Journal #1: Frankenstein
Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, contains the story of young scientist Victor Frankenstein and the monstrous creature he creates as a part of a scientific experiment. Frankenstein spends months tirelessly working to craft the creature out of old body parts; however, when the monster finally comes to life one night, Frankenstein immediately regrets his efforts and feels the act was a disaster. Frankenstein says: “I saw the dull yellow eyes of the creature open. (…) How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavored to form?” (42). Frankenstein was no longer inspired by his efforts, instead, he was disgusted: “I had worked hard for
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nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. (…) Now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream had vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (42). Moreover, the young scientist could not even bear that he had crafted the creature in the first place; he says: “unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room and continued a long time traversing my bedchamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep” (42). Frankenstein originally felt invested in and awed by his work and experiment to create a being out of a lifeless body, but he felt quite the opposite upon his experiment’s successful fruition. In Frankenstein, Shelley’s use of foreshadowing cues readers that tragedy is impending. Early on in the novel, Victor Frankenstein’s narration contains hints that his future will consist of misfortune. For example, Frankenstein says that studying natural philosophy controlled his disastrous fate because it helped lead him to the ideas that caused his ruin: Natural philosophy is the genius that has regulated my fate. (…) I should certainly have thrown [the philosophical works of Cornelius] Agrippa aside and have contented my imagination, warmed as it was, by returning with greater ardor to my former studies. It is even possible that the train of my ideas would never have received the fatal impulse that led to my ruin. (24-25) With this part of Frankenstein’s narration, a reader learns that his studying of philosophy and having the subsequent ideas inspired by his studies will likely later cause death to befall the young scientist. Another example of foreshadowing in Shelley’s novel is Frankenstein’s mother’s death. When recalling his mother’s death because of an illness, Frankenstein says that he believes the event was a presage of future woes: “The first misfortune of my life occurred—an omen, as it were, of my future misery” (28). Although the beginning of Shelley’s novel does not contain much doom, nevertheless, Shelley’s foreshadowing causes a reader to recognize that Frankenstein will likely face disaster as the story progresses. Shelley’s novel often portrays women as passive and weak.
Throughout Frankenstein, Shelley consistently represents women as people in need of protection and help from men. For example, near the beginning of the novel, Frankenstein recalls that his father often needed to protect and save his mother, almost as if she were a weak and fragile flower. Frankenstein says how “He [Frankenstein’s father] came like a protecting spirit to the poor girl [Frankenstein’s mother], who committed herself to his care” (18); “He strove to shelter her, as a fair exotic is sheltered by the gardener, from rougher wind and to surround her with all that could tend to excite pleasurable emotion in her soft benevolent mind” (19). Not only does Shelley portray women as weak and in need of male protection, but she also objectifies women. For example, Frankenstein’s mother refers to his cousin and now adopted sister, Elizabeth, as an object that can be given to someone. Frankenstein recalls …show more content…
how, On the evening previous to her [Elizabeth] being brought to my home, my mother had said playfully, ‘I have a pretty present for my Victor—tomorrow he shall have it.’ And when, on the morrow, she presented Elizabeth to me as her promised gift, I (…) interpreted her words literally and looked upon Elizabeth as mine—mine to protect, love, and cherish. (21) In this excerpt from Shelley’s book, Frankenstein and his mother treat Elizabeth like she is a possession that someone can give, own and protect.
