Argument For Equal Treatment Of Women In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Can you imagine Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein, the great work of literature, without, for example, such female characters as Mrs. Margaret Saville, Elizabeth Lavenza, and Justine Moritz? In this case the novel will have no meaning. All the women help to develop the plot, and without them Frankenstein will lose its spirit. Although these heroines have a lot in common in their characters: they are all strong-willed, kind, careful, and selfless, at the same time, each of them is unique, and each plays her own role in the novel. Mrs. Margaret Saville is the woman to whom the narrator tells the story. Elizabeth Lavenza is the beloved of Victor Frankenstein. Justine Moritz is the heroine who is accused by mistake of murdering

One such aspect of Shelley’s life portrayed in the novel was the role of women in society. In general, the predominant contenders in literature in the Romantic era were men. Mary Shelley, who was tutored by her father, had to publish her novel anonymously because it would not have been accepted otherwise. In Romantic literature, women were depicted as passive with a sense for nature and intuition. This can be seen in Frankenstein during Victor’s description of Elizabeth Lavenza: “While I admired...pretension” (Volume I, Chapter I, p 39). This quote can be viewed as an oppression of women due to the patriarchal structure of the language, as well as an emphasis on the nature of women. Mary Shelley also criticizes this oppression, but does not criticize overtly. This may be due to the fact that Shelley read her mother’s works as a child, and was influenced by the pro-feminist ideals that her mother advocated for. In addition, Frankenstein, at its core, is an expression of Shelley’s political viewpoints. The years 1811 to 1817 were ones of severe deprivation and hardship for the new working class created by the Industrial

The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelly was published in 1818. Her parent had undoubtedly influenced her ways of writing. Her father, William Godwin is famous with his piece “An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice while her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft wrote “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” is two prominent radical writers who call for reform during French Revolution. Bringing both feminism and radical views from her parents, Shelley critiques women’s weak, docile and uneducated character. She also shows how women are often degraded and treated unjustly. The reason she brought the issues forward is to make women realize that they should improve their position and women should not conform to the dogma that they are always weak.

The novel “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley, and the article “Of the Pernicious Effects” by Mary Wollstonecraft, both have relations when regarding the importance of feminism during their time periods. Throughout Shelley’s novel feminism is addressed because she uses female characters to further her plot and display her viewpoints. If Wollstonecraft evaluated the female characters in Shelley’s novel, she would realize that Elizabeth, Justine, and Safie all show an importance to the flow of the novel and the purpose of equality that Shelley is sending about feminism through these characters.

In the 18th century, a woman by the name of Mary Wollstonecraft became one of the first great proponents of feminism, a movement that promoted the rights and abilities of women. During the 1960’s and 1970’s, feminism was still on the rise. The movement spawned a generation of great women, and thus, many interesting sayings. In Frankenstein, a book written by Mary Shelley, who happens to be Wollstonecraft’s daughter, the main character Victor creates a monster that would come to rip his family apart and destroy his life. But if one key thing had changed, his downfall would have never happened. When thinking of this book, one specific saying from this era of feminism comes to mind; “behind every great man is a great women”. The lack of prominent and influential women in Victor Frankenstein 's life is what ultimately leads to his undoing.

Women in the 18th century were often referred to as “ weak, illogical, timid, or even emotionless” ( Radek-Hill, “ Women in Literature”). This idea of women will stick around all the way until the mid 1900s, and has played a big historical issue for decades. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the idea of women being inferior to men is shown in many ways and covers throughout the book. One way she shows feminism is how she constructed the book to where the women in the book play a significantly lesser role than men. Victor Frankenstein, and his monster are the two big roles in the book, leaving little light for the female characters. When you analyze the male characters, you will notice that their actions throughout the book lead to the death and suffering of a female character. Victor is the most to blame for this because he did not speak up about his monsters creation, who in

Mary Shelley brings attention to feminist issues simply by exposing the speaking limitations, the level of control men have, and suppressed decision making.

     Romantic writer Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein does indeed do a lot more than simply tell story, and in this case, horrify and frighten the reader. Through her careful and deliberate construction of characters as representations of certain dominant beliefs, Shelley supports a value system and way of life that challenges those that prevailed in the late eighteenth century during the ‘Age of Reason’. Thus the novel can be said to be challenging prevailant ideologies, of which the dominant society was constructed, and endorsing many of the alternative views and thoughts of the society. Shelley can be said to be influenced by her mothers early feminist views, her father’s

In addition to her proposition that a patriarchal society will ultimately lead to chaos, Shelley uses the character of Frankenstein to illustrate that men are not the strong leaders of society they claim to be. Frankenstein is brave enough to go as far as creating life without a woman; however, as soon as his brainchild comes to life, Frankenstein essentially

Feminism in literature has existed as early as the 16th century, the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities (Shneir, Miram). Throughout history, women have portrayed the idea of feminism in literature, with one of the most famous feminist writers being Mary Shelley. Shelley was born in 1797 into a notable family, with her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, being a renowned feminist writer herself (Biogram). Her novel Frankenstein was published in 1818, a time when most women were extremely conservative, and were deprived of the rights and opportunities that men held. In the novel, Shelley portrays feminism by essentially mocking women and giving them a lack of power -- showing how women "should not" be.

One would think that a female writer, outlandish in the early 1800’s, would at least try to support her own gender. Mary Shelly, the author of Frankenstein, was wife of Percy Shelly. Percy was a romantic poet (and not the author of Frankenstein). Mary’s mother was an active feminist writer though she died when merry was young. Merry shelly grew up in a patriarchal society reading mostly male authors. She wrote Frankenstein as a challenge by her future husband for a horror story, not a social justice challenge and thus feminism was potentially not even considered. The work of gothic literature Mary created centered on doctor victor Frankenstein, the male protagonist in search to achieve greatness and create life, any wimpy female

In Mary Shelley’s novel, nature plays a vital role in the development of the plot. Nature is considered a female part because Mother Nature is the collective personification of life. Nature is life-bearing and nurturing, as females are to their offspring. In spite of nature being feminine, Victor

Before Feminism in the United States there was Feminism found all around the world. In Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein She projects women as passive and only being in there to be as a love interest to men. Mary Shelley is the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft on of the leading Feminist in the Romantic Era so it is surprising that she would demoralize women like she did in Frankenstein or is Mary making a feminist stand because even though the book has no strong female leads its full of men and the mistakes they make

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein demonstrates a variety of women from distinct backgrounds where the majority faces a doomed fate due to the patriarchal society. Furthermore, the overall representation of women in Frankenstein is passiveness and submissiveness towards the decision and actions of men; they are portrayed as absent due to their minor roles. The “absence” of women could have been the very reason why there are so many downfalls throughout the novel. The death of Victor’s mother due to scarlet fever, the innocent Justine executed, Elizabeth (the beautiful wife) killed by the creature, proves the powerlessness and the passive nature of women that led to their unfortunate death even though, the only woman, Safie broke the chains of the

The well-known Romantic writer, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, broke ground for female writers of her time with her most successful novels still relevant in classrooms and social media today. Shelley’s literary works along with many others supported female writer’s rise to fame in the eighteenth century. However, Shelley has been criticized for not aiding her own gender within a time of bias between men and women and being too fluid with her use of gender roles and sexuality. Shelley’s views were largely influenced by the social and political views of the eighteenth century. Romantic writers took an interest in human consciousness, sexuality, and freedom of thought. Within many of Shelley’s novels, women are given minor characters and are portrayed