How does Shelley present relationships between men and women?

Ironically, Walton’s isolation comes by the pride of his own hand in his conquest for glory. In contrast to the doctor, he is ghastly disturbed by his abandonment as he comes to express, “I have no friend, Margaret: when I am glowing with the enthusiasm of success, there will be none to participate my joy, if I am assailed by disappointment, no one will endeavor to sustain me in dejection” (Shelley 5). With regard to the dialogue, the author offers insight to Walton’s arrogance and discontentment which disassociate him from his shipmates and family. His resilience to remain isolated exemplifies his ignorance heavily. Additionally, Walton’s egotism reveals that he is purely motivated by the personal gain a friend will provide him through comfort and praise. Walton portrays the balance between Victor and the monster because he is capable of recognizing the cost of his pride, and yet still desires companionship. Walton makes mention of his self-inflicted isolation as he explains to his sister Margaret, “You may deem me a romantic my dear sister, but I have no one near to me , gentle yet courageous, possessed of a cultivated as well as a capricious mind, whose tastes are like my own, to approve or mend my plans” (Shelley 5). Being a specimen of narcissism, Walton essentially communicates that none of his shipmates are good enough for his company. He irrationally bemoans in his loneliness, while his own

This illustrates Victor’s knowledge and understanding of Henry’s significance in his life and in whom he has become. Elizabeth, another childhood friend of Victor, serves as a source of consolation for Victor in times of depression through her many letters. At a young age, Elizabeth is not only brought into the family to be Victor’s companion, but she is also pressured into taking on a maternal role when Caroline, on her deathbed, tells her, " ‘Elizabeth … you must supply my place to your younger cousins’ " (Shelley 35). Elizabeth becomes the sole woman of the family, taking on the former duties of Victor’s mother; in a sense, becomes the mother, sister and lover of Victor. When Victor chooses to leave for his studies, she does not request that he stay home and marry her, but rather fulfills her duties in the Frankenstein home and cares for him at a distance.

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.

This novel reflects Shelley’s own childhood, which consisted of her feeling obligated to rebel against her own father’s wishes and his choice for her marriage. Frankenstein is a way for Shelley to tell her own experiences with parental conflict and how she feels she was affected by her demanding father and the environment she grew up in, by comparing herself to Victor’s monster. Shelley analyzed her own characteristics, and the characteristics of her father, and placed them within Victor and the

This idea of the female role is reinforced by the fact that as the novel progresses, the women are slowly being removed- first his Mother, then Justine and then Elizabeth- “I saw Elizabeth…held the corpse of my dead mother”. This presents Frankenstein’s mental degregation and ultimately, the ctalyst for the mosntrous act- so Shelley presents the idea of a dichotomy between man and women- Darwin supported this by suggesting the hierachy of reproducion- man and woman is better than man alone.

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

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.

Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein is book about the importance of human relationships and treating everyone with dignity and respect. The main character of the book is Victor Frankenstein who is a very intelligent man with a desire to create life in another being. After he completes his creation, he is horrified to find that what he has created is a monster. The monster is the ugliest, most disgusting creature that he has ever seen. Victor being sickened by his creation allows the monster to run off and become all alone in the world. Throughout Frankenstein, Mary Shelley uses the theme of human relationships to illustrate the bond that man has with other beings and the need for love and affection. The importance of human relationships

Shelley uses a bit of parallelism to enhance her writing. The author starts out a scene where Victor is at first met with joy, then dread soon follows. For example, Shelley writes “But these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast” and then on the next page she writes “But as I imprinted the first kiss on her lips, they became livid with the hue of death”. This parallelism of the idea where Victor’s initial emotion of happiness is quickly replaced with horror and regret. It helps add to the theme of where such build up and hard work is lost. Victor has been building up for this moment for years and when he finally accomplishes it, he almost immediately regrets his actions. Then the following is Victor’s nightmare where he is greeted by Elizabeth, someone who he truly cares about but after he embraces her she rots away and leaves him in a state of horror. This parallelism of where it begins good then turns bad adds to the

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

Like Caroline and Safie, Elizabeth Lavenza’s father causes her unhappiness. However this is drastically confounded by the egotism of Victor Frankenstein who seeks to take on the vitally female role of the creator. Elizabeth is constructed by Shelley as an extremely positive character, whose ‘saintly soul’ shines ‘like a shrine dedicated lamp’ in the Frankenstein’s ‘happy home’. She, like her foster mother Caroline, keeps the family together ‘veiling her grief’ for the benefit of the children. However, when victor attempts to take on the role of a woman and ‘create life’ Shelley shows us that it is an unfortunate masculine characteristic to doom idealism with egotism and the pursuit of glory. Despite his noble goals of ‘unfolding the mysteries of creation’, to confer ‘inesteemable benefit’ on all mankind, Victor’s masculine egotism endures

    In any novel the author is free to create and shape their characters in whatever way they see fit. In Frankenstein, Shelley does an excellent job of shaping her characters, be it however minute their part in the story, so that the reader gets a clear picture of Shelley's creations. It seems that each character in Shelley's Frankenstein is created by Shelley to give the reader a certain impression of the character. By doing this Shelley creates the characters the way she wants us to see them. She tells us certain things about them and gives them certain traits so that they will fit into the story the way she wants them to. In particular I will examine the characters of the

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

   In the novel Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, the characters have been portrayed effectively. Much of the interactions between characters, and characteristics of the characters have been based on events which have occurred in Shelley's own life, or they represent what she believes is important. For example, Victor is portrayed as having a strong passion for science, and a poor understanding of relationships. Elizabeth is shown as a stereotypical woman of the time, who is also very powerless. The monster is depicted as being both beautiful and ugly, and someone who the reader feels sympathetic towards. Through the portrayal of her characters, Shelley has created a very effective

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