Women being portrayed as weak is a theme that continues throughout Frankenstein. For example, near the middle of the novel in the scene in which Justine is convicted of murdering Frankenstein’s brother, women are portrayed as passive and weak. Elizabeth does take action to try and prevent Justine’s execution, because although Justine confessed to killing Frankenstein’s brother, she “confessed a lie” (69) and did not actually kill him. However, Elizabeth’s efforts were in vain, and she was still powerless to stop the execution; Frankenstein explains: “Justine died. Elizabeth’s heart-wrenching eloquence failed to move the judges from their settled conviction in the criminality of the saintly sufferer. My passionate and indignant appeals were lost upon them” (70). In this instance, both Frankenstein and Elizabeth were unable to stop Justine’s death, therefore, one could argue that while Shelley might portray women as powerless, she presents men as powerless as well. However, Shelly still represents women as weaker than men in this scene. One example of this is when Frankenstein refers to Justine as “the poor victim” (68). Moreover, in this scene, Shelley once again portrays women as needing men’s help, because Elizabeth says to Frankenstein: “I will go [visit Justine in jail], although she is guilty; and you, Victor, shall
accompany me; I cannot go alone” (68). Elizabeth expresses that she is not able to go see Justine unless she has Frankenstein to escort her. Shelley also describes the women in this scene as weeping, emotional, and groveling. For example, Shelley writes how Justine “threw herself at the feet of Elizabeth, weeping bitterly. My cousin [Elizabeth] wept also” (68). Shelley, however, does not portray men in this way. The text does note that Frankenstein feels deep despair, because Frankenstein says: “I had retired to the corner of the prison room, where I could conceal the horrid anguish that possessed me. Despair!” (69-70). However, Shelley’s text does not describe Frankenstein as visibly showing these feelings to those around him, nor does it indicate that he needs the help of others to do activities; this contrasts Shelley’s depiction of the women in her story, and it often results in the male characters appearing stronger than the female ones. Although a woman wrote Frankenstein, and therefore one might assume that the novel’s plot would portray women as powerful or at least equal to men, nevertheless, Shelley interestingly chooses to frequently represent the women in her novel as weak. One could, perhaps, even place Shelley’s differing portrayal of men and women in the larger context of gender studies; in a way, the novel stands as an example of how society tends to represent women as feeble and emotional, and contrastingly, society often portrays men as strong and pressures them to conceal their feelings to meet such a societal standard.
These chapters focus mainly on Victor Frankenstein's back-story as he was growing up. He describes his cousin Elizabeth, who he later becomes married to, and about how they came about finding her. Later we are introduced to Victors best friend, Henry Clerval. We also learn that Frankenstein became fascinated with the sciences by the 16th century author Cornelius Agrippa. This along with many of the other philosophers of that time inspired him to become a scientist. Later he also witnesses the power of electricity when a bolt of lightning strikes a tree nearby where he is staying. At the start of chapter three we learn that Victor is in the process of leaving for college when Elizabeth gets sick. In an effort to save her Victors mother nurses Elizabeth back to health yet manages to contract her disease. As she dies she continues her dream about Victor and Elizabeth getting married and passes that on to Victor just before she dies. Victor then goes about leaving to his college and after spending his last days hanging out with his friends finally departs. In his first days there however he meets the teacher of Natural Philosophy at the school M. Krempe, who informs him that all that Frankenstein had learned from his 16th century hero's was rubbish and should be thrown out the window. Although saddened by this information he attends a lecture of chemistry and decides to become a scientist. Yet throughout these chapters we see the seeds of Victors downfall. His unwillingness to take others opinion and experience into account becomes evident when he call Mr. Krempe a "little squat man with a gruff voice and a repulsive countenance; the teacher, therefore, did not prepossess me in favour of his pursuits." (...
Merriam Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature highlights Frankenstein as the work of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, published in 1818, and it brought into the Western world one of its best known monsters. Elements of gothic romance and science fiction help in telling the story of young Swiss scientist Victor Frankenstein, as he creates a horrible monster by putting together limbs and veins, leading to destruction and his later regret. The creature is left alone in the world, even by his own creator, for his hideous appearance, and through watching humans he learns their ways of living. Haunting Victor due to his loneliness, he forcefully makes Victor agree to make him a female companion, but Victor’s regret and misery enables him to tear up his
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.
Essay 2 Psychoanalysis is the method of psychological therapy originated by Sigmund Freud in which free association, dream interpretation, and analysis of resistance and transference are used to explore repressed or unconscious impulses, anxieties, and internal conflicts (“Psychoanalysis”). This transfers to analyzing writing in order to obtain a meaning behind the text. There are two types of people who read stories and articles. The first type attempts to understand the plot or topic while the second type reads to understand the meaning behind the text. Baldick is the second type who analyzes everything.
It’s fascinating that she was responsible for the novel Frankenstein where women are given such little importance, due to the dominant male characters. Women are given no voice at all as the story is told by three male narrators, Walton, Victor and the monster, which is only a reflection of the position men had in all aspects of life, domestic, social, political and economic in the nineteenth century.
The idea for the novel of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein came to her one night when she was staying in the company of what has been called ‘her male coterie’, including Lord Byron and her husband, Percy Shelley. Mary Shelley’s whole life seems to have been heavily influenced by men. She idolised her father, William Godwyn, and appears to have spent a good part of her life trying very hard to impress both him and her husband. There seems to have been a distinct lack of female influence, her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, having died weeks after her birth, being replaced by a neglectful step-mother. These aspects of her life are perhaps evident in her novel. The characters and plot of Frankenstein were perhaps influenced by Shelley’s conflicting feelings about the predominately masculine circle which surrounded her, and perhaps the many masculine traits that we see in novel were based upon those of the male figures in Shelley’s own life. In this essay I will attempt to show some of these traits.
