Cooley 1 Nathan Cooley Sean Blevins English 2 March 10, 2015 Roles of Women in Frankenstein Frankenstein As a woman living in England in the 1800’s, one might expect Mary Shelley to include many women in her famous novel Frankenstein Frankenstein . For instance, women at the time were oppressed and not treated on the same level as a male; because beca use of this she might want to distribute many female characters all throughout her novel and portray them strongly. Instead, in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Frankenstein ,
she includes minuscule amounts of women and barely even includes them into the
story. The text does indeed have female characters spread throughout the novels with important roles. However these roles do not accomplish acc omplish anything for the story, but are merely used as emotionless characters which provide elements which further progress the story. Near the beginning of the story, story, Shelley explains the childhood of Elizabeth and how, “Since the death of her aunt, her mind has acquired a cquired new firmness and vigor. She was determined to fulfill her duties with the greatest exactness; and she felt that the most imperious duty, of rendering her uncle and cousins happy, revolved around her” (Shelley 67). Shelley depicts Elizabeth in her childhood to serve as purely a object which “cheers up” the men around her. In Mary Shelley’s Shelley’s Frankenstein Frankenstein , the female characters are provided simply to contribute motivation or advance for the many man y men in the story. One main trait Shelley creates for the women wo men in Frankenstein, is a very passive p assive and seldom attitude. When a female character is introduced, Shelly gives a brief backstory and
Cooley 2 description of the character but seems to stay away from giving deeper insight toward how the character feels or acts. For instance, Shelly explains Justine Morritz as "the most grateful little creature in the world: I do not mean that she made any professions I never heard pass her lips, but you could see by her eyes that she almost adored her protectress... She though her the model of all excellence and endeavored to imitate her phraseology and manners, so that even now she often reminds me of her" (Shelley 97). Elizabeth, the person writing the letter, then goes on to explain to Victor how Justine is doing at the time. After this, this, Justine does not get mentioned at all until the murder of William, where she is falsely accused. When Victor visits Justine in her cell, Justine is saddened for obvious reasons, but does not seem to care deeply of the direness at hand. Justine passively states, "God knows how entirely I am innocent. But I do not pretend p retend that my protestations should acquit me; I rest my innocence on a plain and simple explanation of the facts" (Shelley 116). Justine simply excepts the fact that she is being accused and realizes that she will most likely be executed. Shelley, oddly, being a women herself, portrays women to have no voice, and to except what happens whatever it may be. At the time when Shelly lived, females lived a docile lifestyle mostly working in the ho mestead and not given equal equ al rights to men. This is likely the cause of Shelley's female roles to have such a "quiet" voice in the society they live in. Shelley also uses this trait to further progress the story. For instance, "Had Elizabeth Lavenza's plea of mercy for Justine, based ba sed on her intuitively correct knowledge of Justine's character, been heeded, Justine would not have been wrongly murdered by the courts" (Mellor, 117). Shelley uses the demise created by the death of Justine to motivate Victor to find the monster, which is another way Shelley utilizes women in Frankenstein Frankenstein.
