Sexism In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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.

In “Frankenstein”, Shelly introduces the character Elizabeth as a love interest and a trophy wife for Victor. Elizabeth’s purpose lies in the duties of

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 “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.

When reading Frankenstein women roles were to be the nurturer and very yielding not out spoken. To tend to the children and to take care of all that is in the house. This might entail caring for the sick which Caroline, Victors’ mother did for her father way you see this is stated in the book how she “procured plain work; she plaited straw; and by various means contrived to earn a pittance scarcely sufficient to support life” (pg.32). With this you see that women earn little wages outside the home. Women were not considered in high standing to make a livable wage. Therefore, marriage was one of their important roles and to bear children. Throughout the book you see how the women are all focus on family and marriage in one passage Elizabeth ask Victor “Answer me, I conjure you, by our mutual happiness, with simple truth-Do you love another?” (pg.187). Here she is showing her commit but wonders if he feels the same way. She also puts no demands on him when addressing this inquiry in her letter. He let her know there is no one else and knows this was his mother dying wish that they should be united in marriage.

Towards the end of her life, Caroline spends her time taking care of Elizabeth, who has scarlet fever. As a caretaker, she relieves Elizabeth of her sickness, but sadly catches the disease herself. Caroline is hesitant at first, but “when she heard that the life of her favourite was menaced…she attended her sickbed… consequences [ ] were fatal to her preserver.” (Shelley 28) Although Caroline is warned not to take care of Elizabeth because she could contract the illness, she could not resist but to help when he sees her Elizabeth suffering. However, in doing so Caroline contracts the illness and passes away while Elizabeth heals. Mary Shelley chooses to portray the women in this book to not be selfish and to actually sacrifice their lives to save a loved one. Caroline’s emotion gets to her and her emotional sensitivity is what causes her to help out Elizabeth. On the same note, Shelley reveals another woman, Agatha, and makes her seem like an extremely gentle woman. Agatha’s purpose, as a kind and gentle female, is to exhibit and embody all virtue and sensitivity. These are the first lessons learned by the monster; he has never seen such tenderness before meeting Agatha. She changes him during her interactions with her blind father, “Agatha listened with respect, her eyes sometimes filled with tears, which she endeavored to wipe away unperceived.” (Shelley 93) Agatha’s female character, through its inactive and tender nature, serves to teach the monster his first lessons on healthy human relationships and love. Her character reveals emotions in the monster, portraying that woman hold emotional values for the males. Just like Caroline, it is true that when it comes to mothers, spouses, and daughters, the males are emotionally bonded to these three females in their lives. The monster having emotional feeling after viewing the compassion between a father and daughter, it is

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 Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, some blatant parallels are made between Dr. Frankenstein's adopted sister, Elizabeth, and the monster he created. Both of these innocent creatures, together represent all of mankind in their similarities and differences, Elizabeth being the picture of womanhood and goodness, the monster representing manhood and evil. Both Elizabeth and the monster belong to and structure their lives in terms of Dr. Frankenstein, leading to overall destruction and, ultimately demonstrating the dangerous properties of patriarchy, which Dr. Frankenstein embodies.

The fact that the only females in Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, play passive, supporting roles leads many to believe that it was her way of making a point about how society regarded women during her time. Although the four main women in the novel, Elizabeth, Caroline, Safie, and Justine, are capable of playing active roles in the plot, they are put in the background. Elizabeth is beautiful and nurturing, that is all. Caroline is kind-hearted and loving, that is all. Safie is lovestruck and lovely, that is all.

In “Frankenstein” penned by Mary Shelley, one cannot help but notice the role of women in the novel compared to men. Even though Mary Shelley is the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, a mother advocating for women’s rights in society, she displays the roles of Caroline, Elizabeth, and Justine as passive women. This may be the time period when women were considered inferior to men. Caroline, Elizabeth, and Justine are depicted as possessions by men, admired for their superficial beauty, and do not take action without the permission of men. On the other hand, Shelley illustrates Safie as a woman who speaks up for her own rights when her father forbids her to find Felix. The three points that contribute greatly to the passive role of women are

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein the critical essay “Lesbian Panic and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” (“Lesbian Panic”) by Frann Michel approaches Frankenstein from a gender perspective and applies Adrienne Rich’s lesbian continuum, the “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence” where female relationships, mother-daughter/sisters/female friendships which all fall under the umbrella of lesbian relations, to the relationships that are present in Frankenstein. Frann Michel clarifies through her essay that any work of literature that takes a critical point of view of heterosexual relationships is, in fact, a lesbian text. Michel states that in Frankenstein the motion of lesbian panic is prevalent because lesbian desire is avoided at all costs – during the 1800’s society was rampant with panic, or phobia, amongst those who were afraid of potential sexual desires with one another. Lesbians were considered “Sapphic monstrosities” (Michel 351). In placing female characteristics on all characters in the novel Michel argues, in “Reading Mothers and Lovers”, that Victor Frankenstein’s “maternal anxiety” and his creature’s unfulfilled desire for a female is a doubling of them reflecting with their female counterparts under the lesbian continuum (Michel 355). In “Difference and Desire” Michel claims that Justine and Elizabeth’s tender moments at the end of Justine’s life comes to an end as a result of her unjust confinement and murder. The creature created by Victor is henceforth the

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the reader is able to analyse her works from a feminist viewpoint. During the time period that Frankenstein was written, women had a lesser role in society. They did not have the same educational, social, or political opportunities that men had. This split in genders also applied to opinions, generally when women had an opinion they kept it to themselves. In Frankenstein, this is seen in the deaths of the female characters. Victor’s mother is an example of this, she is silenced early in the story when she dies of scarlet fever. Even though this was an important event in Victor’s life it is only briefly mentioned. In fact, Caroline (the name Victor’s of Mother) is only mentioned once or twice throughout the entire book. This is a subtle yet key detail in the story. The lack of mentioning her name makes her seem, in the reader’s eye, a less important character. Her counterpart Alphonse Frankenstein (Victor’s father) is mentioned significantly more. This is important to note because of his status as a male character. Alphonse is a key part of the plot leading up to

The female characters in Frankenstein are characterized by exuding unconditional love towards their male counterparts and not defying the men’s dominance in the household. An example of this odd combination is seen in Elizabeth, who, despite being abandoned by Victor and left to care for his siblings, still maintains her dedication towards Victor and preserves hope for his return even when he avoids all contact with his family. Elizabeth is known for

“Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience” (Wollstonecraft 16). Mary Shelley, similar to her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, overtly advocates feminist ideals through her literary works. In her novel Frankenstein, Shelley portrays female characters in accordance with their typical roles in gothic literature. She tasks them with the common duties of women of their time period, including constant service to the males related to them. Further, Shelley presents certain women as gifts and rewards to her male characters. Females such as Safie immediately become objects, offered when their male superiors enter dire straits. The majority of the female characters in Frankenstein are, at some point, subjected to severe cruelty from male characters. In a number of these instances, including those of Elizabeth Lavenza and Justine Moritz, death is the ultimate result. Shelley, by constructing women as subordinate to men and exposing them to utter torture, clearly conveys the principles of the feminist movement. Her technique is similar to that of Voltaire in Candide, who satirizes the injustices faced by women in order to criticize the stereotypes regarding women of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (“The Position of Women”). Shelley develops the female characters in Frankenstein as docile and oppressed, communicating the notion that women ought to have the same amount of influence as men in society.