before mary godwin, clairmont, and shelley had left for the continent, imlay and mary had had a major argument and no chance to come to a reconciliation. imlay attempted in her letters to mary to smooth over the relationship, but her sense of loneliness and isolation in london was palpable. she wrote to mary of "the dreadful state of mind i generally labour under & which i in vain endeavour to get rid of". many scholars attribute imlay's increasing unhappiness to mrs godwin's hostility towards her. kegan, and others, contend that imlay was subject to the same "extreme depression to which her mother had been subject, and which marked other members of the wollstonecraft family". wandering amongst the mountains of switzerland, frustrated with her relationship with shelley, and engrossed by the writing of "frankenstein", her sister was unsympathetic.