Women are depicted very differently in literature and in life. Sometimes women are seen as strong and independent, other times they are seen as sensitive, annoying, and angry. Everyone sees them differently which makes it very hard to see the real truth about women. Even if we did find the real truth, there will be disagreements and therefore no conclusion will be set. Depictions all depend on women’s view on themselves, if a woman thinks they are couragous, well then they could be, if they think they are sensitive, they could be that as well. Women shouldn’t judge other women, men shouldn’t judge women, no one should judge anyone but their own selves. Unfortunately that is not how our world works so we have different depictions everywhere, …show more content…
including in literature. In both books, Frankenstein and A Tale of Two Cities, women are seen as either helpless or filled with pure anger. In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Elizabeth is one character that is depicted in a way of being helpless, she is shown as an unimportant character who just craves affection from Victor Frankenstein.
From the moment she was born, she was given away to Victor’s parents and Victor was told that she was his gift, Elizabeth had absolutely no say in whether she wanted to be given away. When the creature killed her, she was put off as a damsel in distress and it seemed that Victor did not care for her as much as he cared about himself and destroying his creation. We don’t really hear much about her throughout the novel, other than when she was first introduced and when she was writing to Victor about how she missed him and wanted to know why he was always upset and somewhat avoiding her. Elizabeth is a very flat character, there’s not much we know about her, she is also a static character, she doesn’t change from the moment we meet her to the moment of her death. During Victor’s and Elizabeth’s honeymoon, Elizabeth went back into the room they were staying in, alone. Victor let her go there without even thinking that the creature’s threat, which was that he will be there on their honeymoon, could be referring to the murder of Elizabeth. He just thought that the creature was only after him and that Elizabeth would be safe, which was very self centered of him. Elizabeth is depicted as graceful, sensitive, and just a person to keep her husband company, where she really had no …show more content…
meaning to him at all. In A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, Madame Defarge is one character that is depicted as a strong, independent, cruel woman, much different than Elizabeth.
Madame Defarge is a rounded character, we have a lot of information and backstory about her life. Although with all this information about her, she is still static, her hatred for the Evrémonde family line does not change and neither does her eagerness for the revolution. She is the one who wants everyone related to that family dead, and she wouldn’t stop until they were, she would never forgive and forget what that family did to her own. When in the wine shop, talking to her husband, he mentions ending the revolution they started, Madame Defarge would not budge, she wanted revenge. Throughout the novel we see her knitting names and crimes of people that soon her and the Jacques would kill, this shows how she and other women hold grudges and never forget what others have done. Madame Defarge is depicted as a very interesting and revenge driven character that we follow throughout the novel, she is strong and will get whatever she wants, no matter what stands in her way. She is brutal in action, in words, and dominating towards her husband and other men. Unfortunately her anger has to die out like everyone else's, considering she was killed before she could have her full revenge on everyone related to the
Evrémondes. The two female characters from two different novels, were most likely not going to be depicted in the same way. From Elizabeth, a young, timid, dependent person who was “just there” and used for Victor’s happiness, to Madame Defarge, a old, independent, vile, “I get what I want” type of woman, neither were the best depictions of women. Either way both characters make women look like they have no meaning in the world and are there just to please men or are unnecessarily angry and annoying all of the time, both which are very untrue for most women. No matter how you see women, there will never be a correct depiction, women are all different and it all depends on personality and how they want to be depicted as. Therefore there are many possible guesses and depictions that no one will ever know which are true and which are false.
In the first book of the novel, the goal of Madame Defarge includes exterminating the noble race. She is constantly knitting in the wine shop she owns. The knitting shows a passive way to express her hatred towards others. “Her knitting was before her, but she had laid it down to pick her teeth with a toothpick” (Dickens 55). The quote shows how even in her first showing in the book, she is knitting. Her knitting and constant plotting brings frequent fear to her husband, Ernest Defarge, and all other wine shop patrons. Considering even her own husband is afraid for his life, Defarge keeps death in secrecy and shows extremely negative qualities. Defarge knits a register for the intended killing of the revolution in secrecy to show her hatred towards certain people. She has negative characteristics in regard to the loss of her family and her plot to kill all of her enemies. Madame Defarge lasts as the leader attributed to all women fighting in the revolution and
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
...to revenge. She turned into this cold killer to kill the entire Evermonde family for what they had done to her family. She uses her power in the revolution to take revenge on the Evermonde family. Madame Defarge loses her true self and becomes someone who disregards the lives of people include hers. Dickens’s theme of how history repeats itself appears again when Madame Defarge kills innocent people similar to what the Marquis of Evermonde did.
This quote really gets at what this paper is about. The book Frankenstein was written at a time when there was not much need for females in the workforce and they were mainly stay at home moms that cooked, cleaned, and took care of the children. Even though this book brought light onto Sci-Fi it did much more than that. Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, was only 19 at the time she wrote this book so she had lived all her life up to that point with an experience that will later have been taken care of in the future. This experience that is also in Frankenstein is the inequality of gender in.
