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Characters In Frankenstein

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Imagine a life in which there are no females in the human population. How different would people grow up to be? Many people have at least one of these female figures in their lives: a mother, sister, or an aunt. These female role models have a huge influence on people, especially with teaching them how to go about in life. Such is the case in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The use of female characters is crucial to the plot in Frankenstein, usually serving to teach the male characters a lesson, to be comforting, and coming in the form of a male figure. There are numerous ways in which one can be taught a lesson by a female figure, creating a pathway for how to live their life. In Frankenstein, Victor is taught lessons through the use of several …show more content…

The creature’s horrific features causes Victor to abandon the creature, leaving the creature indignant and hurt. In order for Victor to feel the hurt and abandonment the creature felt, the creature gets revenge on anyone associated to Victor-two of the victims being Elizabeth and Justine. The creature frames Justine by placing the picture of Victor’s mother next to Justine while she is sleeping, causing her to be framed for the the murder of William Frankenstein, and eventually executed. Victor knows Justine is not at fault and admits to “[suffering] living torture… all was to obliterated in an ignominious grave, and [him] the cause. A thousands times rather [he] have confessed [himself] guilty of the crime ascribed to Justine” (Shelley 68). Justine is a character in the novel that serves the purpose of having Victor acknowledge his wrong doing in abandoning the creature. …show more content…

The Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates found in the Encyclopedia of Women and Gender “one of the most consistent findings in gender research is that men invest heavily in their wives as support providers” and he states that “from an early age, women are socialized to be more nurturing…” (Coates). Women are often sought after for support and comfort, as is the case in Frankenstein. Caroline is one of the first characters to show gratitude for others, taking in Elizabeth assuming the current family she is staying with would not be able to provide for her but also keeping Victor in mind, hoping they will later on get married. She has always been a caregiver to all her children. While Caroline is on the verge of death, she tells Elizabeth she “must supply [her] place to [her] younger children” (Shelley 28). As she is dying, she thinks of her boys, making sure they will have someone to be there to take care of them. Elizabeth does what she is told and takes care of Victor, William, and Ernest. She does not get a chance to mourn, as Victor recalls her “[veiling] her grief and [striving] to act the comforter to [them] all… She forgot even her own regret in her endeavours to make [them] forget” (Shelley 29-30). Elizabeth is forced to tackle on the role of a comforting mother early on, instead of that of a mourning teenager. She does not allow herself to grieve, deciding to comfort those around her instead

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William Frankenstein’s demise elicits the poignance and tremendous guilt Victor feels for having created the Daemon. Victor questions himself, “ ‘Did anyone indeed exist, except I, the creator, who would believe...in the existence of the living monument...which I had let loose upon the world?’ ” (Ch. 7, 93). Victor realizes that the true murderer of his younger brother is his creation and not the accused Justine Moritz. He contemplates whether anyone one would believe him if he announced the truth, but no one would, As a result, Victor begins to feel deeply contrite since he is the reason for Justine’s execution.

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1203 Words | 5 Pages

Therefore, Shelley uses this allusion to not only emphasize how important Justine was to Victor but also indicates that since Victor refused to create a female companion for The Creature, he decided to cause chaos for Victor by killing his best friend, Henry Clerval and his cousin and wife, Elizabeth. However, as a result of The Creature’s actions, Victor died while grieving the death of Elizabeth. The death of Victor really hit The Creature as his intention was to convince Victor to make him a female companion rather than to see him die. Furthermore, similar allusion is detected in chapter fifteen of the novel where it says “In the

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1436 Words | 6 Pages

He has the chance to save her from the death penalty by telling the truth about his creation to save her life. He chooses to not do this and let the helpless girl die because he is afraid the truth would sound like “the ravings of a madman” (68). Victor is more concerned with not sounding crazy by telling the courts the truth, then letting Justine suffer the consequences for a crime she did not commit. This inaction is narrow-minded and leads to the death of the innocent Justine. While Justine is telling Victor and his family about how she will confess to the murder of William, Victor “had retired to a corner of the prison room” (75).

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967 Words | 4 Pages

After Victor successfully creates his creature, he immediately begins to mistreat him because of his appearance. Consequently, the creature retaliates and murders his little brother William Frankenstein. Then, the creature went on to frame Justine for the murder of William. When the court date finally arrived, Justine was found guilty and sentenced to death. During the trial, Victor says his “own agitation and anguish was extreme” and he “believed in her innocence” (Shelley 69).

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778 Words | 4 Pages

This loss was catastrophic to the Frankenstein family because their mother was very important to them because of her kind and giving nature. After Victor spend years in Germany studying, he becomes fascinated with galvanism and nature and creats monster. When he first initially sees the creature, he runs away and abandons it and that leads the creature to want confrontation. After dismissing the creature, he kills Victor’s younger brother, William out of anger and loneliness. Then, the monster had the audacity and was selfish enough to blame their maid and friend, Justine for the murder of William.

