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Examples Of Patriarchy In Frankenstein

1317 Words6 Pages

Morgan Boyd
Ms. Coke
English 12 Honors
20 March 2023
Feminism in Frankenstein
Patriarchies are one of the most common, yet inequitable societies that are “acceptable” of mankind. Male dominated societies are predominant throughout the past and present and oftentimes under this authority women are exploited and oppressed. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley delves into patriarchy and portrays how women fit into this social system.
Women are important to the story but are not present. Robert Walton writes letters to his sister at the beginning of the book which include his journey, his sights, and some of his accomplishments. In one of the letters he writes, “...my first task is to assure my dear sister of my welfare, and increasing confidence in the …show more content…

Victor creates only a male monster when he is working on his project. When asked by this creature to create a female companion for him, Victor immediately says no and refuses to create another monster. He eventually agrees and starts to create a female companion for the Monster. While he does this he describes his work as, “was indeed a filthy process in which I was engaged…. My eyes were shut to the horror of my proceedings. But now I went to it in cold blood, and my heart often sickened at the work of my hands….with obscure forebodings of evil, that made my heart sicken in my bosom” (Chapter 19, pg. 139). Victor feels all of these negative emotions of creating a female monster. While he describes creating his first monster as an enthusiastic frenzy and exciting for him, he is disgusted and sees creating a female monster as a grueling task. Initially Victor started to create this female monster for the sake of the Monster’s feelings and well being, which in itself is an example of how women in the story are there only for the sole purpose of a male. The female monster is not even given a chance at life before she is destroyed and is left to be silent and lifeless. Even with her being absent in life, she is important to the story because it drives the Monster to kill Elizabeth, Victor’s …show more content…

The Monster begs Victor to make a female companion for him. At first, he agrees and starts to construct a female monster. Half way through the project Victor realizes that if he were to complete the female monster, she could bear children and he says, “which the daemon thirsted would be children, and a race of devils would be propagated upon the earth…” (Chapter 20, pg. 141). The two of them could possibly have children and then there would be now way for victor to stop the Monsters from engaging and having more children which would bring future generations. The main reasoning behind Victore denying to finish the female monster is that she could possibly become a mother. Him not finishing the female companion adds to the theme of the lack of

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839 Words | 4 Pages

“You may render me [Victor] the most miserable of men, but you shall never make me base in my own eyes,” Victor says to the monster, meaning that the monster can do whatever he wants, but he will not allow him to make Victor lower himself more than he already has, but this is exactly what the monster does when he convinces Victor to make him a female companion. This is a prime example of a minor character foil contrasting a main character; the monster takes complete control over Victor and dominates his character, ultimately turning himself into a more prominent aspect of the storyline. The author most likely does this in order to employ a drastic shift in the meaning of her novel. As the novel started, it was portrayed that Victor would be a rising character and achieve great things, but with the creation of the monster, his character ultimately became his own

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173 Words | 1 Pages

And this means that he’s going to stay lonely without a female creature. The creature then started to threaten Victor. “Remember I have the power you believe yourself miserable, but I can make you so wretched that the light of day will be hateful to you”(172). Not having a female partner made the creature mad that he started threatening Victor, he

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829 Words | 4 Pages

Perhaps the most spine-chilling threat the monster makes is when he says to Victor that he will “work at [Victor’s] destruction, nor finish until I desolate your heart, so that you shall curse the hour of your birth.” (Pg. 125). Victor has acknowledged his creation’s threats to his family, but despite the imminent danger they are in, he decides to act against the creature’s wishes. If Victor were acting honorably and responsibly, he would have listened to the monster’s demands for a female companion and, considering the creature’s threats against his family, complied with the demands. Victor, characteristically, chooses to act impulsively and recklessly, by destroying the female creature.

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800 Words | 4 Pages

Victor never gave his creation a female companion which his monster needed greatly because no human women would ever love the monster. The monster was neglected and the best way to help the monster get love and attention would be by giving him a female companion. Victor also knew the monster would kill his wife if he didn't give him a female companion because the monster himself told him. When Victor leaves his life alone in the cabin the night of their marriage that was completely his fault, Victor himself knew that his creation would try to kill his wife that night and he left her vulnerable and alone. Victor Frankenstein could have avoided this entire situation in the first place if he had been his creation's companion and showed love for him, instead of neglect and

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1250 Words | 5 Pages

To him, femininity is synonymous with weakness, and masculinity is synonymous with power, and he creates his characters accordingly to this belief. Similarly, author Mary Shelley also creates characters in a sexist manner in her novel Frankenstein. She creates female characters who serve little purpose other than to be disposed of by males. This can be seen in the way the Creature values the lives of females in the novel. In an attempt to seek revenge on Victor Frankenstein, the Creature frames servant to the Frankenstein family, Justine, for the heinous crime of murdering Victor’s young brother.

