 Mary Shelley believed in the Enlightenment idea that people could improve society through the responsible exercise of political power , but she feared that the irresponsible exercise of power would lead to chaos . In practice , her works largely criticise the way 18th @-@ century thinkers such as her parents believed such change could be brought about . The creature in Frankenstein , for example , reads books associated with radical ideals but the education he gains from them is ultimately useless . Shelley 's works reveal her as less optimistic than Godwin and Wollstonecraft ; she lacks faith in Godwin 's theory that humanity could eventually be perfected . 
