Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

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Recommended: Romanticism and Frankenstein

Obsession is a state of troubling preoccupation, and is a mental state prominent in both Frankenstein and Rebecca; one which has extreme causes and effects. In Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein becomes obsessed with creating life, which later turns to obsession with destroying his creation. While in Rebecca, the main antagonist Mrs De Winter is obsessed with the deceased Rebecca. This unhealthy obsession later consumes the second Mrs De Winter.
It is interesting that both Du Maurier and Shelley are female writers, which could influence the texts they write, as they lived and wrote before gender equality. Shelley deliberately presents women ironically, presenting them as exploited by men and valued for their beauty. Shelley’s mother was absent in her childhood; it is likely that Shelley grew up in a patriarchal world, shaping her views of men, and perhaps exposing their flaws. Shelley’s mother was Mary Wollstonecraft, a philosopher and advocator of women’s rights, and it is likely that Shelley was influenced by her mother’s feminist works, evident in the way she presents women’s mistreatment from men. Shelley herself said; “It is hardly surprising that women concentrate on the way the look instead of what is in their minds”, which reflects the obsession and women’s outer beauty in the book, such as the focus on Elizabeth’s appearance. Shelley wrote the book in 1816, at the end of the Romantic era; Romanticism was partly a “reaction against the scientific realisation of nature”, which is evident in the scientific nature of creating the creature, and Shelley’s references to God and Satan. The critic Alicia Renfroe argued that, Shelley uses nature “personified as female, as a vehicle to redefine the masculine prototype of Romanticism...

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...aracter, possessing many unwanted personality traits, but without obsession, it is unlikely that events would have escalated in such a way, resulting in the death of everyone he loves. Rebecca illuminates this idea, showing that no matter how strong the love may be between the protagonist and Maxim, the obsession for the deceased wife overpowers.

Works Cited

Du Maurier, Daphne; Rebecca; Virago Press; Great Britain; 2003. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-2289686/For-Daphne-man-lived-Daddy-DAPHNE-DU-MAURIER-AND-HER-SISTERS-THE-HIDDEN-LIVES-OF-PIFFY-BIRD-AND-BING-BY-JANE-DUNN.html; John Preston; 2013.
Patterson, Paul; Frankenstein’s Self-Centeredness Leads Inevitably to Self-Destruction; The Greenhaven Press; San Diego; 2000.
Shelley, Mary; Frankenstein; Wordsworth Editions Limited; Hertfordshire; 1993.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_(novel)

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