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948 Words | 4 Pages

In Frankenstein, the females are presented in diverse ways which was Shelley’s way of including the influence of the patriarchal society she lived in her novel. With Safie, an Arabian who left her house in pursuit of her fiancé, she is shown to defy typical female stereotypes and is viewed as the “ideal” female in Shelley’s eyes as Mary was a feminist and had the influence of Mary Wollstonecraft, her mother and it can be said that Safie is a reincarnation of Mary Wollstonecraft. Before the 19th century, Islamic women experienced a significant amount of oppression. Islamic Law bound women to their male family members or the males in their lives. Safie also puts her desires first and has gone against her culture, which was completely unheard

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979 Words | 4 Pages

When Victor finds out about his brother’s murder, he automatically feels responsible, because he believes the creature murdered his brother. He becomes very depressed and ill once again, and Justine Mortiz being blamed for William’s death and sentenced to death also creates a gloomy and dark theme of death in the book. The impending gloom and death does not end there, sadly Victor’s best friend Henry is murdered and Victor becomes under investigation for his death. After being found innocent with no sufficient evidence, he goes home with his father to make wedding arrangements with Elizabeth, despite his depressed state because of all the death he has faced. Victor weds Elizabeth, and if the death of his closest family members and friends was not enough, the creature murders his love and newly wed, Elizabeth.

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671 Words | 3 Pages

Victor has a nightmare, which includes two important women in his life. He takes this as a message that his manufactured creature will have an adverse effect on his family, going so far as killing them. Justine takes a guilt for Williams’s death, because she was supposed to be the careful eye that was supervising him, her sorrow engulfs her and therefore, she finds herself as guilty in a situation where she certainly wasn’t. A common trope with scientists is the mad scientist who will do anything for their craft, Mary Shelley could have wanted to further emphasize Frankenstein’s desire for his creation.

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527 Words | 3 Pages

Frankenstein’s creature was the one who committed the crime. Victor knew that Justine was innocent and hardly tried to prove her innocence. He used her as a

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776 Words | 4 Pages

Shelley's Justine is symbolic for Victor Frankenstein’s actions throughout “Frankenstein” In Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” the character Justine is used a motif for Victor Frankenstein’s foolish actions and decisions throughout the entirety of his journey through character description and other’s dialogue in the few chapter Justine appearances in. At the beginning of the trail in chapter twelve, Elizabeth describes Justin as being “tranquil, yet her tranquility was evidently constrained; and as her confusion had before been adduced as a proof of her guilt, she worked up her mind an appearance of courage.” (pg.106) This description is used right as Justine is about to present herself to the court, but it’s also reflective of Victor’s attitudes

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975 Words | 4 Pages

When William first comes into contact with the creature, he screams in shock, for which the monster then finds out, shares the last name of Frankenstein. Ammediately the creature strangles William to death, and Victor hears about it in a letter from his father. The monster finds Justine, the housekeeper, sleeping in the hayloft, and from there, he plants a picture that he found in William’s pocket, into the dress pocken of Justine. Justine then gets framed for the murder and sentenced for excecution. Victor knows his creation did this but does not interfere because he doesn’t think anyone will believe him and that it would cause more chaos.

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950 Words | 4 Pages

Women Evolved The role of women has evolved drastically through the years. Women have gone from submissive as portrayed in Frankenstein to assertive. They have gained a voice through the years that have allowed them to stand up to men through rallies and protests to gain suffrage and the right to education and employment. The power and role of women has changed vastly from the time Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was written to now; Frankenstein portrays the mistreatment of women and inspired change.

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548 Words | 3 Pages

Providing an absence of a parental figure, Alphonse Frankenstein shows no interest to what Victor presented in front of him. Upset with his father’s lack of interest and support, Victor decided to take things to his own matter. He attended the University of Ingolstadt where he began his studies and soon after decided to create a monster which caused lots of misfortune to him. Alphonse represents William Godwin in a sense that he had no interest in Mary’s life which caused her to go through lots of traumatizing events. Relating this to Victor, due to the lack of parental figure, Victor was abandoned by his father and had to learn and face things the hard way.

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970 Words | 4 Pages

Frankenstein could be read as an allegory of masculine usurpation of female reproductive, due to “womb envy,” which Victor displays in the novel. The monster that Victor fathers is made out of stolen body parts. This is symbolic of the idea of death being brought back to life. Victor enjoys his abnormal 'sex act' which creates the monster which passionate desire, saying “I had desired it with an arduor that far exceeded moderation”. The erotic lexcis used to describe Victor’s passionate pursuit of creating life without women and yet the fact the monster is male and not female, the gender Victor's society expect him to be attracted to clearly show that his monster is an object of simultaneous desire and revulsion.

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472 Words | 2 Pages

Even years after he died, she still had grief and used her writing as an

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