The Plague as Metaphor in Shelley's The Last Man The Last Man was Mary Shelley's most ambitious and experimental work. By making it necessary for a plague, which decimates humanity, to be justified in its pursuit, Mary Shelley creates a world in which utopian ideals can cause the destruction of humanity if not checked by moral and ethical standards. Published in 1826, the novel was widely pilloried by a public who felt its dark tone and high romanticism were "out of touch" with a more progressive society. Mary Shelley's concept of humanity decimated by a deadly plague offended progressive politicians as ungodly and, as a result, the novel was banned in Austria and became more of a topic of discussion at dinner parties than a book to be read seriously. Since its publication, Mary Shelley scholars have ignored The Last Man and focused on Frankenstein due to the novel's reflection of the influential romantic circle of Lord Byron and Percy Shelley. It was only with the feminist movement of the 1970s that the novel underwent a renaissance and was judged by critics to be a far superior work to Frankenstein. Written three years after Percy Shelley's death, The Last Man reflects the political influence of William Godwin and the romantic ideals of Lord Byron and Percy Shelley. Despite her initial desire to dedicate the work to the ideology of these men, The Last Man serves as Mary Shelley's repudiation of the utopian ideal perpetuated by Godwin, Shelley, and Lord Byron. The plague serves as a metaphor for the failure of the utopian ideal to support the traditional needs of the family. Being a biographical and political novel, The Last Man chronicles Mary Shelley's quest to understand the political ideals of her husband, father, and Lord Byron and their subsequent failure to support her and her children. Mary Shelley led an extraordinary life. As the daughter of radical writers Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, it seemed to be Mary's destiny to make a living through her writing. As she states in her 1831 preface to Frankenstein, “It is not singular that, as the daughter of two persons of distinguished literary celebrity, I should very early think of writing” (Hindle 5). After Percy Shelley's death in 1822, Mary spent the next three years trying to atone for what she believed were her sins against Shelley..