"Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful."
Have you seen this quote yet? I'm always looking for quotes from strong women so this one caught my eye.
As a former librarian, I like to research quotes before I decide to use them. Often quotes are misattributed or the wording's been changed. I recently read Dreyer's English, a book by an editor at the publisher Random House, and he recommended Quote Investigator and Wikiquote as two places to verify quotes. He also notes that you can search the full text of some books online and that's what I often do.
The first good news with this quote is that the words are quoted correctly.
In some versions of this quote on art prints and mugs, the speaker is identified as Mary Shelley.
The second piece of good news is that Mary Shelley did write those words.
At this point in my research, I went ahead and made a copper bookmark with these words. Once I verify a quote, I typically stop work. But for some reason I just couldn't resist delving a bit deeper.
Who was Mary Shelley?
Mary Shelley was a fascinating person who lived a life full of drama. She was the daughter of feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, author of A Vindication of the Rights of Women. She later married the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (after running away with him as a teen while he was married to another woman). She suffered a number of personal tragedies in her life, including the deaths of several children and being widowed at the age of 24. While she received little formal education, she read constantly and always enjoyed writing. If you want to learn more about her, I recommend the History Chicks podcast or one of the new biographies published in 2018.
Frankenstein is Born
Here's where the quote research gets interesting.
The quote is from Mary Shelley's most famous work: Frankenstein. That's not too surprising. She did write several other books, plus short stories and articles, but I bet you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone outside of a literary scholar who could name them. (I couldn't.) In researching this blog post, I enjoyed learning that her works express the idea that cooperation and sympathy are the ways to reform civil society.
Anyway, back to Frankenstein.
Mary wrote this story as a teen staying at a large house with friends during an especially dark, rainy summer. (Interesting side note: The weird weather was later determined to be the result of a volcano.) Mary felt quite intimidated by the company of professional writers, including poet Lord Byron, but wrote the best ghost story of the group. She said she based the tale on a "waking dream" she had. She expanded her short story to the novel Frankenstein which was eventually published when she was 19. Two hundred years later, it's still in print. Many consider Mary Shelley the mother of science fiction.
I Am Fearless
When we hear that "Mary Shelley" wrote or said these words, what do we picture? I think of this image of Mary Shelley:
Sweet, right? It does seem cool to think that the woman in the flowered dress and ringlets in her hair had an inner core of steel that would make her declare that she has no fear of anything.
But knowing that the words are in a novel and not in a personal letter or diary, it made me curious to see where in the novel the quote occurred.
It's in a piece of dialogue.
It's Frankenstein's monster who is speaking.
The quote comes near the end of the monster's speech to his scientist creator (I added the italics):
"Your hours will pass in dread and misery, and soon the bolt will fall which must ravish from you your happiness forever. Are you to be happy while I grovel in the intensity of my wretchedness? You can blast my other passions, but revenge remains--revenge, henceforth dearer than light or food! I may die, but first you, my tyrant and tormentor, shall curse the sun that gazes on your misery. Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful. I will watch with the wiliness of a snake, that I may sting with its venom. Man, you shall repent of the injuries you inflict."
Huh.
It doesn't have the exact same comforting feel, does it? In fact, it feels a little terrifying.
I'm definitely moving the bookmark into the Halloween section of my shop.