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Women gender roles in the victorian era
Women gender roles in the victorian era
Women gender roles in the victorian era
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In Anne K. Mellor’s “Usurping the Female”, she provides many arguments that Victor Frankenstein tends to despise the female sexuality as a whole. She gives details on the consequences of his unusual thinking and actions. Mellor also goes far in-depth on the penalties of fighting against nature or stepping onto nature’s domain. She puts enormous emphasis on the importance of family in a person’s life and thoroughly explains the patriarchal system that has been dominant during Mary Shelley’s time. According to Mellor, Frankenstein was based upon “a rigid division of sex-roles: the man inhabits the public sphere, the woman is relegated to the private or domestic sphere” (Mellor, Anne K.). Victor Frankenstein ultimately fears one thing, conferring …show more content…
to Mellor, and that is “a woman who is sexually liberated, free to choose her own life, her own sexual partner (by force, if necessary), and to propagate at will” (Mellor, Anne K.). I strongly agree with Mellor on all of her valid points and frankly, the evidence and information she has given makes me comprehend the character of Victor Frankenstein on a new level. Victor Frankenstein is a character that sturdily believes that the female sexuality is one that should be submissive, small, caring, and inadequate compared to men. Yet, he fears the female’s ability to reproduce and continue to have children for generations. Victor has an internal conflict in which he ponders the question, “Had I a right, for my own benefit, to inflict this curse upon everlasting generations?” (310). This internal struggle evidently leads to Victor destroying his unfinished female monster whose purpose was to satisfy the living male monster he had created. He feared the capability of a female who was stronger, bigger, and had more capability than man. Throughout Anne K. Mellor’s “Usurping the Female”, she makes effective points of the “social construction of gender which values men over women.” Mellor exquisitely explains Victor Frankenstein’s dread of the competence of the female sexuality. I deeply agree with Mellor on Victor’s hatred of the female and his one-sidedness towards males. Victor continues to follow his belief of females to the point of “creating a society for men only: his creature is male; he refuses to create a female; there is no reason that the race of immortal beings he hoped to propagate should not be exclusively male” (Mellor, Anne K.). Victor has this insane idea in his mind where females are manifestly different from the more dominant male. He focuses more closely on his male relationships such as his intimate relationship with Henry compared to his soon to be wife, Elizabeth. Mellor writes about the sex roles of the man and the woman and how the man performs in the public sphere and the woman performs in the private sphere.
This interpretation is highly thought provoking and I believe this to be true during Victor Frankenstein’s “nineteenth-century Genevan society” (Mellor, Anne K.). Throughout Frankenstein, the woman of the story have been objectified, used, and discarded quite easily. They are not given the ability to voice out their own opinions publicly and are oppressed for the development of a man. For example, Justine was framed for the murder of William Frankenstein but she “defies the expectations of one wrongfully accused of manslaughter, remaining tranquil and peaceful” (Haddad, Stephanie S.). Justine had every right to oppose the judgment that was put against her. A normal person would have defied the testimony and would have resisted as much as possible but in Frankenstein, the woman are docile and, as I mentioned before, easily …show more content…
discarded. Throughout Frankenstein, the value of family can be interpreted and is highly valued by many of the characters.
Mellor made point of this and elaborated on this subject in her essay but I will add on to her claims. Victor, one who lost sight of his family, friends, and moral values, eventually came to a standstill in his life where he devoted everything to hunting and killing the monster he had created. The loss of family is one of the key factors to his downfall. Even though Victor casts away his family standards later in his life, his childhood was quite pleasant and enjoyable. He says, “No youth could have passed more happily than mine” (50). Victor feels great sadness when the revenge the monster had spoken of was taken out on his newly wed wife. He loses his own new family on his wedding night and speaks, “But, as if possessed of magic powers, the monster had blinded me to his real intentions; and when I thought that I had prepared only my own death, I hastened that of a far dearer victim” (361). The value of family is or was important to Victor and to many of the characters in the story. It is a principle that should be highly treasured by everything everywhere yet Victor abandons it for the pursuit of his
monster. “Usurping the Female” goes into great detail on the effects of stepping onto nature’s domain, such as what Victor has done by artificially creating new life as a man. I write “as a man” because a female has the biological gain of reproducing and giving birth to new life. Victor’s obsession with his research of creating new life caused him to “pursue nature to her hiding places” (82). With his research, which continue to step into nature’s domain, Victor continued to feel more ill and contract more sickness. One could say this was the price of doing what should not be done: imitating what nature does by producing life out of nothing, Victor has lost the ability to appreciate nature like how he lost his principle of family and his understanding for the importance of both. Victor speaks: The summer months passed while I was thus engaged, heart and soul, in one pursuit. It was a most beautiful season; never did the fields bestow a more plentiful harvest, or the vines yield a more luxuriant vintage: but my eyes were insensible to the charms of nature. And the same feelings which made me neglect the scenes around me caused me also to forget those friends who were so many miles absent, and whom I had not seen for so long a time. (83) Victor loses many significant feelings and emotions that make a living body of flesh human. He does not feel for nature or for his friends and family the same way he used to. Victor Frankenstein struggles with himself throughout most of the story and is conflicted with many troubles. He does not think highly of the female sexuality and even fears it to the point of getting rid of the female’s ability to reproduce in his monster. Victor loses sight of many things such as friends, family, love, and the respect for nature. I agree entirely with Anne K. Mellor’s “Usurping of the Female” because she provides many points that allows me to see Frankenstein in a different way. I was able to comprehend the character of Victor Frankenstein quite differently than when I had just finished reading the story. All in all, Mellor makes many binding and agreeable arguments that will change what you have thought of Frankenstein.
