Objectification In Frankenstein

Coco Chanel once said, “A woman should be two things: classy and fabulous,” but is that all a woman should be? In the Romantic novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Victor has many interactions between the female characters of the story, but these interactions become complicated as the creation of his monster develops. The relationships crumble and fall as a result of his creation, which ends in their tragic deaths. Shelley uses Caroline Frankenstein, Elizabeth Lavenza, and the uncreated female monster to highlight the mistreatment of females.

Caroline’s difficult life in comparison to after marrying Alphonse reveals her ineptitude and her dependence on a man for survival. During the difficult time of her father’s illness, she has “a mind of

When she is first introduced, she has “hair [that] was the brightest living gold” that puts “a crown of distinction on her head” along with a “face so expressive of sensibility and sweetness” that makes her “a distinct species, a being heaven-sent, and bearing a celestial stamp in all her features” (Shelley 20). Her personality traits never appear in the description of her, which shows that people only care about her outward appearance and not about the type of person she is. This can apply to all women since men pay attention to the way a woman looks, without paying any mind to her intelligence or kindness, and in this case, Elizabeth is just something pretty to look at. When she is brought to Victor, she is described as an “adored companion of all [his] occupations and [his] pleasures,” and Caroline exclaims that she has “a pretty present” for Victor and that he will have “it” (Shelley 21). Victor is selfish for thinking that she is only there to make him physically happy rather than his side-by-side companion, which shows the objectification of Elizabeth. Victor’s mother only sees Elizabeth as a present or an object for Victor’s use rather than a person with emotions and inner thoughts, which shows that judgment of women may also come from other women. Furthermore, Elizabeth doesn’t even get a pronoun to identify her gender, she just gets

Victor describes the male as “the creature who already lived loathed in his own deformity” and one who might have “a greater abhorrence for it when it came before his eyes in the female form” (Shelley 144). Victor’s initial concern isn’t that the female might also shape up to be evil, but he is more so concerned with whether the man is going to like her or not, which shows their dominant role in the life of a female and how their opinions matter more than that of a woman’s. Her being ugly is the least of his problems, and the fact that Victor believes it is all about how she looks shows the shallow, vain mindset of a man. On the contrary, Victor also says, “She also might turn with disgust… and he be again alone, exasperated by his own provocation of being deserted by one of his own species” (Shelley 144). By switching the gender roles, it shows the standard that women must live up to every day in order to please the man, which highlights the consequences of not being “pretty enough.” It demonstrates how women get criticized for their looks in the world of a man and the fears that come as a result of the judgment, such as being alone and feeling worthless. Victor’s fear of rejection for either monster shows how female concerns only lie on the outside, but also complicates it since he also applies these thoughts to the male