Feminism is equality for all members of society, regarding political, social, and economic aspects. The feminist lens in literature focuses on how “women characters are portrayed, exposing the patriarchal ideology implicit in the so-called classics” (Feminist Criticism). Written in the early nineteenth century, Frankenstein clearly portrays the assumed and accepted gender roles of women and men of this time period, in which men and women were part of separate social spheres of society. Women were in control of the domestic aspects of the household while the men were in control of the social and political aspects, expected to make a living to support their families. In the novel, it is evident that women carry little substance to …show more content…
Mary Wollstonecraft was a feminist writer who is most well-known for publishing A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. The main focus of her work revolves around pushing for educational reform, so that women would be given the same access to educational opportunities as men. It is said that Wollstonecraft’s work is more of a counterargument to the ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who believed that women should only be educated for the purpose of teaching them to obey and please their husbands better (Mary Wollstonecraft). On the other hand, William Godwin was an acclaimed political philosopher known for writing Political Justice, which focuses on the treatment of the common people. Godwin’s other works focus on class distinctions between the Bourgeois and the Proletariat and how the higher classes often abuse their power (William Godwin). Wollstonecraft and Godwin married soon after she became pregnant; however, due to unforeseen complications, Wollstonecraft died shortly after giving birth to Shelley, so Shelley never really had a relationship to her mother. The lack of a maternal figure in Shelley’s life could have a strong correlation to the lack of importance of the women in the novel. A prime example of this correlation is when Frankenstein begins to put together the female counterpart for the monster. He is putting her together from pieces of different corpses, as he did with the male monster. Eventually, Frankenstein decides to halt his efforts in creating the female monster because he is fearful of what may come of
During his abandonment, he wanders in the forest and learns social aspects from the DeLacey family. His request to Frankenstein is inspired by the relationship between Felix and Safie. When he saw the passion between them, the monster said that their love, “...expressed joy”(Shelley 83). Therefore, the monster learns that humans, essentially men, need women to eliminate such depressed feelings. When the monster demands a female creature, Frankenstein agrees to his request as he was threatened about the death of Elizabeth Lavenza. However, as he is working on his creation, he considers the possible consequences that this might bring because the monster, “had sworn to quit the neighbourhood…; but the female monster had not; and the female monster, who in all probability to become a thinking and reasoning animal” (Shelley 120). Frankenstein decides to discontinue the female creation which delivers a message that women can have a mind of their own. He believes that the female creature can decide whether or not to be a companion for the monster. If she were to choose not to, she would have the power to do so despite having destruction as a possible outcome.. Therefore, signifying that women have the potential to have agency and make decisions of their
Shelley projects the Romantic ethics of the inferiority of women in the female characters in Frankenstein. First off, of the three narrators in the book, not one of them is female. Shelley made this choice to express the belief that the women of this time period were believed to not be intelligent enough to voice their opinions and that men have a more important position in society. This belief is also expressed through the lack of letters from Margaret Saville to Walton. Margaret receives several letters from Walton about his travels so it is only logical to assume that she would reply, however Shelley does not offer her responses to the reader, nor does Walton acknowledge them in his letters. Margaret is used solely for the purpose of a way of Walton to express his feelings. The lack of acknowledgement of these letters emphasizes the triviality of a woman’s role in a man’s life. In addition, as Walton becomes better acquainted with Victor, he gets less affectionate and informative in his lett...
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
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley uses the same methods to create the male and female characters, and makes women even more positive, selfless, and purer, than men. The presence of women adds romanticism to the novel, without which Frankenstein loses its spirit. Mrs. Margaret Saville, Elizabeth Lavenza, and Justin Moritz act independently, and in the most difficult moments of their lives they encourage the men, and take care of them forgetting about themselves. So, both the female and the male characters in Frankenstein are important, and we cannot manage without them. The only question about the position of women in the novel remains open: if the author of Frankenstein were a man, would the fiend become a woman?
