Women's Role In Frankenstein

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.

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

In the novel Frankenstein, all of the women characters were depicted as the submissive sex. Marry characterizes them as passive, expendable, and serving no meaningful purpose.

Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, had been raised by strong women’s rights advocates, which makes her characterization of the women in her story a wildly controversial discussion topic even all these years later. Mary Shelley’s philosopher father paid for her high education, and her mother wrote several works about equality for women. She lived a substantially progressive lifestyle, considering the time period in which she lived. This has raised many questions regarding the weak female characters in her story, due to her own very contrasting beliefs.

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.

In Shelley’s Frankenstein, the reader feels great sympathy for the female characters in the novel. The characters Caroline Beaufort, Elizabeth Lavenza and Justine are characterized as good hearted and upright woman, but nevertheless face an injustice death. In Frankenstein, women in the text are being destructed through an inevitable miserable fate to get the idea of the passive woman that devotes herself to the benefactor and her lack of agency across, in which is demonstrated in the passivity of Caroline, Elizabeth and Justine’s role that leads to their misery.

None of Shelley’s female characters in Frankenstein are feminist icons; the women of the novel are written as passive, defined entirely by the men in their lives. This understanding, which informs Stephanie Haddad’s article “Women as the Submissive Sex in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein”, is partially achieved through point of view, specifically that of

In the novel Frankenstein women are viewed as passive, pure and innocent. Frankenstein also focuses in the importance of beauty throughout the story and this is often relayed to the readers through describing the women in the story. Women in Frankenstein are also expected to tend to typical gender roles and aren’t seen as equal to men. Going along with the

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a male-oriented novel, with woman as the side characters. The multiple woman in the novel unknowingly shape the story. The story would not exist without Margaret and the letters her brother sends from the Arctic. Justine Moritz taking the blame for The Creatures murder of William Frankenstein. The Creature spying on the De Lacy woman, witnessing acts of kindness and receiving a form of education form his observations. Caroline with her need to care for Elizabeth, and what results from her care. Elizabeth influencing Victor by simply existing. The role women have in Frankenstein is more important than one may think at first.

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein tells his story from the bright beginnings, to his boundary-crossing brilliance that led him to his ultimate downfall. Throughout the book, we follow mostly Frankenstein’s interpretation and thoughts about a variety of topics, including the women involved in his life, as well as those described to him by his Creature. There are only a handful of women who are relevant to Frankenstein’s tale: Safie, Elizabeth, and even Nature herself. These important characters represent the main themes of Mary Shelley’s depiction of women in her novel Frankenstein: beauty, love, happiness, and a force to be conquered by men.

As Shelley’s mother, it was hard at first for me understanding how daughter of such a dominant figure, could create such a horrific novel avoiding any strong female leads. However I’ve developed a greater sense of Frankenstein’s theme as the storyline and ultimate ending is created by the numerous male mistakes, highlighting Shelley’s true feministic views by giving the disguised impression women are the tangible backbone in society. From the beginning of the text, the one motif that became increasing obvious to me was the suppression of women as the storyline was littered with female characters holding little substance, whilst acting purely passive, who in end were seen to be disposable and there to serve a utilitarian function. In Frankenstein, Shelley

A few women in “Frankenstein” become victims of mad science, and others are simply there to benefit the men. History has not been kind to women. A common belief held firm for centuries: when

Critics Anne K. Mellor and Jeffrey Berman address various aspects of Frankenstein as they contribute to its potential for feminist interpretation as well as evidence of psychological instability and egotism. Although there is a notable absence of prominent female characters, critics like Anne K. Mellor recognize the importance of female influence and maternal guidance in Frankenstein. Given that the book is written by Mary Shelley, daughter of famous feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft, I believe there is potential for this interpretation to be accurate. Mellor looks deeper into the novel and finds that the feminist politics exist in Victor’s “failure to mother his ‘child,’” and the aftermath of unnatural, masculine means of reproduction (Mellor).

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a very important novel when it comes to looking at science fiction; her story has been so successful that it is hard to fine someone that does not know about Frankenstein. Even if they have never read her book the idea of Frankenstein has become a household name. Because of this it is very interesting to understand how such an influential book has portrayed the female character and what the book says about females in society. Depending upon how one looks at the novel Frankenstein can be have a very interesting take on the role of men and women in how they shape one another, how men shape women’s lives and if the novel it self can be called a feminist text.

Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein embodies the literary romanticism of the Modern Gothic era of gender equality. Mary Shelley who grew up with the influence of a Feminist mother, Mary Wollstonecraft who wrote The Vindication of the Rights of a Woman suggests that she would develop the same values of encouraging women's equality and general roles. Ibukun an active blogger on edublogs who’s authored articles, including The Impact of Society’s Marital Ideals on an Individual’s Pursuit of Happiness and the article Observations on separation, pointed out, "Through the monster and the few female characters in the piece Shelley allowed aspects of Mary’s life to be reflected in her work while creating a powerful narrative". Mary Shelley's novel had