Cooley 3 Shelly does not seem to depict any females in the novel to show as actual main characters. One of the main purpose for women in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Frankenstein is to provide an element to the story which allows the story to progress. The first example Shelley doing this begins with Margaret and the letters Robert is sending. sending. The entire book is a story within a story, story, with the outer layer being Robert writing to Margaret. However, the fact remains that Shelley never actually introduces Margaret to her readers. Yet, Yet, without Margaret, there would be no story at all. Shelley seems to use Margaret as a way for plot advancement, “They can at times appear awkward, as in the interests of plot advancement advan cement they sometimes inform his sister of facts that she should already know (e.g. the fact that she brought him up)” (The Framing of Frankenstein). Nearing the end of the novel, the boat that Robert is on gets stuck in ice. Instead of worrying about his own safety at this time of peril, p eril, he chooses to remember Margaret, and let the thought of her influence the decisions he makes, “When debating whether to return home should the ship be freed from the surrounding ice, he imagines her feelings: "Yet "Yet what, Margaret, will be the state of your mind? You You will not hear of my destruction, and you will anxiously await my return. Years will pass, and you will have visitings of despair, and yet be tortured by hope. Oh! my beloved sister, the sickening failings failings of your heart-felt expectations are, in prospect, more terrible to me than my own death" dea th" (p. 162). Walton's willingness to imagine his sister's sufferings and to let it influence his actions is what ultimately separates him from Frankenstein Frankenstein, who refuses to recognize the claims of others and consequently entertains no concept of retreat” (Discovery and the Domestic Affections). Affections). Shelley uses Margaret not only to figuratively tell the story, but to influence Roberts decisions. Another female character Shelley uses to provide an aspect to a male character in the story is Safie. Safie is a foreign woman who appears appe ars at the shack where the
Cooley 4 monster resided for some time of the story. Safie could not speak english at the time and neither could the monster. However, Shelley uses Safie as a mere loophole to teach the monster the language they speak. When the cottagers begin to teach Safie there language the monster has the chance to listen as well, “My days were spent in close attention, that I might more speedily master the language; and I may boast that I improved more rapidly than the Arabian(Safie), who understood very little, and conversed in broken accents, whilst I comprehended and could imitate almost every word that was spoken. While I improved in speech, I also learned the science of the letters, as it was taught to the stranger; and this o pened before me a wide field for wonder and delight” (Shelley 164). After this the monster shows himself to the villagers, and then is kicked out. Safie is then not mentioned for the rest of the novel. This seems to show that Shelley only intended on introducing Safie as a character in her novel to provide necessary plot structure, which in this case is the monsters ability to speak their language. Shelley simply using women to basically further the story and provide stepping stones for the men in the novel arises questions behind Shelley’s reasoning for portraying women in this fashion. Shelley wrote Frankenstein in the early ea rly 1800’s, which also happened to be a time when women were not treated on the same level as men. men . However, Mary Wollstonecraft, Wollstonecraft, Shelley’s mom, was a proud feminist of her time. Shelley’s Shelley’s mom eventually wrote a book boo k on feminism called A Vindication of the Rights of Women Women where she states, “I do not n ot wish them [women] to have power over ov er men; but over o ver themselves” (Wollstonecraft (Wollstonecraft 134). Wollstonecraft Wollstonecraft mentions many times in her novel that women deserve d eserve basic rights similar to those of mens. When writing Frankenstein, Shelley took inspiration from her mother's novel and points that she made to depict women in this way. "Mary Shelley, doubtless inspired by her mother’s mother ’s A Vindication Vindication of the
Cooley 5 Rights of Women, Women, specifically displays the consequences of a social construction of gender which values men over women" (Mellor 115). A feminist feminist who read Frankenstein Frankenstein described it as such, "Shelley's "early and chaotic experience, at the very time she became an author, with motherhood" informs Ellen Moers's reading of Frankenstein as a "woman's mythmaking on the subject of birth" (The Monster). "While women are depicted as a passive voice with little actual point in the story, story, Shelly portrayed women as such to explain what happens with little female influence on a human being; Which in this case is Victor Frankenstein. All of the women in Frankenstein Frankenstein are written as simply shortcuts for Shelley to get from one point to another. From Margaret being the main way through which the story is told to Elizabeth motivating and urging Victor to go through with certain tasks, all of the women live their lives to perform specific burdens. However, Shelley characterized the female cast for h er novel in this way to explain what happens with female characters with a passive and unimportant voice, similar to the way women were treated when Shelley lived. In Frankenstein Frankenstein the women are showed to be as pure gateways for the plot of the male characters in the novel to show the consequences of the absence of feminine influence.
Cooley 6 Works Cited
"Discovery and the domestic affections in Coleridge and Shelley." Shelley." Discovery and the domestic affections in Coleridge and Shelley -. n.p., n.d. Web. Web. 9 February 2015.
Mellor, Anne Kostelanetz. Mary Shelley, Her Life, Her Fiction, Her Monsters. Mon sters. New York: York: Methuen, 1988. Print.
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, Wollstonecraft, and Maurice Hindle. Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus. London: Penguin, 2003. Print.
"The framing of Frankenstein: Mark Asquith explores the unusual narrative techniques in Mary Shelley's novel." The framing of Frankenstein: Mark Asquith explores the unusual narrative techniques in Mary Shelley's novel -. n.p., n.d. Web. Web. 11 February 2015
"The monster in a dark room: Frankenstein, feminism, and philosophy." The monster in a dark room: Frankenstein, feminism, and philosophy -. n.p., n.d. Web. 9 February 2015
Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Women. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus, 1989. Print.
