One of the greatest statements on Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin's challenging attitude towards education is the idea that in 1812 when being interviewed William Godwin was asked if he had "educated his daughters according to Mary Wollstonecraft's principles." In William's reply he indicated (only in regards to Mary's biological daughters) "They are neither of them brought up with an exclusive attention to the system and ideals of their mother" and that his new wife was not an "exclusive follower of the notions of their mother." Also that due to their financial stresses due to the large amount of kids (four) that they had no time to "reduce novel theories of education to practice" (Mellor, 8-9).

The principles mentioned in the question above were expected because of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin's infamous book, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. After the book publishing many women rose to the cause Wollstonecraft was speaking for. She claimed that "state-supported education for females, as there was for males, would render women better fitted to serve as sensible mothers, more interesting companions to men, and more useful citizens of the nation." Mary Wollstonecraft was a feminist, not a proper lady. Her opinions and statements gained a positive reaction from an established bluestocking, Anna Seward.

Based on all her research, Anne Mellor makes a second point that Mary Wollstonecraft was seen as such a challenger to society's ideas on a woman's role and education that her "revelations made it impossible for a respectable English woman to openly associate herself with herself with Wollstonecraft's feminist views" (Mellor, 3).

This situation added to the challenges in her daughter's life. Mary Shelley highly respected her mother. This is demonstrated by the fact that she kept Wollstonecraft in her name but stopped using Godwin when she married Percy Shelley, despite her admiration of her father (Mellor, xiii). But during her lifetime Mary Shelley was exposed to society's often negative response to her mother's ideas on woman's rights and of sexual freedom which Shelley had come to support. It's ironic though that the negative response to Wollstonecraft as an atheist, whore, and revolutionary was greatly intensified during Mary's life by the publication of her own father's book, Memoirs of the Author of the Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Mellor, 210).

The challenges Mary Shelley faced in her life due to her parents and her novel were huge factors in her renunciation of her lifestyle as a young woman.