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732 Words | 3 Pages

There is a long time between the killings of Victor’s friends and family, however; in the meantime Victor is confronted by his monster. This "being" then demands for the creation of a female monster to reduce his loneliness. It wasn't until Victor destroyed the semi-created female monster, that the monster himself grew especially angry with Victor. Because of his anger towards Victor, the monster killed Henry, Victor's closest friend. Throughout the novel thus far it is obvious who the monster is truly after, however; Victor does not see this.

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958 Words | 4 Pages

Earlier in the book the Monster says: "I am alone and miserable. Only someone as ugly as I am could love me,". So this tells me that the monster knows nobody can love him unless they are just like he is, that he has given up on all hope for someone to love him, which is why he is determined to find Victor because he is the only one who can help the Monster. I believe that Victor made the right decision by destroying the female monster he had created for the Monster, because eventually they both would have lead a path of destruction then everyting falling back on Victor because he created them. But in another sense it's almost as Victor owes it to the Monster because the day the Monster was created Victor left him to be alone and nobody to care or teach him.

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1299 Words | 6 Pages

At the end of his story, The Monster gives Victor a proposition. The Monster requests a female companion to be able to keep him company and let him experience something he has yet to feel from any member of society, love. “My vices are the children of a forced solitude that I abhor, and my virtues will necessarily arise when I live in communion with an equal. I shall feel the affections of a sensitive being and become linked to the chain of existence and events from which I am now excluded”(Shelly, Chapter 17). Victor denies The Monster his request at first, but

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883 Words | 4 Pages

The creature observes the feelings shown by humans while he is in the village and desires to acquire these same feelings. Victor filled with fear, pities the creature, so he followed the order and created a companion for the creature. Victor struggles to secure his power over his emotions. Half way through the making of the female monster, Victor feels guilt and rage from allowing the monster to have control over him and his emotions, which caused him to react in a violent manner to regain his power. He destroyed the new creature.

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Victor has to decide to abandon the monster again or create a female version of the monster. He risks creating another horrible monster or certain death by the monster. This decision puts a toll on Victor and causes him to become delusional and

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841 Words | 4 Pages

“The whole village was roused; some fled, some attacked me, until, grievously bruised by stones and many other kinds of missile weapons, I escaped to the open country and fearfully took refuge in a low hovel, quite bare, and making a wretched appearance after the palaces I had beheld in the village. ”(Chapter 11) In conclusion to the monster feeling isolated, he wanted Victor to create a girl monster to take some of this feeling of being alone away from him. The monster believes it is only fair for himself to have another version of himself as a girl because it's not fair for him to be put out in the world alone how he is. “You must create a female for me with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being.

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127 Words | 1 Pages

Victor’s paltry parenting furthers his creation’s suffering since it is a minority. Also, Victor’s distant parenting instills wretchedness and helplessness in the alone creature. Consequently, because the majority (humans) ignores the minority (creature), this isolation is strengthened for the minority. Moreover, a female monster would aid the creature’s emotional state, as he states: “‘a [female] creature . . . shall content me’”

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1140 Words | 5 Pages

With hopes of no longer feeling isolated and forsaken, the creature begs Victor to create him a female version of himself, however, Victor declines his request. Upon learning that the creature is responsible for William’s, his brother, death, Victor refuses to bring upon another monster into this world. The creature then threatens to be with Victor on his wedding night if he doesn’t make a female companion for him, illustrating how obsessive the monster has become in his journey for revenge. “it is well. I go; but remember, I shall be with you on your wedding night” (..).

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1633 Words | 7 Pages

The deferment of death and the promotion of self-supremacy within Victor has backfired. The creature not only craved attention from Victor but also craved a female counterpart. After a further argument between Victor and the creature, Victor agrees to create a female creature. Stunned, and lost in his own doings, Victor asks himself if what he is doing is truly for the betterment of mankind. “Even if they were to leave Europe, and inhabit the deserts of the new world, yet one of the first results of those sympathies for which the daemon thirsted would be children, and a race of devils would be propagated upon the earth, who might make the very existence of the species of man a condition precarious and full of terror.”

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929 Words | 4 Pages

”(Millhauser). This violent rejection is a repetition of Victor’s lack of acceptance for the monster and attention to his family. Victor knows that the monster will never be able to live within society and that his ability to create life is the only hope the monster has of achieving companionship. Victor's own aversion to companionship surfaces as he, “ fails to give him the human companionship, the Eve, the female creature, that he needs to achieve some sort of a normal life.” (Mellor).

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