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In ‘frankenstein’ there are many minor female characters, with mary shelley presenting them in this way many would view them as passive or inferior to...
Feminism in mary shelley's frankenstein
In ‘frankenstein’ there are many minor female characters, with mary shelley presenting them in this way many would view them as passive or inferior to...
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The Inferiority of Women in Frankenstein, Romantic Times and Today
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.
Shelley projects the Romantic ethics of the inferiority of women in the female characters in Frankenstein. First off, of the three narrators in the book, not one of them is female. Shelley made this choice to express the belief that the women of this time period were believed to not be intelligent enough to voice their opinions and that men have a more important position in society. This belief is also expressed through the lack of letters from Margaret Saville to Walton. Margaret receives several letters from Walton about his travels so it is only logical to assume that she would reply, however Shelley does not offer her responses to the reader, nor does Walton acknowledge them in his letters. Margaret is used solely for the purpose of a way of Walton to express his feelings. The lack of acknowledgement of these letters emphasizes the triviality of a woman’s role in a man’s life. In addition, as Walton becomes better acquainted with Victor, he gets less affectionate and informative in his lett...
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...to women, however today’s society also has some contrasting ideals.
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.
Works Cited
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York: Signet Classics, 1963. Print.
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)
Certainly the male characters in ‘Frankenstein’ are more developed that those of the females. Elizabeth Fay has suggested that the female characters are ‘idealised figures’ in much of Shelley’s work, particularly in the descriptions of Caroline and Elizabeth, the two mother figures in the novel.
Gender inequality will always affect the way women are portrayed in society, the weaker, unnecessary, and other sex. It is not just a subject of the past, but still holds a name in society, however in the olden eras the way women were treated and are looked at, in a much more harsh condition. In Shakespeare’s Othello and Shelley’s Frankenstein women’s roles in the books are solely based on the way they are treated in their time period. The way women are portrayed in these books, demonstrate that they can never be in the same standing as men, considered the second option, and therefore will never have the same respect as men. In both Othello and Frankenstein women are treated as property, used to better men’s social standards, and lack a voice,
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 Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Elizabeth Lavenza is characterized as expendable, passive, and serving a pragmatic function. Placed to provide nothing more than a channel of action for the male characters in the novel, Elizabeth’s presence is usually for the sake of teaching a male character a lesson or sparking an emotion within him. Through Shelley’s heavy emphasis on Romanticism and disrupting the novel’s chronological order with the use of flashbacks, Elizabeth is portrayed as a submissive female with a demeaning characterization.
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...
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
Apparently, due to the conservative perspective in the past, the ideal woman properties are nobleness, softness, purity, innocence and sometime passiveness, there are still strong and open-minded women who actively seek for happiness and love or at least have bold thought in male-female intimacy. Despite this difference, all the female characters in Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights and Dracula share something in common: they are all young pretty women with enthusiastic hearts that long for love.
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.
Mary Shelley’s magnificent minor character Justine endures a horrendous death and maintains courage and grace when faced with a daunting trial. The powerful description of this strong young woman magnifies the gross wrongdoings of Victor Frankenstein and belittles his masculinity as he is seen as weak in comparison. Frankenstein is incapable of possessing the qualities inherent to Justine thus supporting the idea of womanly might as a formidable force.Through the representation of Justine’s intense, unwavering courage during her trial and Frankenstein’s absence of masculine bravery and justice, one can see that Shelley’s minor character is an affirmation of the undeniable strength of women.
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.
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).
Overall, women in “Frankenstein” are displayed unimportant to society compared to men. Besides being household servants and wives, women also play an important role in society like men. Shelley’s use of describing Safie going against the passive role of women compared to Caroline, Justine, and Elizabeth symbolizes how women should have the same rights like men such as getting an education, working in the medical field, and having their voices heard to others. Without the appearance of women in society, the workforce would be cut in half with men working and earning money for a living, and women taking care of children. Therefore, one should not forget that women are the backbone of our society.
...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?