The Last Man

While human community plays an important, nurturing role in the text, The Last Man also explores various forms of human division. How does the novel depict and explore these political, social, and/or economic divisions? How do these divisions reflect some of the novel’s key themes and ideas?

Analyze the depiction of the natural world in The Last Man. How is nature presented, in both harmful and inspiring forms? How does it compare to human civilization?

Many of Wollstonecraft Shelley’s novels have frame narratives that symbolically impact the inner plot. What effect does the frame narrative of the Introduction—the discovery of the prophecy in 1818—have on Lionel’s narrative? How does the novel play with ideas about past, present, and future?