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.
As humans we understand that in order to make ‘man’ you need both a male and female, but in this book the wretch is the creation of only male. Victor finds the parts and sews them together to create this monster. The female is left out of the equation even though that is one of the female most important roles in life, being able to reproduce. In fact, the main role of women in the story is for the sake of making males learn a lesson from what happens to the women or just to make the story move along. A few prime examples of this are Elizabeth, Justine, and Margaret. From the beginning when Frankenstein is introduced to Elizabeth he thinks of her as a possession that is all his own. He says "I looked upon Elizabeth as mine-mine to protect, love and cherish. All praises bestowed on her I received as made to a possession of my own" (21). He wants to protect her and watch over her like he is a big brother. Another good example of a role of a woman in this story is with Justine. Justine is a servant for the Frankenstein’s. She is a very nice girl and is more of a sister to Victor than a servant. Her stay eventually ends when she is accu...
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...s not all that clear at first. But throughout the book you can see that females have one main role throughout the book and that is to bring out emotion in the male characters, make the males learn a lesson, or just to carry on the story. The few big things that bring out the inequality of genders is when male makes man, when Victor will not make a female for the wretch, and by the simple fact that the voices of the females are swallowed up by all of the male narrators. Even though Mary Shelley’s mother was an author to such a powerful feminist book, she was not around when Mary Shelley was growing up. She died when Mary Shelley was really young. The fact that she did not have an actual mother around when she grew up and the fact that she grew up in a not so friendly gender equality time period may have had an influence on her with the role of genders in this book.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was published in 1818 during the Romanticism era. Romanticism describes the period of time from the late 18th century to the mid 19th century. This period was seen as a response to the Enlightenment; overall there was an increase in the desire to understand the world in an objective matter (lecture). Though Romanticism is commonly viewed as a literary and artistic movement, Mary Shelley gives evidence on the development of Europe in a historical sense through her novel, Frankenstein. Through the motifs and personal experiences of her characters, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein gives insight on scientific development, emerging roles of women, and how the individual is viewed the
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.
Shelley began writing ‘Frankenstein’ in the company of what has been called ‘her male coterie’, including her lover Percy Shelley, Lord Byron and his physician John Polidori. It has been suggested that the influence of this group, and particularly that of Shelley and Byron, affected her portrayal of male characters in the novel. As Ann Campbell writes:
Perhaps the most obvious way we can read the novel as a critique of masculinity is the very obvious way in which Shelley develops the male characters more than she does the female. She portrays the male characters as the stronger sex with the female characters seemingly completely dependant on the male, and their whole lives seem to be taken up by the males every move. The female characters in the novel ar every much idealised figures of perfection and passiveness. She portrays women as weak, beautiful, subservient beings who live only for the men in their lives.
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
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...
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.
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 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.
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).
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.
...nd the images of Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, and the fiend supplement each other. If we take one of them away, Frankenstein's plot will be different. 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?
Though Frankenstein may seem like just another horror story, a closer look at its message indicates a strong presence of feminist themes. Through Victor Frankenstein’s thoughts and actions, one can easily see Shelley’s intention of revealing men’s fears toward strong women in society. While it may have not been able to change the place of women in society, Frankenstein is step toward unveiling the hidden strength of a woman’s voice.
What is interesting about the way Shelley writes, is the fact that she glazes over the actual birth of the monster. Bringing the character to life was not the goal of the story. How society and how the main character handles the monster is the focus. ENotes assesses Frankenstein in their Critical Evaluation showing how although the monster “develops language skills, emotion, and consciousness, he appears as a grotesque being and is spurned by society because he does not fit any ideal” (eNotes 3). The monster is curious as is the townspeople, but simple inquiry isn’t enough to stop the people from rallying against Frankenstein’s Monster. The author purposely chooses not to shine the spotlight on the horror of the monster, but the horror of the decaying society. Shelley also features prominent male characters in her novel, possibly on account of events in her own life. She writes about the character Justine, who while facing “execution, … establish[ed] a bond [with Elizabeth] that begins during a brief conversation about their shared experiences” (eNotes 8). Shelley’s lack of female characters, whether due to death or not, in the novel might have a correlation with her personal life as well. She had to endure the death of her mother as well as her sister. She brings this level of emotions into her
Mary Shelley in her book Frankenstein addresses numerous themes relevant to the current trends in society during that period. However, the novel has received criticism from numerous authors. This paper discusses Walter Scott’s critical analysis of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in his Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine Review of Frankenstein (1818).