Although presented in a different way, Safie’s character is also used to show how language and communication is used to show the compulsion of humanity to form relationships. When Safie is first introduced she doesn’t speak or understand French, the language spoken by Agatha, Felix and De Lacey. However, this allows Shelley to show communication in a different manner, by the way Safie interacts with the cottagers. “They made many signs which I did not comprehend, but I saw that her presence diffused gladness through the cottage, dispelling their sorrow as the sun dissipates the morning mists” (Shelley 98). It is shown that Safie has a close relationship with De Lacey and his children, so much so that she travels to a different country where …show more content…
One of the books Shelley was reading during the time she was writing Frankenstein was her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Zonana 172). This book, as well as Shelley’s relationship with her mother, can be seen as inspiration behind Safie’s character. “The young girl spoke in high and enthusiastic terms of her mother, who, born in freedom, spurned the bondage to which she was now reduced” (Shelley 104). While many of the female character’s in Frankenstein are very meek and often described as nurturing beings like Elizabeth and Caroline, Safie’s character is very opposite and she is described as being rebellious towards her family and strong in her beliefs, such as when she defends the De Lacey family. In this line from Felix’s story, the readers see Safie’s close relationship with her mother, as well as how her mother encouraged her to defy those who wished to repress her. Mary Wollstonecraft was a feminist herself and her book, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, was one of the earliest novels on feminist philosophy. Safie’s identity as an Arabian Christian could also be due to Wollstonecraft’s denial of “Mahometanism,” the refusal to acknowledge women as logical beings, in Western culture (Zonana 173). Safie is represented as a non-Western woman and is shown to have her own thoughts in her letters she writes to Felix, and is thus represented as a rational human being, which is what Wollstonecraft advocates in her novel and contradicts the “Mahometan” idea presented in Western
Certainly the male characters in ‘Frankenstein’ are more developed that those of the females. Elizabeth Fay has suggested that the female characters are ‘idealised figures’ in much of Shelley’s work, particularly in the descriptions of Caroline and Elizabeth, the two mother figures in the novel.
Shelley’s mother Mary Wollstonecraft was one of the very first women to champion equal rights. After her mother’s success with feminism, eventually freedom for women had enabled her to gain authority to her own novel and she was able to republish the novel under her own name in 1831.
Therefore it’s hard to believe that Shelley, a daughter of one of the leading feminists of the day was responsible for presenting women as the submissive role to their male counterparts. How ironic it is that that she was not subservience to her male counterparts in her own life, because although of her father’s disapproval of her partner Percy Shelley, who was already married and to his pregnant wife. She fled to France with him, and disowned herself from her family.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley lived in a sexually separated early 19th century Europe when she wrote her classic novel “Frankenstein”, and many ideas of her society reflect in her novel. Mary grew up in an English society where the role of women was primarily limited to the home while their male counterparts were out and about doing whatever such work he did (“Women in the 19th Century”). Much paralleling true society, gender roles in “Frankenstein” are very much different for men as they were for women. In volume I of “Frankenstein”, the main character, Victor Frankenstein, refers to nature as a female – “I pursued nature to her hiding places”(Mary Shelley, 49) – partaking in a gendered segregation whose consequences are everywhere evident throughout the novel; the affects of the separation of genders lead to destruction time and time again in the novel, possibly illustrating the beliefs of Mary Shelley of the consequences of this segregation. “Whether Shelley intended it or not, Frankenstein offers formal and thematic echoes of the revolutionary philosophy that made cultural room, of an ever-evolving shape and nature, for the fictional interventions in political and social realms,” (Batchelor, Rhonda) says Rhonda Batchelor in her essay reviewing feminine voice in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It is quite possible that Shelley had no intention of including her views on male directive, but there is greater evidence pointing to the fact that she did in fact include her beliefs in her novel to include into the newly founded woman's movement of her time. This essay will argue that Mary Shelley adds intimations in her novel "Frankenstein", clearly indicating her perception that men viewed women as a feeble second class in the...
Frankenstein is a book written by Mary Shelley in 1818, that is revolved around a under privileged scientist named Victor Frankenstein who manages to create a unnatural human-like being. The story was written when Shelley was in her late teen age years, and was published when she was just twenty years old. Frankenstein is filled with several different elements of the Gothic and Romantic Movement of British literature, and is considered to be one of the earliest forms of science fiction. Frankenstein is a very complicated and complex story that challenges different ethics and morals on the apparent theme of dangerous knowledge. With the mysterious experiment that Dr. Victor Frankenstein conducted, Shelly causes her reader to ultimately ask themselves what price is too high to pay to gain knowledge. It is evident that Shelly allows the reader to sort of “wonder” about the reaction they would take when dealing with a situation such as the one implemented throughout the book.
Although Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is not technically a feminist novel, Shelley ever so subtly makes a strong case for the plight of women in a patriarchal society. Speaking from the male point of view, Shelley is able to depict everything that is wrong with society from subservient stereotypes, interpretation of procreation and the demeaning treatment of women as objects. While staying true to the gender roles in the time period, it becomes apparent that not only are men held to a different standard than women, but they are also undeserving. Rather than force her controversial observations down her readers' throats, she stealthily crafts the novel leaving one with a newfound respect and value of women and their role in society. Although the novel is written by a woman, there are only male narrators leaving the female representation to be from the perspective of male authors in that time period.
