Mary Shelly 's Frankenstein And The Hidden Self

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.

Throughout the novel, “Frankenstein,” the “monster” was seen as hideous. As a result, many including the creator himself did not give the “monster” a chance and portrayed him as evil. Rather than looking at his personality, they looked at his outward appearance, which scared them off and made them assume he was a “monster.” When readers, including myself, read this story, we feel disappointed about how during this time everything revolved based upon looks and not on what really mattered like charisma. Overall he is portrayed as an evil, scary creature. When Victor describes him he is so harsh and cruel it makes him seem to be a monster. “He held up the curtain of the bed; and his eyes, if eyes they may be called, were fixed on me. His jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his cheeks,” (Shelley 59) this phrase proves how when Victor describes the monster he did not care to think about what the monster was trying to say because he was too scared of his horrible looks.

Frankenstein’s monster demands that Frankenstein creates him a female companion. Frankenstein agrees to this in the hopes that he will be left in peace. However during creation of the female, and the monster watching him work, it dawns on him the reality of the hideous act he is embarking upon. Overcome by the image of the monster and the idea of creating another like him, Frankenstein destroys his work. The monster is distraught over Frankenstein’s actions and explains the misery he has been through whilst perusing him - he explains that he will make Victor pay if he refuses to create him his female mate.

After the creation of the creature, Frankenstein had abandoned him leaving him as ‘a poor, helpless, miserable wretch,’ (71) who was clueless about his sense and how to survive. When we found a farm he stayed there to gather food however ‘children shrieked, and one of the women fainted,’ upon seeing him in which some attacked him.(74) He later found a place to stay aside to the DeLacey family’s cottage, however he didn’t enter due to his last experience. He lived outside for months observing and learning. The creature learned knowledge of feelings. However this ‘increase of knowledge’ only made him discover ‘more clearly what a wretched outcast’ he was. (93) He was once again rejected which led his rage to increase towards his creator, Frankenstein, because he had created a monster who wasn’t accepted in society. (97) His first action was the killing of William because the creature had ‘sworn eternal revenge,’ upon Frankenstein.(102) This is significant because after learning what society consider ‘normal’ he started to have an inferiority complex leading to build rage towards his creator for his deformity . Seek of revenge is further emphasized when he asked Frankenstein for a woman companion and is denied of one.(121) Once Frankenstein had agree to create a companion he then rethinks about the negative effects which later causes him to destroy the female creature. This builds on the creature’s rage leading him to threatened Frankenstein indicating he will be there with him on his wedding-night. (139) On the day after of Frankenstein’s wedding he noticed that he held in his arms ‘had ceased to be the Elizabeth,’ who he had ‘loved and cherished.’ (145) She was killed by the creature as an act of revenge because Frankenstein had denied him to a female companion. In the end, the creature cried out ‘I shall die and what I now feel be no longer felt. Soon these burning miseries will be

After his long tale, the Creature finally explains his ultimate goal in approaching Frankenstein: “You must create a female for me. With whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being. This you alone can do; and I demand it of you as a right which you must not refuse” (Shelley 137). The Creature sees this female companion as his only chance to return to a benevolent state; he needs this female creature to sympathize with him and his experiences, among other possibilities that Frankenstein insinuates but are not directly expressed by the Creature. After listening to the Creature’s demand, Frankenstein “compassionated” the Creature but does attempt to revert back to his view of the Creature as possibly no more than “a filthy mass”(140).

Throughout Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein we come across several seemingly different themes, however they analytically revolve around two central ideas. As it comes up in the book, the two major themes that clearly correspond are solitude and insanity. Victors’ voluntary solitude allowed him to pursue his passions in science, but more importantly distorted his sense of morality. Thus validating the statement that solitude is what ultimately led to Victors’ insanity.

In addition to her proposition that a patriarchal society will ultimately lead to chaos, Shelley uses the character of Frankenstein to illustrate that men are not the strong leaders of society they claim to be. Frankenstein is brave enough to go as far as creating life without a woman; however, as soon as his brainchild comes to life, Frankenstein essentially

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.

The notion of what it means to be human is heavily addressed in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, as Victor Frankenstein, the eponymous character, produces a creature that resembles a human in both an internal and external sense. Despite the creature’s obvious human-like qualities, society rejects him continuously. To some extent, this blatant disregard resembles the difficulties that accompanied the feminist movement. Mary Shelley’s mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Women, which is now recognized as one of the earliest feminist works. This work famously compared the plight of females to that of slavery, writing that women are bound to “slavish obedience” (Wollstonecraft 158). Wollstonecraft explains “it is vain to expect virtue from women till they are, in some degree, independent of men” (149). In other words, Wollstonecraft argues that women are only spiteful when they feel they are marginalized. Just like women in the eighteenth century, the creature in Frankenstein struggles to maintain his rights, as Victor constantly deems him inhuman. The creature displays human-like qualities through his abilities to communicate, understand emotion, and self-reflect. The aggression he shows throughout the novel is merely a consequence of his untimely abandonment by his creator. As indicated throughout the novel, humaneness does not lie in external appearances, but in an ability to feel compassion and have rational thoughts. The creature’s capacity to

Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein is designed as a gothic horror novel but deals with serious moral issues. Written in 1818, a time when breakthroughs and discoveries in the scientific world were common and often of great importance, the book shows how desire for knowledge entwined with humanity’s ability to quickly reject what seems ugly or that which they don’t understand, can unfold into a tragic tale with several fatal altercations. Whilst playing the role of a negligent God, Victor Frankenstein brings into existence a hideous being, which he rejects at birth, his creation lacking teachings of moral values commits murder.

In Marry Shelly’s Frankenstein, perception plays a key part in the monsters’ icy demise. Not only is the story affected by how the villagers perceive the monster, but the readers’ perception, like in any literary work, plays the role of ultimate judge.

Few days later Frankenstein's younger brother is found dead. Frankenstein knows right away that properly the monster has murder his brother. So he goes to look for him. When he finds him, he noticed that the monster is now able to talk. The creature tells him that he learned to talk when he watched one family, but when he comes closer to the family and want to be their friend they chase him away. And so does everybody. He feels so lonesome and alone, that he wants Frankenstein to create a girlfriend for him so he is no lonely anymore. As a result he may have then somebody to talk to. In return the monster would turn his back to the human race. Consequently Frankenstein creates a female mate for the monster, but when he is almost through the work he is suddenly overwhelmed with fear that the monster and his mate will spawn more monsters and destroy the human race. So he destroys the female. Thereupon the creature murders Frankenstein's fiancée.

In Mary Shelley’s well known novel of Frankenstein, the female characters play fairly significant roles. Of course, in this novel the male characters definitely play more important roles than those of the women characters, but they are both still vital components in this particular literary work. Not only are they both important, but they both encounter many hardships and difficulties as well. Although the women endure plenty of problems throughout the story such as the men do, they still manage to go through them differently. Throughout the story, Shelley manages to utilize each female character differently and significantly.

Mary Shelley chose to write Frankenstein from the perspective of three narrators, which, not surprisingly, were all male. We are presented with the accounts of Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, and the Monster. The women that are portrayed in this novel are simply tools used by the author to further develop the importance of the male experience of the narrators. They are portrayed as beautiful, capable of self-sacrifice, delicate and nurturing to their men, yet at the same time they have very little influence over the actions of these men. In the few instances where Shelley gives women power, she quickly takes it away. Such as the phenomena of creating life that women have when they give birth, she gives

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