Frankenstein And The Subversion Of The Masculine Voice

Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein primarily focuses on Victor and his monster, but women also play a part. There are three major female figures in the novel; the housekeeper for the Frankenstein family: Justine, Victor’s “adopted cousin” and later wife: Elizabeth, and the never completed female monster. To both Victor and the monster woman are desired objects that offer comfort and companionship, but as the novel goes on, women become targets for revenge. This goes to show that the women in Frankenstein prove to be both powerless and powerful when it comes to dealing with the men that surround them.

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.

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, the author of Frankenstein seems to focus on the characterization of men yet what is ironic is the fact that she is a woman. After the birth of Shelley, her mother Mary Wollstonecraft who was one of the first and most important feminist advocates had died, leaving Shelley to continue in her footsteps (“Feminism & Women in Frankenstein”). Growing up, she was exposed to the work done by her mother and this led her to become exposed to feminist ideals at a very early age (“Feminism & Women in Frankenstein”). In Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, it is controversial of why she chose to characterize both sexes in the way she did and this controversy on women’s roles held of one the central themes in the text. Some critics argue that

My the reason I am convinced that victor Frankenstein made the right judgement is that the female monster could be evil/kill or destroy. Just like the male monster she didn't ask to be created so she could go on a killing rampage. Since the monster is female there are different hormones in the female body, then the male; so she could again go on a killing spree killing him and his family. Just like the male monster he isn't very ecstatic that he was created by victor and the female could have the same feeling and try to kill victor.

It is as if the female character suffers from the mistakes of the males, which might reflect women’s position in society at that current time. On the other hand, her death shows Frankenstein’s cowardice in refusing to defend her in time, and therefore bringing out the bad qualities in the main character, and making it his fault that she has suffered. It would be as if indeed it is Frankenstein’s fault for the death of this female character, and the message put through is that one should take responsibility for their actions to let others suffer less, but this does not mean that all the characters in the novel died simply because of this

Upon further probing, there is perhaps a deeper terror rooted in Frankenstein, which subtly appears to stem his hesitancy at creating not just another monster, but specifically a female monster. Because Victor Frankenstein fears the existence of a female free of restrictions that he cannot impose, he destroys her, thus eliminating the female’s options of becoming either completely feminine through becoming a mother and mate, or totally unfeminine by opting to leave her partner and face the world alone.

All of the female characters that appear in Frankenstein exhibit minimal feeling and often remain incredibly passive. A flaw of women in the novel revolves around the fact that Mary Shelley, the author of the novel, was a feminist and came from a mother that fought for the rights of women. The role of woman as a mother gets taken completely

Some would say that Frankenstein by Mary Shelley seems to be a sexist book. There are many different ways of looking at the female roles in this book. On the surface, the women in the book carry very little significance. There are no female speaking lines, and they are very weak and helpless throughout. Some would argue that this is because of the time the book was written (a time when women were considered inferior to men).

The female characters in Frankenstein represent the treatment of women in the early 1800’s. Women who are deprived of their female roles and are enclosed in a feminine sphere of domesticity. In the novel, Frankenstein, the women characters are treated as property and have little privileges in relationship to the male characters, the women suffer and are eventually destroyed showing how unimportant they are in the book’s society, and when it comes to reproduction of human’s, man thinks it pointless to have women play that role. These attacks on the innocent prove that women are second-rate in the novel.

In the novel Frankenstein, the author Mary Shelley reinforced the role of female nature in a book that is predominantly male-oriented. The female character is an underlying feature throughout the whole novel. For example, when Victor Frankenstein created his Monster from dead body parts, he disregarded the laws of female reproduction. Both Anne K. Mellor and Jonathon Bate argue that Victor defiled the feminine nature when he created his Monster from unnatural means. Mellor argued in her essay, “Possessing Nature: The Female in Frankenstein,” that Victor eliminated the necessity to have females at all (355). There will not be a need for females if new beings are created in a laboratory. The disruption of mother nature is one of the novel’s original sins (479). In Bate’s essay, “Frankenstein and the State of Nature,” he argued that Victor Frankenstein broke the balance between female principles of maternity and mother nature (477). Frankenstein broke nature and undermined the role of females. The argument of Mellor was more persuasive than the discussion of Bate because she was able to provide more evidence that Victor Frankenstein dishonored the role of female nature.

The fact that the only females in Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, play passive, supporting roles leads many to believe that it was her way of making a point about how society regarded women during her time. Although the four main women in the novel, Elizabeth, Caroline, Safie, and Justine, are capable of playing active roles in the plot, they are put in the background. Elizabeth is beautiful and nurturing, that is all. Caroline is kind-hearted and loving, that is all. Safie is lovestruck and lovely, that is all.

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein the critical essay “Lesbian Panic and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” (“Lesbian Panic”) by Frann Michel approaches Frankenstein from a gender perspective and applies Adrienne Rich’s lesbian continuum, the “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence” where female relationships, mother-daughter/sisters/female friendships which all fall under the umbrella of lesbian relations, to the relationships that are present in Frankenstein. Frann Michel clarifies through her essay that any work of literature that takes a critical point of view of heterosexual relationships is, in fact, a lesbian text. Michel states that in Frankenstein the motion of lesbian panic is prevalent because lesbian desire is avoided at all costs – during the 1800’s society was rampant with panic, or phobia, amongst those who were afraid of potential sexual desires with one another. Lesbians were considered “Sapphic monstrosities” (Michel 351). In placing female characteristics on all characters in the novel Michel argues, in “Reading Mothers and Lovers”, that Victor Frankenstein’s “maternal anxiety” and his creature’s unfulfilled desire for a female is a doubling of them reflecting with their female counterparts under the lesbian continuum (Michel 355). In “Difference and Desire” Michel claims that Justine and Elizabeth’s tender moments at the end of Justine’s life comes to an end as a result of her unjust confinement and murder. The creature created by Victor is henceforth the

Women in Frankenstein are portrayed as passive and are seen to be supporters and nurturers. Victor contemplates creating a companion for his monster because he feels like a man needs a women to care and look after just as the women in his life tried to do with him. The creature is in search for compassion and feels that he will find it with a woman. 2. Victor becomes ill multiple times as following confrontations with his creation. Victor uses his illness to avoid the problems and his creature. Ultimately though, Victor’s illnesses make things worse and have the problems carry on for a while instead of handling the situation. 3. All the monster really needs and wants is attention and affection like any other. The audience of the book can somewhat

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