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.
When reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, one cannot help but notice that the women characters seem to have little substance compared to the male characters. This may have been caused by the time period in which she wrote: one in which females were considered inferior to males. This difference between the sexes can be looked at using a variety of different perspectives. Johanna M. Smith, a professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, discusses this issue using feminist eyes in her essay entitled "'Cooped up': Feminine Domesticity in Frankenstein." The main points in Professor Smith's essay are that the female characters are there only to reflect the male characters, and that the Frankenstein family has a weird style of living, which she describes as a "bookkeeping mentality" (Smith 279).
Many women like those in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein suffer from inequality and oppression. Many women are treated like property and are deprived of rights that men have. The women are murdered and created in Shelley’s novel to represent how quickly women can be replaced. Women are clearly presented in the novel as classless individuals who are forced to comply as submissive beings living under the wing of man, the dominant leader in Frankenstein society.
For centuries, women have been forced to live life on 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 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.
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.
Gender inequality will always affect the way women are portrayed in society, the weaker, unnecessary, and other sex. It is not just a subject of the past, but still holds a name in society, however in the olden eras the way women were treated and are looked at, in a much more harsh condition. In Shakespeare’s Othello and Shelley’s Frankenstein women’s roles in the books are solely based on the way they are treated in their time period. The way women are portrayed in these books, demonstrate that they can never be in the same standing as men, considered the second option, and therefore will never have the same respect as men. In both Othello and Frankenstein women are treated as property, used to better men’s social standards, and lack a voice,
Mary Wollstonecraft was a self-educated, radical philosopher who wrote about liberation, and empowering women. She had a powerful voice on her views of the rights of women to get good education and career opportunities. She pioneered the debate for women’s rights inspiring many of the 19th and the 20th century’s writers and philosophers to fight for women’s rights, as well. She did not only criticize men for not giving women their rights, she also put a blame on women for being voiceless and subservient. Her life and, the surrounding events of her time, accompanied by the strong will of her, had surely affected the way she chose to live her life, and to form her own philosophies.
Victor destroys the female monster for multiple reasons. The first reason being, Victor is uncertain that the female monster will comply with the male monster’s desire to leave society. Secondly, destroying her would ensure no procreation would occur. Anne Mellor states: “What Victor Frankenstein fears is female sexuality
The creature is physically male, yet exhibits feminine qualities, thus, it threatens to disrupt the foundations of the Victorian gender binary. Ultimately, Frankenstein challenges the view of gender roles and highlights the mistreatment of the oppressed female demographic within the rigid societal constraints of the nineteenth century. The female characters throughout Frankenstein are constructed to be passive, submissive and irrelevant unless they can be used to benefit men. This represents the ideology in which women were used within the social, historic and cultural realms of the nineteenth century. The women in the text hold no real significance; they are stripped of their voices, leaving only the word of the men that inhabit the rest of the novel.
Frankenstein is moved by his plea for companionship and sees it as a duty to the creature and humanity to create a female for him. This interaction reveals a lot about how both the creature and Frankenstein view women, which is representative of society as a whole. They see females as bargaining chips and possessions, not independent individuals. Later when Frankenstein started building the female, he thinks that “she might become ten thousand times more malignant than her mate and delight, for its own sake, in murder and wretchedness” (Shelley 202). The female creature was killed because of the fear she would be more dangerous and deadly than the original creature himself.
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), the characterization of women is based on the rigid gender division in eighteenth-century Geneva, which greatly resembles the social status of women in contemporary London. In Frankenstein women’s efforts are represented as ineffective and inessential to the public sphere by expressing men confidently as scientists, politicians or explorers. On the other hand, women are confined to the home as mere companions, wives and often caregivers to the children. However, Shelley upholds women’s views of family and familial affections by critiquing men’s deficient commitment to the familial, ultimately revealing the indifferent attitude towards Frankenstein’s creation which arouses tension in the cultural situation