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What is the role of women in frankenstein
Frankenstein from a feminist point of view
What is the role of women in frankenstein
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	In Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, families are a very important part of the structure of the novel. Frankenstein’s family is critical because the reason why the monster was created lies within the family. Almost every family mentioned in the novel was either incomplete or was dysfunctional. Frankenstein’s family in particular was missing a female role. The Frankenstein family had no mother, but they did have Elizabeth who was the only other female in the house and she was adopted when she was just a child. The monster was created because of this absence, not necessarily to fill the role of the mother, but to fill in the role of the missing family member. However, the monster is shunned away when he is animated and the fall of the Frankenstein family awaits them.
	Victor Frankenstein’s family was normal to begin with. He had a mother and a father, but later on when Elizabeth becomes sick with a fever, his mother nurses her back to health at the cost of her own life. On her deathbed, Victor’s mom says, "Elizabeth, my love, you must supply my place to my younger children. Alas! I regret that I am taken from you; and, happy and beloved as I have been, is it not hard . . . a hope of meeting you in another world" (42). Elizabeth is expected to fill in as the role of the mother by taking care of and protecting the young children. Although she replaces the role of the mother, there is still the fact that a family member is missing. A mother is impossible to replace; you can’t have a stepmother because she will never be a replacement for an original mother. Nor can a mother be bought, but Victor uses his knowledge from Ingolstadt to create a being to fill in that missing figure.
	In the later part of the novel, the monster stumbles upon a family where he learns the basics of living and surviving. The monster is very intelligent and can learn at a exceedingly rapid rate. The family that he crosses is the De Lacey family. This family is also incomplete because they are also missing a mother figure here. Yet they have a substitute as does the Frankenstein family has. For the De Lacey family, Agatha, the sister, plays the womanly role here. Felix her brother always takes care of her and tries to make life as easiest as possible even though they have gone through many hardships. The problems that this family faces are numerous in...
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...r realize the need for a family, even for one that has been alone since creation. Every being deserves someone to love and someone to love them.
	In conclusion, the need for an extra family member was the reason Victor created the monster. Through various examples throughout the novel, we can see that the need for family is greatly needed. If one is missing, the family is incomplete and must attempt to substitute that member with someone else. Many times, a substitute cannot be found and life must go on with what you have. The Monster in the end had no one and decided cease living and leave this place as an act of goodwill. This was most unfortunate because he never got to experience what living with a family or having anyone to love was like. As the creator, Victor should take full responsibility and provide his creation with these pleasures in life. In the very end, the monster does regret putting his creator through the torment that he went through. Two wrongs do not make a right, but it seemed the only reasoning that could get through Victor’s stubborn head was to it this way. In the end we learn that family is the basis for which we can continue on and have happiness.
The classic theme of perversion of family is a major component in Frankenstein. Dr. Frankenstein comes from a good family but in his adult life he longs for a new companion this is mainly found in the Creature and Elizabeth. The development for the need for the Creature starts when he falls in love with knowledge and is furthered when he leaves to study. In his child hood he has “Natural philosophy is the genius that has regulated my fate; I desire, therefore, in this narration, to stat those facts which led to my predilection for that science”(Shelley 36). This passion develops into his obsession in his adult life when he gains more accesses to knowledge and equipment. Then it climaxes with start of the creation of the Creature because his accesses to bodies and tools. (quote Intro) “I read with ardour those works, so full of genius and discrimination… it easily conceived that my progress was rapid”(48). His description of the creation makes it seem like he is mothering a child into birth. He distorts the sanity of child birth by creating a human in a lab. This also makes him the mother and father of the Creature. (quote intro) “When I found so astonishing a power placed within my hands, I hesitated a long time concerning the manner in which I should employ it… my first success to permit me doubt of my ability to give live…”(51). This illustrates his power that he has that was never meant to be any humans. With the successful test my can create life, strengthens his bond with this impending birth of Creature, who embodies all of his scientific achievement. (quote Intro) “How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavored to from?” (55). Frankenstein shuns his own creation, whom he should be the loving parents of. The culmination of all of Frankenstein’s education led to creation his own companionship; he can not bear to see his hideous creation.
Every parent has their own opinion on the best way to raise a child. Victor Frankenstein, however is a perfect example on how not to raise a child. Unlike Victor’s parents, he was not a good caretaker of the creature that he created. Victor’s parents were compassionate people not only to their children but to the poor and the rest of their family as well. Victor can recall his childhood as being grateful for what he had and for the way his parents treated others. Victor's monster on the other hand, would not describe his first months of being alive as anything close to happy. Not only was victor fortunate enough to have had such caring parents, he also had his best friend Clerval and his adopted sister, Elizabeth. Elizabeth was there to comfort
‘[The] characters and plot of Frankenstein reflect . . . Shelley’s conflicted feelings about the masculine circle which surrounded her.’
...country. By lowering the legal drinking age, we are only making alcohol more accessible. Lowering the drinking age would make alcohol available to a lower demographic which would result in horrible outcomes. From stunted brain development to the increase of alcohol related deaths, lowering the legal drinking age is an impractical idea.