His mother's love was shown throughout the beginning of the book so much more than his fathers was. Together the two parents loved him so much it helped him grow and this is why his childhood was so phenomenal. When Victor was sent off to Ingolstadt, he had no real idea of what it was like to be an adult. He was taken care of so well by his mother that once she was away from her parents, her father being at home and his mother being dead, he was not sure what was right and wrong. Victor's curiosity for knowledge is what led him to be a man of science and this is why he came up with the idea to experiment and create a human being from death. Without thinking of the results that were to come, Victor's ambition to become godlike pushed him to finish his project. The end result terrified Victor so badly that even he left him alone. To start, he left him alone in his apartment and when he returned, the monster was gone. “I could hardly believe that that so great a good fortune could have befallen me, but when I became assured that my enemy had indeed fled, I clapped my hands for joy and ran down to Clerval.” (Shelley 61) This is the first time that Victor does not care for his monster properly. After all of the care that Victor received from his mother, readers would think that Victor would grow up to be just like his parents and be so kind and gentle. Victor is unable to take responsibility of the monster that he created. Victor is prejudiced by the appearance of the monster which leads him to run away from his
Mary Shelley’s novel entitled Frankenstein demonstrates women of the Romantic Era as powerless citizens of society. Throughout the novel, the women are secondary characters and are portrayed through the men’s perspective. Therefore, many would think that these female characters are passive and dependant as they are often described as companions and nurturers. Despite the unequal rights of women, Shelley, one of the earliest feminist, has developed female characters who show agency. This trait of taking charge of one 's course of life is reflected through Justine Moritz as she is willing to die for her beliefs, in Safie who defies her father’s and religious wishes and when Victor Frankenstein decides to abort
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
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
Since his article, “Allure, Authority and Psychoanalysis” discusses the meaning behind everything that happens in Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” we can also examine “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” in the same manner. “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.
Mary Shelley depicts the Romantic ideal of inferiority of women in Frankenstein. These ethics can be compared and contrasted with values of today’s society. Shelley had all male narrators to accentuate the belief of male superiority. The female orphans of the story portray the assumption that women are helpless and the lack of letters from Margaret emphasizes the essential worthlessness of a woman’s opinions. Finally, the female presence in the workforce contradicts Romantic ideals, however housewives and male proposals parallel the ideals Shelley uses in Frankenstein. The Romantic ideals that women are secondary to men are expressed throughout Frankenstein as well as in Romantic times and today.
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.
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” 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.
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.
In conclusion, in Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein, the female characters always fulfill the limited and archetypical roles that are set for them by society. In this novel, many female characters are considered to be possessions. In fact, they are considered to be the servants of men. “I have a pretty present for my Victor—tomorrow he shall have it.” (Mary Shelly, Pg. 70)
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.
This means that the importance of women was small, but the size of their role was increasing during the early 19th century. Although Frankenstein gives the reader clues about the 19th century, inferences can be made on how the individual sees society through the tale of Frankenstein’s monster. After Frankenstein aborted his creation, the monster goes off into the world and experiences society without having any prior knowledge about society. He speaks of how he learns about basic human functions as well as how he has come to terms with being a monstrosity. The event in his story that gives the most evidence towards the events occurring in the 19th century was his encounter with the De Laceys.