Mary Shelley 's Suffrage Of The Fiend Created By Victor Frankenstein

In Ellen Moers’ critical essay Female Gothic: The Monster’s Mother (1974) on Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, she argues that Mary Shelley’s story is greatly influenced by her experience of motherhood. This essay uses the historical approach, biographical, and formalist approach at point. Moers references the cultural context of the novel, Mary Shelley’s experience as a woman and mother and how that influenced her writing, and focuses on the genre of the novel quite a bit.

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

Paragraph 1: Throughout Frankenstein, it is a common motif for women with a lesser social power to be vulnerable to men. This is exemplified many times through many women but more prominently through Elizabeth and Caroline of the Frankenstein family. Caroline Frankenstein (nee Beaufort) was said to have, “a small sum of money,” deeming her as a woman with very little societal power. After her, “died in her arms,” she was in an extremely vulnerable state and would have been forced to be, “an orphan and a beggar,” (Shelley 20) if she hadn’t committed herself to the care of Alphonse Frankenstein, a rich friend of her father. It can be interpreted that Caroline’s vulnerability was the cause of her marriage to the

In conjunction with her political ideologies, Shelley used her personal economic hardships as basis for the actions of the Frankenstein family, showing sympathy towards the victims of debt and poverty. Mary Shelley was raised by her father who was always deeply in debt, and the threat of a debtor’s prison persisted even after marriage to the point where they had to flee Britain. This parallels the story of Beaufort in the beginning of the novel: “One of his friends...assistance” (Volume I, Chapter I, p 33, 35). Because of her own struggles with debt, Shelley may have been sympathetic to those in similar circumstances, shown in the grief that the frankenstein family felt when their close friend was suffering through economic hardships. Through historical accounts, literary criticisms and in-text analyses it can be concluded that Frankenstein was much more than a just a fantastical story; it was a commentary on mass revolution, social injustice, and a memento of Shelley’s own life

Besides, in the whole novel, Frankenstein showed more love to his mother than his father. For example, when Frankenstein remembered the happiness of his family, the memory he came up to his mind first was the unforgettable time with his mother. Therefore, it also can represent that Caroline is vital to Frankenstein. Although he loved his mother, he forced himself to repress his love and desire to his mother, so he did not deal with the relationship with his mother properly. Thus, the fate of Frankenstein was influenced by his improper way of treating the Oedipus complex. What’s more, Frankenstein would have “identity crisis” (Luo 12), which would cause troubles to his personalities and characteristics, such as being extraordinary, eccentric and unsocial. If a man failed to handle the Oedipus complex, he would be still dependent on his mother’s love. Like Frankenstein, after the death of his mother, he found someone to replace his mother, continuing his Oedipus complex toward his mother. Elizabeth was the substitute of Caroline, to be a “mother” of Frankenstein. At the beginning of the novel, Elizabeth was an orphan, and then Caroline adopted her as her daughter. When Caroline

Elizabeth frequently makes sacrifices for the Frankenstein family from early childhood all the way until her death. She assumes the role of womanhood at a young age after Caroline 's death. Rather than living out her days of childhood, she comes almost a mother figure to Victor and his younger brothers. While Victor is allowed to seize opportunities to travel and further his education, Elizabeth instead stays in Geneva (Shelley, 23).

For centauries, women have been forced to live life in the outskirts of a male dominated society. During the 1800’s, the opportunities for women were extremely limited and Mary Shelly does an excellent job in portraying this in her gothic novel, Frankenstein. Furthermore, in this novel, Mary Shelly shows how society considers women to be possessions rather than independent human beings. In addition, the female characters rely heavily on men for support and survival, thus proving their inability to do it on their own. Lastly, the female characters in this novel are in many ways victimized by the male characters. In conclusion, in Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein, the female characters always fulfill the limited and archetypical roles that

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.

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

    There are many ways to interpret a literary text, especially one as laden with ethical questions and literary allegory as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Shelley's complex family dynamic - her conflicted relationship with her father, her need to please her mentor/husband with literary success, her infants' deaths - enhances the intrigue of the novel and suggests multiple themes and layered meanings. One discernible theme in Frankenstein is illuminated by the bold line that separates male character from female: The men inevitably fail the women whom they claim to love, but the women are maddeningly passive, seemingly blind to the men's inadequacies. Here, however, this passivity is a

Joyce Zonana, a writer from the Journal of Narrative Technique, makes the claim that Safie, the lovely Arabian women betrothed to Felix De Lacey, is the ‘feminist core’ of the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. She also states that the monster found Safie’s letters while living near the De Lacey's home and actually copied the letters. The Monster learns their language, thanks to stealing Safie's letters, and begins to learn more about humanity. Zonana claims that Safie has set off a reaction with her letters. With the Monster enthralled, learning the importance of a family unit in society, he is angered with Frankenstein for not giving him a family, let alone a name. When the Monster reveals that he possesses the letters, he states that Safie

In “Frankenstein” penned by Mary Shelley, the author depicts the roles of Caroline, Elizabeth, and Justine as passive women by taking action only through the men around them. During the 1820s, when Elizabeth Blackwell saw the deaths of many people on ships being thrown overboard, she became inspired to become a doctor. However, during her time period, women were not allowed to get an education. Finally, Mulan, takes the place of her old father to join the Chinese army, despite her passiveness. A closer look at the roles of Caroline, Elizabeth, Justine, Mulan, and Elizabeth Blackwell reveal a time period where women were treated as objects and followers by men.

 "What can stop the determined heart and resolved will of man?" This question, posed by Captain Robert Walton on page 22 of Mary Shelley's immortal Frankenstein, lies susceptible to interpretation to mean the ambition of man in one sense, but in another, the collective persecution and prejudice inherent in mankind.

The horror classic novel Frankenstein has gathered a great deal of critical and commercial attention since first being introduced in 1818, and naturally there has been many academics who have analyzed many of the novel’s biggest themes, symbols, and motifs. This also includes in analyzing the author herself, Mary Shelley. Marcia Aldrich, who has her Ph.D. in English from the University of Washington, is one of the academics to underline the role of being a female writer in the 19th century and what importance this plays on the novel Frankenstein. In her article, co-written by Richard Isomaki, “The Woman Writer as Frankenstein” analyzes the significance of Mary Shelley being the daughter of a writer and how this contributed to her writing Frankenstein, which they speculate as her, Mary Shelley, envisioning herself as the Monster. Aldrich and Isomaki’s “The Woman Writer as Frankenstein” makes valid and persuasive points, which effectively argues that the novel is semi-autobiographical in the sense that Mary Shelley pictured her as the Frankenstein Monster, for many of the concerns that the authors bring up in their article highlight the insecurities, doubts, and inexorable frustrations of a young woman writing in the 19th century.