Frankenstein “supports a patriarchal denial of the value of women and of female sexuality” (Mellor, 356). Mellor’s point is significant here because a woman was devalued if she was not able to produce children or if she showed signs of independence. Mary Shelley’s own mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, defied gender roles and strongly advocated for the freedoms of women. This influence shines through Shelley’s novel as the deaths of the women
In Frankenstein, there are many women that are mentioned who seem to initially play minor roles. Elizabeth is one of the most important female characters and is the embodiment of the consistently passive woman in the novel. She is a great friend to Victor whom she is expected to marry someday. Elizabeth takes on conventional feminist ideals by acting out the role of a "good girl," but as the story goes, it seems that she is merely there to suffer and die (Williams). Elizabeth is helplessly waiting for Victors return from his tour of Europe. She sends Victor a friendly letter telling him of how much she wants him to come home. She is very intent on getting Victor back so she can marry him. Elizabeth's death by the creature changes Victor's character because he is so close to her...
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.
Smith begins her essay by looking at the historical factors that may have contributed to this seemingly sexist book. Shelley, writing in the first half of the 19th Century, was in a period in which a woman "was conditioned to think she needed a man's help" (Smith 275). In the novel itself, no women speak directly. The book has three basic narrators: Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, and Frankenstein's monster. The female characters are very weak in this novel, especially Elizabeth, Victor's cousin/fiancé (no they aren't from Arkansas). She is portrayed as the perfect woman, especially after Victor's mother, Caroline dies. She takes the place of the mother figure in the household. But just like all the female characters in the story, her character has little substance. Victor's character is described in detail, as is that of the monster, and Henry Clerval. When Henry gets killed, sympathy is really felt toward Victor, because he has just lost his lifetime friend. When Elizabeth is murdered, the reader finds it hard to connect with what Frankenstein is feeling. Elizabeth (and the other main female characters: Justine and Caroline) are there to reflect the men characters. Professor Smith states in her essay that "women function not in their own right but rather as signals of and conduits for men's relations with other men" (283). This is especially clear when the monster kills Elizabeth on their wedding night. The monster is upset with Victor, so instead of hurting him, he kills his wife. Elizabeth is used as a sort of ruler to measure the relationship between Victor and his monster.
Anne Mellor, author of “Frankenstein: A Feminist Critique of Science” argues that Victor Frankenstein represents the patriarchal society. Mellor also argues that Victor is afraid of the female sexuality. “A fear of female sexuality is implicit in a patriarchal construction of gender” says Mellor. She continues with her argument, saying that the death of Elizabeth Lavenza, Victor’s bride-to-be, is extremely significant to the feminist backbone of the story.
Shelly’s Frankenstein is easily regarded as one of the world’s finest pieces of literature. A reason why it’s in a class of its own is because of the strong feminist undertones present throughout the work. All of Shelly’s female characters come across as inferior to the males; this character portrayal was accurate to the time period when the novel was written, in which this did happen to be the case. An example of this would be how Shelly described Elizabeth, “Who’s hair was the brightest living gold, and despite the poverty of her clothing, seemed to set a crown of distinction on her head,” when the Victor’s mother came across her (Shelly 20). Right from the start of the novel Elizabeth is presented as weak. Victor later stated when his mother brought Elizabeth home that she was “A possession of my own” (Shelly 21). Not only is Elizabeth presented as weak, but also an item to be used however the Frankenstein family wants. And that want was for Elizabeth to become Victor’s wife, “Till dead she was to be” Victor’s only (Shelly 21). She is showed to the reader as feeble, in a powerless position, and overall incapable of supporting her-self without others; at the mercy of men (Feminism and Frankenstein). Putting fe...
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.
Mary Shelley’s magnificent minor character Justine endures a horrendous death and maintains courage and grace when faced with a daunting trial. The powerful description of this strong young woman magnifies the gross wrongdoings of Victor Frankenstein and belittles his masculinity as he is seen as weak in comparison. Frankenstein is incapable of possessing the qualities inherent to Justine thus supporting the idea of womanly might as a formidable force.Through the representation of Justine’s intense, unwavering courage during her trial and Frankenstein’s absence of masculine bravery and justice, one can see that Shelley’s minor character is an affirmation of the undeniable strength of women.