In the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the women are portrayed as inferior to men in several different ways. Of the few female characters in this book, very few of them are mentioned throughout the entire book and none of them are considered main characters. The ideals of Romanticism emphasize the secondary nature of women to men. In addition, Shelley’s portrayal of the inferiority of women parallels Romantic ideals and some of today’s values but also contrasts some values of today’s society. Shelley uses these Romantic ideals in Frankenstein because all of the female characters are clearly subordinate and secondary to the male characters throughout the story.
Can you imagine Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein, the great work of literature, without, for example, such female characters as Mrs. Margaret Saville, Elizabeth Lavenza, and Justine Moritz? In this case the novel will have no meaning. All the women help to develop the plot, and without them Frankenstein will lose its spirit. Although these heroines have a lot in common in their characters: they are all strong-willed, kind, careful, and selfless, at the same time, each of them is unique, and each plays her own role in the novel. Mrs. Margaret Saville is the woman to whom the narrator tells the story. Elizabeth Lavenza is the beloved of Victor Frankenstein. Justine Moritz is the heroine who is accused by mistake of murdering William and executed instead of the fiend. There is close connection between the female and male characters, and if we break it, Frankenstein will have no sense. The author of the novel, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly, characterizes the women in the same way as the men, and shows that they are independent players. So, the female characters in Frankenstein are as important as the male ones.
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. The three points that contribute greatly to the passive role of women are the lower of rank women in society compared to men, women being seen as possessions for men to protect, and women admired for their superficial beauty.
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).
From the beginning of time in history, women have always been portrayed as and seen as the submissive sex. Women especially during the time period of the 1800s were characterized as passive, disposable, and serving an utilitarian function. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a prime example displaying the depiction of women. The women in Frankenstein represent the treatment of women in the early 1800’s. Shelley’s incorporation of suffering and death of her female characters portrays that in the 1800’s it was acceptable. The women in the novel are treated as property and have minimal rights in comparison to the male characters. The feminist critic would find that in Frankenstein the women characters are treated like second class citizens. The three brutal murders of the innocent women are gothic elements which illustrates that women are inferior in the novel. Mary Shelley, through her novel Frankenstein, was able to give the reader a good sense of women’s role as the submissive sex, through the characters experiences of horrific events including but not limited to brutal murder and degradation, which is illuminated by her personal life experiences and time period of romanticism.
She is always there for Victor as a source of comfort. In contrast, Victor leaves Elizabeth to explore his passion. For instance, after Victor goes to university, he doesn’t come back for two years. During this time, he expects Elizabeth to wait for him as if she was his property. Moreover, Elizabeth is not the only female character who is under Victor’s control....
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.
Throughout Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein there are many female minor characters. Some view these minor characters as passive and subordinate, the epitome of a delicate woman, that reflect the gender roles during the author’s era. This simplifying view of the intricately complex female characters does not accurately represent the powerful and firm importance of their underlying, yet commanding, voice. One of these characters is Justine Moritz who, although charmingly modest and gentle, is a testament to the dignified power of women. During her short appearance in the novel, it is clear Victor Frankenstein fears her for the bravery and strength she exquisitely exhibits through her unjust trial. In addition, the contrast between the characters is distinct. Evidently Victor fails to posses such courage and admirable traits reflecting the insufficiency of supposed male dominance as compared to feminine vigor. Mary Shelley’s minor character Justine is a subtle yet potent force who depicts the perseverance and strength of women by illustrating the considerable lack of such traits Victor Frankenstein.
During the time Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein there was still conflict with woman's equality. Mary Shelley wrote the novel and published it with a mans name. Through Victor, Shelley shows us things that are going wrong in her life and in the world. Victor tries to replicate things like: pregnancy, child birth, and mothering. In the written work, Victor perverts these things, and he fails miserably. Mary Shelley depicts how men envy woman reproductive quality, in Frankenstein Victor attempt to fill a woman shoes failed miserable when trying to replicate things like: Pregnancy, child birth, and basic mothering.
Society is a concept found in all aspects of life; it is a slant which is impossible to avoid. For instance; sadly in life society labels things or people as good or bad, poor or rich, ugly or pretty. The literary piece of the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley clearly reflects this act of society in which they classify all things. The novel reflects how society labels everything; by being judgmental from the way the family is seen, how people view Frankenstein as a monster, and how the monster is affected, his conduct gets altered by all of society judgmental actions.
“There was a character about Madam Defarge, from which one might have predicted that she did not often make mistakes against herself in any of the reckonings over which she presided” (40). One of the first descriptions of Madam Defarge even mentions that there is more to her than meets the eye. She is seen in the wine shop, watching for who comes in and making signals to her husband, Monsieur Defarge, about who came in. Immediately, she is seen as intelligent and sure of what she is doing; she was crafty about her signals and she appeared to know exactly what she was doing and...