With nobody to reason with, Victor makes senseless decisions while he is alone. Victor begins this with his process of creating the monster. Nobody in the right mind would ever dig up graves, but that is just what victor goes and does. Once this creation is finally given life, which Victor has spent two years striving for, Victor foolishly abandons it. Victor comes to his senses to some degree after he brings life to the monster as he states, “‘now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream had vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (Shelley 43). Had there been companions around Victor during this creation time, perhaps someone would have been able to guide Victor away from creating the “wretch” (Shelley 43) he so hopelessly conceived. As for the monster, he makes fairly good decisions even without guidance from anyone, including Victor, his creator. The monster has the desire to learn and gain knowledge as a genuine individual. As the monster is continuously rejected and shunned by mankind, his natural benevolence turns to malevolence. In his loneliness, the monster wrongly decides to declare “‘everlasting war against the species, and more than all, against him who had formed me and sent me forth to this insupportable misery’” (Shelley 126). Say the monster was able to have comrades of some kind around him, he would not have turned to this
If Victor had stayed around and showed the monster the real world, he might have not have went on to perform violent actions. This portrays Victor as a selfish character and gives more of an insight on his personal life. As a child, Victor is only interested in furthering his own knowledge and not worried about anyone else. He spent much of his time “drawing the picture of [his] early days... when [he] would account to [himself] for the birth of that passion which afterwards ruled [his] destiny” (Shelley 34), or otherwise a magnificent creation that would change his future. When constructing the Monster, he put all of his relatives in the back of his mind, and only focused on his own success and victory. This further explains the theme of being selfless and only doing certain things that will benefit
A predominant theme in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is that of child-rearing and/or parenting techniques. Specifically, the novel presents a theory concerning the negative impact on children from the absence of nurturing and motherly love. To demonstrate this theory, Shelly focuses on Victor Frankenstein’s experimenting with nature, which results in the life of his creature, or “child”. Because Frankenstein is displeased with the appearance of his offspring, he abandons him and disclaims all of his “parental” responsibility. Frankenstein’s poor “mothering” and abandonment of his “child” leads to the creation’s inevitable evilness. Victor was not predestined to failure, nor was his creation innately depraved. Rather, it was Victor’s poor “parenting” of his progeny that lead to his creation’s thirst for vindication of his unjust life, in turn leading to the ruin of Victor’s life.
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
“Allure, Authority, and Psychoanalysis” discusses the unconscious wishes, effects, conflicts, anxieties, and fantasies within “Frankenstein.” The absence of strong female characters in “Frankenstein” suggests the idea of Victor’s desire to create life without the female. This desire possibly stems from Victor’s attempt to compensate for the lack of a penis or, similarly, from the fear of female sexuality. Victor’s strong desire for maternal love is transferred to Elizabeth, the orphan taken into the Frankenstein family. This idea is then reincarnated in the form of a monster which leads to the conclusion that Mary Shelley felt like an abandoned child who is reflected in the rage of the monster.
Charter schools are public schools of choice, meaning that families choose them for their children. They operate with freedom from some of the regulations that are imposed upon school districts. Charter schools are accountable for academic results and upholding the promises made in their charters.
Caroline’s decision to marry Victor’s father symbolizes a woman in need of a man to protect her. Furthermore, Caroline’s passivity is displayed when Caroline brings Elizabeth from the orphanage and asks her husband to make Elizabeth part of the Frankenstein family. Victor describes Elizabeth’s background by stating, “Her mother was a German and had died on giving birth.... ... middle of paper ...
The monster is left to live his life with no help from his creator after being abandoned. While having the mind of a newborn, this is not easy for him. By not knowing right from wrong, he murdered Victor's loved ones in order to get attention. He never had anyone to teach him how to live life with dignity and respect. This is a major loss for a living being. The creator is at fault here because the monster does not know better. Victor should have taken responsibility by accepting, raising, and controlling the monster.
Despite the problems that would arise, many people are beginning to feel that the drinking age should be lowered from twenty-one to eighteen. Studies have been made; however, no hard evidence suggesting lowering the minimum drinking age would help have surfaced. Although there are countless studies of how alcohol has many harmful effects on teenagers, there is a great deal of negative criticism about what if the drinking age is lowered. Some would say the morally right decision is to not allow teens the chance to hurt themselves. Everyone is entitled to having his or her own opinions and beliefs. However, the overall health of the youth of our country seems a little more important than some personal belief. The drinking age should not be lowered due to the fact drunk driving, juvenile delinquency, and alcohol-related medical issues related to teens will increase.
Legal drinking age varies by many countries. In U.S.A, There has been a lot of debate when it comes to the legal drinking age here in US. When it comes to law. There is always an opinion, some are for it and some are against. When it comes to the legal drinking age being 21 we are totally against it. Many people still say the government should prohibit using alcoholic drinks at the age of 18. Legal adults deserve to be treated as such it is time the arbitrary drinking age of 21 Was lowered to 18, because there is no evidence that the National Minimum Drinking Age Act is effective or protects the people it is intended to protect . The Notional Minimum Drinking Age Act was passed in 1984 in an attempt to decrease the number of drunk driving related accidents. The act threatens to decrease a state’s budget for high way construction and maintenance if it sets its drinking age under 21. According to Cuccoli , “ Keeping the drinking age at such a low age is leading to more cases of binge drinking,” (Cuccoli). Mothers against drunk driving reports that the number of alcohol related fatalities involving a vehicle decreased from 26, 173 to 16, 885 between 1982 and 2005.
“Should the drinking age be lowered?” has been debating for years. The history of the minimum legal age to drink alcohol can be traced all the way back to the end of Prohibition in 1933. Lawmakers at that time made the youngest age to consume alcohol to be 21. However, it had changed over the years. Between 1970 and 1975, 29 states lowered the minimum legal drinking age to either 18, 19 or 20. It was due to the lowered required voting age from 21 to 18. When many scientific studies showed that the increasing traffic accidents and fatalities was due to people drinking at the age of 18 and 19 between 1979 and 1983, many of the states that had lowered the drinking age changed it back to 21. In 1984, all the changes had come to unification. The congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984. The act punished every state that did not rise the minimum legal drinking age back up to 21. As a result, the legal drinking age has stood at 21 since that law was enacted. Since then, scholars have been arguing to lower the drinking age again.