The Regenerative Power for Salvation in Mary Shelley’s The Last Man

This paper investigates the regenerative power for salvation in the middle of an infection in Mary Shelley’s The Last Man. This novel was written in the early 19th centuries as expectations and anxiety around the French Revolution prevailed in England. Many contemporary Romantic writers looked forward with confidence and belief to the ideal society, which in reality ended in fearful violence. It seems that the focus of this novel is on the failure of an idealistic paradise that cannot be fulfilled in the reality. However, the only survivor’s tenacious and resistant struggle to overcome the realistic obstacle of the monstrous plague shows the regenerative power to the last moment. Even though the future appears to be dark and pessimistic in the face of the pandemic, the protagonist and narrator, Lionel Verney, never loses the regenerative power for salvation, even after experiencing the deaths of his friends and lovers. In this paper, I will show how the regenerative power is progressed toward salvation through the novel.