore, but news of another reprint and publication of my novel, Frankenstein, still amazes me. Imagine the literary and commercial success of the novel! And both critics and literary scholars hail me as one of the pillars of modernist thought in 19th century English literature. To think that during my time, they even doubted that someone like me, a woman, would be able to write a novel as groundbreaking, thought-provoking, and, as they say -- "modern"!...
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