Frankenstein Essay

The female characters in Frankenstein serve as symbols of gentleness and comfort to the males

The suffering and loss she endured is reflected in Frankenstein when the main character, Victor, is left alone to suffer through the loss of his loved ones. This theme of loss is a main component of Frankenstein and this mirrors events in Mary’s life that were caused by gender inequality and female oppression. Mary was a woman and these events are very traumatic and influential for women. Mary Shelley was also a victim of the repression of female texts, she even “published anonymously…to keep her identity hidden” (313). This is a main reason why female characters do not play a large role in the story.

The idea that women were suppressed by the rigid patriarchal society leading women to become innocent victims in society is explored significantly in Frankenstein . Through a feminine reading perspective, men dictated women in the Victorian era which lead to them being subservient to the hegemony and becoming silenced victims. This theme is a common gothic preoccupation as women were always depicted as passive and had to accept that they were powerless compared to the superiority of men. Many of the female characters suffered from the patriarchal ideologies such as Justine who mentions, "I have no power… I am only left to conjecture concerning the probabilities by which it might have been placed in my pocket". Justine's dialogue characterises and reinforces the concept of women accepting their submissive role of having no voice and being vulnerable, therefore becoming silent victims of society. The vulnerability of women is further explored when the protagonist, Victor, discusses about Elizabeth and mentions that she "regretted she had not the same opportunities of enlarging her experience and cultivating her understanding" which emphasises

Mary Shelley presents Victor engaging with Elizabeth in all social female roles: wife, mother, and sister.  He is also presented as engaging with her body in all possible variations, creating her body through

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

Victor Frankenstein does not view Elizabeth as a companion, but as a possession. He loves her, yet he still seems to have no emotional connection with her (Poovey). Despite Victor’s stated love for her, “Elizabeth, for instance, is not permitted to travel with Victor and ‘regretted that she had not had the same opportunities of enlarging her experience and cultivating her understanding…” (Mellor 356). This being said, Elizabeth, as well as many other women in the novel, have few rights and are confined to the prejudices of the male characters. The monster, fully aware of his lack of companionship and parental guidance, murders Elizabeth to seek revenge against his creator.

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.

In Anne Mellor’s article “Possessing Nature: The Female in Frankenstein,” she focuses on the role that women play in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Mellor explores the patriarchal society by providing evidence for the claim that Frankenstein is a feminist work. Mellor argues that Victor Frankenstein’s downfall is due to his fear of femininity and his need to become the creator of a human being. She begins the article with the argument that the division of spheres (public and private) within the book caused the destruction of many women. Mellor then explored the spheres that men and women occupied. Men would “work outside of the home” while women were “confined to the home”. This division of spheres had negative consequences as much for men as they did for

In the novel Frankenstein women could be portrayed as destruction and creation of women in society. In the novel there was 2 women killed, Justine, and Elizabeth . Justine was

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Shelley characterizes the female characters as passive, disposable and serving an utilitarian function. Women such as Safie, Elizabeth, Justine, Margaret and Agatha provide nothing more but a channel of action for the male characters throughout the novel. Meaning, the events and actions acted by them or happen to them are usually for the sake of the male character gaining new knowledge or sparking an emotion. But, at the same time, the main male character, Victor Frankenstein, only adds to the the gendered construction of Shelley’s world instead of dismantling it. Fueled by their primary use of plot progression, otherwise meaningless characters are put to good use in Shelley’s Frankenstein.

     There are many different themes expressed in Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. They vary with each reader but basically never change. These themes deal with the education that each character posses, the relationships formed or not formed in the novel, and the responsibility for ones own actions. This novel even with the age still has ideas that can be reasoned with even today.

when he felt lonely and when he was hungry there was no one to guide

While the story of a monstrous creature and its egomaniac-turned-paranoid-mess of a creator does not seem like a novel which would be rooted in feminism. Nonetheless, within Frankenstein there are implicit, yet undeniable parallels to Vindication of the Rights of Women: the most famous work of devout feminist, and mother of Mary Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Though she died due to complications during Mary’s birth, it is well known that Wollstonecraft, and the ideas of the Romantic Era, were influential figures in her daughter’s writing (Deter). Allusion to Vindication of the Rights of Women is generally manifested in Frankenstein in three general ways. First, and most easily identifiable, are the circumstances surrounding Victor’s mother and her death. Next, is the characterization behind several of the female characters in the book, especially their deaths. Finally, and perhaps most controversially, is the proposition that Victor and his creature represent the most undesirable qualities of men- and the novel exists as a critique of men and their selfish desires.

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 women in Frankenstein are forced to be submissive. Victor treats Elizabeth more like a possession or object instead of a living, breathing human being. Elizabeth is passive around Victor. She and other women of the novel, are accepting of the male-controlled society being the powerful figure because that is what they were raised to follow (Kolker). Men withdraw the women of their rights thus the women are forced to act well-mannered. “Like Elizabeth’s destruction, the monsterette’s creation and destruction dramatize how women do not function in their own right but rather as signs and conduits for men’s relations with other men” (Smith 323). Elizabeth possesses herself as being quiet and calm. This quiet behavior adds to the fact that she is a possession and not an individual. “All praises bestowed on her, I received as made to a possession of my own” (Shelly 44).