Passivity and Impotence in Frankenstein
There are many ways to interpret a literary text, especially one as laden with ethical questions and literary allegory as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Shelley's complex family dynamic - her conflicted relationship with her father, her need to please her mentor/husband with literary success, her infants' deaths - enhances the intrigue of the novel and suggests multiple themes and layered meanings. One discernible theme in Frankenstein is illuminated by the bold line that separates male character from female: The men inevitably fail the women whom they claim to love, but the women are maddeningly passive, seemingly blind to the men's inadequacies. Here, however, this passivity is a defense mechanism. Because the women's place in society depends on the patriarchal system, their choices to be passive are the only way they can assert control.
Frankenstein revolves around the relationships between its characters. Aside from Safie and Felix, the romantic male-female relationships are tinged with an incestual element. Also, the males idealize femininity and take the women's adoration of them for granted. Victor's parents, Alfonse and Caroline, have an age disparity that echoes father and daughter; he rescues her from poverty by coming, "...like a protective spirit to the poor girl" and then after their marriage "strove to shelter her, as a fair exotic is sheltered by the gardener...with all that could tend to excite pleasurable emotion in her soft and benevolent mind" (32).
But before Caroline meets Alfonse, her personal strength is described as "...possessing a mind of an uncommon mould, and her courage rose to support her in her adversity" (32). ...
... middle of paper ...
...stein is used as a coping strategy. Subconsciously unwilling to submit to a soul-chafing patriarchy, surrounded by men who have enormous ambition but have an absence of moral responsibility, Caroline, Elizabeth, and Justine manage to claim a modicum of control in spite of their powerless state. It would be speculative to say that Shelley used passivity thusly in her own life, but that she bequeathed it to her characters acknowledges its existence and her awareness of women's disparities in 1800s England.
Works Cited
Ellis, Kate. "Monsters in the Garden." Levine, George and U.C. Knoepflmacher, ed. The Endurance of Frankenstein. Berkeley, California UP, 1979. 123-144. 123-142.
Knoepflmacher, U.C. "Thoughts on the Aggression of Daughters." The Endurance of Frankenstein. 88-119.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. London: 1992.
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.
Did you ever notice that human nature revolves around needs, desires, and wants? There are different types of needs, such as safety, social, basic needs. These desires and impulses gives us our survival and the ability to function in the environment we live in. Our subconscious mind is responsible for the decisions we make, and such impulses makes us commit actions we have no control of. In literature, we are able to understand and judge the character’s behavior more so than our own.
The idea for the novel of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein came to her one night when she was staying in the company of what has been called ‘her male coterie’, including Lord Byron and her husband, Percy Shelley. Mary Shelley’s whole life seems to have been heavily influenced by men. She idolised her father, William Godwyn, and appears to have spent a good part of her life trying very hard to impress both him and her husband. There seems to have been a distinct lack of female influence, her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, having died weeks after her birth, being replaced by a neglectful step-mother. These aspects of her life are perhaps evident in her novel. The characters and plot of Frankenstein were perhaps influenced by Shelley’s conflicting feelings about the predominately masculine circle which surrounded her, and perhaps the many masculine traits that we see in novel were based upon those of the male figures in Shelley’s own life. In this essay I will attempt to show some of these traits.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde could be compared to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein because they both characterize their women characters as passive, disposable and useless. Although Frankenstein was written many years earlier, both texts deal with many of the s...
All the events and misfortunes encountered in Frankenstein have been linked to one another as a chain of actions and reactions. Of course, the first action and link in the chain is started by Victor Frankenstein. Victor’s life starts with great potential. He comes from a decently wealthy family whose lack of love towards each other never existed. He is given everything he needs for a great future, and his academics seem to be convalescing.
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.
Updike, John. "A&P." Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. Robert DiYanni. 5th ed. New York, NY: McGraw, 2002. 27-31.
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.
“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.
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 the documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, former presidential nominee Al Gore illuminates the detrimental effects of global warming. Throughout the documentary, Gore discusses the scientific opinion on global warming, which at the time was considered to be a taboo, and argues that, though an “inconvenient truth,” global warming is an actual, catastrophic issue. He states that global warming “is not really a political issue, so much as a moral one.” In addition, Gore contends that global warming is human-caused and specifically emphasizes America’s harmful contributions to its catastrophic dangers. As a result, Gore challenges his viewers to take action in joining the efforts to reduce the long term effects of global warming.
To begin with, Victor describes how his mother, Caroline Beaufort, meets his father, Alphonse Frankenstein, after Caroline’s father died in poverty. Victor mentions, “He came like a protecting spirit to the poor girl, who committed herself to his care; and after the interment of his friend, he conducted to Geneva, and placed her under the protection of a relation” (Shelley 28). Even though Caroline is younger than Victor’s father, she has no choice, but to marry him. Without marrying Victor’s father, Caroline will still be in poverty with nobody to support her. Caroline’s decision to marry Victor’s father symbolizes a woman in need of a man to protect her.
The basic principle of arch bridge is because of its curved arch design. The supports on each side are called abutments. When there is load on the bridge, the forces of the load is transferred to the abutments instead of pushing straight down. One of the disadvantage of the arch design is without the firm abutments, the arch bridge will collapse. The earliest arch bridge was constructed by the ancient Greeks, it is called the Mycenaean Arkadiko Bridge and it is made up of stones. Today, steel and reinforced concrete are the two most common materials to build arch bridges all around the world. There are actually 5 types of arch bridges, it consists of Corbel arch bridge, Deck arch bridge, Tied arch bridge, Through arch bridge and Aqueducts and canal viaducts. The world’s largest arch bridge today is the Chaotianmen Bridge. It is located in Chongqing, China. The total length of the bridge is 1741 m (5712 feet) with a span of 552 m (1811
In Al Gore 's lecture called “ The case for optimism on climate change”, Gore talks about greenhouse gasses.Gore talks about what we have done to create more carbon emissions, and what to do to reduce them again. Gore starts of with facts, he states why we founded earth day, and why we need to preserve this Earth. Gores argument was very educational to because of the way he presented his argument. Gore did not just say we need to change or bad things will happen, but he told how we can change. He gave evidence that his plans to reduce emissions actually work. Gore also expresses hope that we can change our amount of released emissions. Gore backs up his presentation by using: logical appeals, an active convincing tone,
Since this event, more attention has been drawn towards other similar experiences with footbridges and has led to the subject being more widely researched. Since 2000, the number of published papers during that decade relating to this subject has increased more than eightfold over that during the previous one, Venuti and Bruno (2009). This also brings to light the possibility of potential problems for bridges that may not have yet experienced high levels of pedestrian loading.