In feminist literary theory, it claims that Frankenstein’s act of creation is not only a sin against God and nature. It is also an act against the “female principle” which includes natural procreation as one of its central aspects. The monster, the result of male arrogance, is the enemy and destroyer of the eternal female principle.
Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, is a writer who was greatly influenced by the Romantic era in which she lived. In fact, she moved among the greatest talents of the English Romantic writers including her poet/husband Percy Shelley and their poet/friend Lord Byron. Her writing was also influenced by the other great Romantic poets Wordsworth and Coleridge, whose ideas she either directly quotes or paraphrases in Frankenstein. Since Mary Shelley was so intimate with these great talents of the Romantic movement, it is quite natural that her most famous work Frankenstein reflects many of the Romantic trends and devices.
Many people know that Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, was part of a family of famed Romantic era writers. Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, was one of the first leaders of the feminist movement, her father, William Godwin, was a famous social philosopher, and her husband, Percy Shelley, was one of the leading Romantic poets of the time ("Frankenstein: Mary Shelley Biography."). What most people do not know, however, is that Mary Shelley dealt with issues of abandonment her whole life and fear of giving birth (Duncan, Greg. "Frankenstein: The Historical Context."). When she wrote Frankenstein, she revealed her hidden fears and desires through the story of Victor Frankenstein’s creation, putting him symbolically in her place (Murfin, Ross. "Psychoanalytic Criticism and Frankenstein.”). Her purpose, though possibly unconsciously, in writing the novel was to resolve both her feelings of abandonment by her parents, and fears of her own childbirth.
Within Frankenstein, the level at which a female is portrayed is quite low. Like we have heard in class, women were not necessarily respected as much as men were when the novel was written. Published in 1818 by Mary Shelley, her story tells of the adventure of young Victor Frankenstein and the creation of his creature. Though deep within this narration of Frankenstein’s life, there seems to be an underlying theme seeping through Shelley’s writing. Shelley seems to venture into the idea of feminism and grotesquely show how men are treated much better than women. Her novel includes various concrete examples to support this hypothesis.
After learning about the life of Mary Shelley, I have grown to appreciate the novel, Frankenstein, even more since the first time I read it. She led a life nearly, as tragic as the monster she created through her writing. Mary seems to pull some of her own life experiences in Victor’s background, as in both mothers died during or after childbirth. Learning about Mary’s personal losses, I have gained a better appreciation of her as an author and a woman of the 17th century. She had association with some the most influential minds of that
Throughout Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein there are many female minor characters. Some view these minor characters as passive and subordinate, the epitome of a delicate woman, that reflect the gender roles during the author’s era. This simplifying view of the intricately complex female characters does not accurately represent the powerful and firm importance of their underlying, yet commanding, voice. One of these characters is Justine Moritz who, although charmingly modest and gentle, is a testament to the dignified power of women. During her short appearance in the novel, it is clear Victor Frankenstein fears her for the bravery and strength she exquisitely exhibits through her unjust trial. In addition, the contrast between the characters is distinct. Evidently Victor fails to posses such courage and admirable traits reflecting the insufficiency of supposed male dominance as compared to feminine vigor. Mary Shelley’s minor character Justine is a subtle yet potent force who depicts the perseverance and strength of women by illustrating the considerable lack of such traits Victor Frankenstein.
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Shelley characterizes the female characters as passive, disposable and serving an utilitarian function. Women such as Safie, Elizabeth, Justine, Margaret and Agatha provide nothing more but a channel of action for the male characters throughout the novel. Meaning, the events and actions acted by them or happen to them are usually for the sake of the male character gaining new knowledge or sparking an emotion. Each of Shelley’s women serves an important role by way of plot progression are otherwise marginal characters. Yet, this almost absence of women is exactly the reason why they are important. This use of the female character introduces a concept of feminism; here, female politics exists due to the vacancy of a “role model.” Women such as Justine, Agatha, Elizabeth and Margaret in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein play a key role, whether it’s for mere plot progression or by their absence.
Mary Shelley, the author of the novel Frankenstein grew up in the early 1800’s with her father, a radical philosopher that believed in the equality of the sexes, and her mother, a vindicator of women’s rights. Shelley followed the footsteps of her parents and became a strong feminist advocate, and supporter of gender equality. The development of her novel granted her with the opportunity to express her feminist ideologies in a subtle, and realistic way, unlike any other authors during her time period. Thus, in the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley incorporates her feminist beliefs with the purpose of portraying the realities of a woman’s life during the early 1800’s.
Overall, women in “Frankenstein” are displayed unimportant to society compared to men. Besides being household servants and wives, women also play an important role in society like men. Shelley’s use of describing Safie going against the passive role of women compared to Caroline, Justine, and Elizabeth symbolizes how women should have the same rights like men such as getting an education, working in the medical field, and having their voices heard to others. Without the appearance of women in society, the workforce would be cut in half with men working and earning money for a living, and women taking care of children. Therefore, one should not forget that women are the backbone of our society.