Gender Bias In Frankenstein

Frankenstein; Or The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley conveys that stories are dangerous because they impose social norms by enforcing restrictive gender roles that society makes impossible to reconcile. Gender roles dictate the life one should live and one’s value to society, and these restrictions ruin the creature’s life in Frankenstein due to his inability to find a fulfilling role to play in the world he lives. As William Shakespeare once wrote, “All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players” (3.6.80); the creature’s inability to find reconciliation between male or female normative roles he learns through stories leads to his ostracization. He recognizes that the world is a story, and yet he is not even offered

Victor’s first possessive experience with a relationship imprinted-how his next relationships throughout his life would go. After going away to school, Victor felt quite isolated and longed for a friend or an equal. He obsessed over the thought of possessing an equal to the point of him bringing a creature to life. He dedicated all of his energy and time into creating the ultimate equal who was beautiful and as intelligent as he, but immediately after the creature came to life, Victor was disgusted: “I felt the bitterness of disappointment; dreams that had been my food and pleasant rest for so long a space were now become a hell to me” (Shelley, 59,60). Drawing back to the fact Victor’s family is privileged, I believe the

Secondly, in this novel, the female characters rely heavily on men for support and survival. Furthermore, society views the female characters as delicate beings that can not survive by themselves. As a result, they need a man to protect, cherish and provide for them. In fact, all of the female characters have a male character to which they depend on. First of all, Caroline is unable to survive after her father’s death and as a result, marries Alphonse. Alphonse “came like a protecting spirit to the poor girl.” (Pg. 18) This simile compares Alphonse to a hero and Caroline to the weak and desperate women that she is portrayed as. Furthermore, Alphonse takes care of Caroline “as a fair exotic is sheltered by her gardener, from every rougher wind.”(Pg. 19) This metaphor describes Caroline to be a “fair exotic” who is treated like a possession rather than a capable human being. By making this comparison, Shelly alludes to the idea that the female characters are as delicate as flowers and they can’t survive without the male characters. This is true in both Justine and Elizabeth’s case. Justine is dependant on Victor to free her from the accusations.

Victor tells the reader, “I was seized by remorse and the sense of guilt, which hurried me away to a hell of intense tortures.” (NEED CITATION) Because of this overpowering guilt and depression, Victor even contemplates suicide; saying, “I was tempted to plunge into the silent lake, that the waters might close over me and my calamities forever.” (81). But throughout all of his suffering, Victor found hope and love in Elizabeth. In one of the letters he wrote to her, he proclaims, “I fear, my beloved girl, little happiness remains for us on earth; yet all that I may one day enjoy is centered in you.” (168). In this statement of love, Victor summarizes what he has to live for. His happiness does not remain in science, friendships, or family; but resides in his future with Elizabeth. He later talks about the last moments of his life during which he enjoyed the genuine feeling of happiness, his wedding. While alive, Elizabeth had been his greatest lover, encouraging him through all of his darkest valleys. And even in her passing, the vengeance of her death consumes Victor’s mind, dedicating his life to kill the horrific Monster which he had created.

Apart from that, women in Frankenstein are always seems to be weak and emotionally frail. For instance, readers are introduced to Caroline Beaufort in the earliest account of Victor’s history. She was at first described as some one who could survive and become the breadwinner of the family. But when her father died, she “knelt by Beaufort’s coffin, weeping bitterly” and then was taken by Alphonse to be under his care and later became his wife. After attended Elizabeth when she was sick, Caroline fell severely sick and later died. Elizabeth too, when she was told about William’s death “she fainted, and was restored with extreme difficulty. When she again lived, it was only to weep and sigh.” This shows women’s vulnerability when they are facing problems and sometimes lost their rationale, thus making them as a pitiful object. Shelley stresses how important it is for women to control their emotion. Not to throw away the sensitive values that most women naturally posses, but to learn to be sensible.

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.

Gender inequality will always affect the portrayal of women in society, the weaker, unnecessary, and other sex. It is not just a subject of the past, and still holds a name in society. However in the olden eras, the way women were treated and looked at was in a much harsher condition. In Shakespeare’s Othello and Shelley’s Frankenstein, women’s roles in the books are solely based on the way they are treated in their time period. The portrayal of women in these books demonstrate that they can never be in the same standing as men and therefore will never have the same respect as them. In both Othello and Frankenstein women are treated as property, used to better men’s social standards, and lack a voice, which demonstrates that in

Men lead intellectually satisfying lives with little emotion while women lived the opposite. They had emotionally exciting lives with little intellectual fulfillment. Victor excelled in the public sphere but could not perform in the private sphere because according to Mellor the “sexual division of labor” does not allow women or men to have both. Mellor then points out the absence of a strong willed female character. The De Lacey family was seen as an alternative to the Frankenstein family, but even they, a family based on “justice, gender equality, and mutual affection” lack a mother figure. The monster goes to Victor longing for this strong female companion but it does not exist. Mellor also explores the idea that Victor’s most passionate relationships are with men. He saw Clerval as “his former self” and Mellor describes Walton’s responses to Victor as “homoerotic.” Finally Mellor claims that Victor “rapes” nature in the destruction of an equal companion for Frankenstein and is punished “with the very electricity he has stolen.” Also with the death of Elizabeth taking away Victors ability to reproduce Mellor claims that Marry Shelley’s novel portrays the “penalty of raping

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

Perhaps the strongest evidence of feminism in Frankenstein stems from what happens when Victor Frankenstein tries to create life without the help of a

The fight for domination amongst the sexes is a battle as old as civilization, where the ideas of gender hierarchies first began. These conflicts often manifest themselves unwittingly through literature, showing subtle signs of deeper tension that has ensued for centuries. The struggle between masculine and feminine becomes apparent through Frankenstein, a battle that results in the death of the potentially most powerful figure in the book. Frankenstein yields characters motivated by complicated thinking, specifically the title character, Victor Frankenstein. Victor is a brilliant 19th century Swiss scientist who succeeds in generating life with electricity, creating a creature that

The first time when Victor find his misery was when his mother died, all this time his mother such an angel to him, but when she died, he seemed like to lose his life, and Elizabeth is the only woman that he loved. When he study in University, he met with Professor M. Krempe and M. Waldman who

As a child, his only friends are Elizabeth and Clerval, and they are in fact, the only true friends he has throughout his entire life. He isolates himself from society during the time he is creating the monster, claiming that, 'I must absent myself from all I loved whilst thus employed' (page 147). He claims that this is necessary if he is to discover the secret of life. One reason why Victor isolates himself is due to his fear of sexuality. When he creates the monster, he is eliminating the role of women and rejecting normal sexuality. This is also shown when Victor's father suggests that he should marry Elizabeth immediately, and he states 'Alas! To me the idea of an immediate union with my Elizabeth was one of horror and dismay.' (page 147). This shows Victor's problems with relationships and therefore his isolation from others.

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.

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