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Representation Of Women In Frankenstein

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Although the Gothic literature witnessed a period of stagnation at the beginning of the nineteenth-century, it persisted in inspiring literary prose. Thirsty for innovation and originality, women novelists of the second wave of the Gothic approximately came forth in 1820s, submit new staples to the “stock features” established in canonized texts of male gothic, displaying a striking deviation/shift from the early tradition (Gothic 2). The most significant innovation comes with Mary Shelly whose well-acclaimed novel Frankenstein (1818) enriches the female gothic landscape as it introduces an intriguing character, the female freak/beast. The ‘viviparous’ she-monster not only becomes a vital intertextual archetype in the works of nineteenth-century …show more content…

Depending on the mainstream thoughts, nineteenth-century male authors present women into strict binaries that delineate the boundaries between the proper and the improper, the masculine and the feminine. Women, in this respect are either victimized angels perform a subordinate role, to give herself themselves unstintingly to her family eulogizing wifehood and motherhood and to be the silent and pure subject or threatening demons who refuse to comply with cultural constructions of female nature and to conform to the social norms. While the angel is presented as “the pure gold baby” who is expected to show her “submissiveness, modesty, selflessness; reminding all women that they should be angelic” and to behave according to ““eternal feminine” virtues of modesty, gracefulness, purity, delicacy, civility, compliancy, reticence, chastity, affability, politeness-all of which are modes of mannerliness that contributed to Honoria’s angelic innocence, the she-monster is “a representative of otherness” that blurs the artificial barriers of natural/unnatural femininity and therefore, discloses what occurs when these barriers are transgressed (Gilbert and Gubar 23-28). It is worthy to note that she-monster “in literature by women is not merely, as she might be in male literature, an antagonist or foil to the heroine. Women writers project their fear, anxiety and rage into monstrous female figures whose subversive acts and deeds to the cultural and social notions of femininity subverts the patriarchal system. In this context, she is usually in some sense the author’s double, an image of her own anxiety and rage” (78). In other words, female writers “creat[e] dark doubles for themselves” that disclose their fragmented identity and discrepancy between “what they are and what they are supposed to be” (79). The monster is consistently read as his

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It may skew her thinking and at times be subjective. The intended audience is someone who is studying literature and interested in how women are portrayed in novels in the 19th century. The organization of the article allows anyone to be capable of reading it.

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As per usual, advancements in a story are made through various literary elements, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein is of no exception. Though what sets this authors use of these elements apart is the effectiveness in which they are presented in what can be considered a prologue of sorts, the letters. As a foreshadowing to what may occur between characters of differing sexes, gender roles are established. For the development of the a main character, Robert Walton, season (a key factor in character development as discussed in the literary work To Read Like A Professor) is described in thorough detail by non other than Walton himself, as he also goes on to discuss his opinion on it. Gender roles remain an important developmental tool

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“Frankenstein and the Tradition of Realism” Shelly, Mary Frankenstein. Ed. J. Paul Hunter. New York: Norton Critical Edition, 2012. 311-16.

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Shelley’s women characters are strong minded but taken for granted. She wrote the book in the early 1800’s and women were treated much differently in that time. Being a female writer, Mary Shelley underwent struggles that dealt with publishing a book however, probably more intensely. This reflects in her novel, Frankenstein, through her female characters. Elizabeth Lavenza is an adopted cousin for the Frankenstein family.

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The way in which she minimized the female characters in Frankenstein and empowered all male characters also can come across as a silent protest against the conventional stereotypes of gender roles within literature. Due to the contextual time however, Shelley was unable to speak up of her ideas since the rights women's roles in the 18th century were usually confined to them exercising their moral and domestic virtues through housework, religion and charity work and it wasn't until the 1918 (hundred years after Frankenstein was written) that women were given the right to vote and the development of unconventional gender roles begun. There are however certain parts and aspects within some gothic texts that portray women as powerful, not submissive

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What’s demonstrably exigent in both Percy and Mary Shelley’s introductions to the latter’s novel is a sort of finite teleological regress; that is to say, a set of creative impetuses that organically, if not inevitably led to the design of Frankenstein as we today know it. On a meta level, the intent here is rather self-evident: these prefaces are meant to help us readers glean some meaningful insight as to the novel’s inception. But brief and relatively non-descript as they are, I find these sorts of exercises – namely, ones which try to plainly enumerate influences and meanings – to be antithetical to the very notion of the artful creative process. And to be clear, I do not blame either of the Shelleys for this, as it’s noted that these intros were written at the behest of publishers. Still, my misgivings abound.

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Even in 2023, women are still considered to be the less powerful and advanced gender in regards to men. This discrimination has been occurring for centuries and represented throughout media, film, novels, etc. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the women are shown to be insignificant to the plot, resulting in the loss of individuality and autonomy for the female characters. Firstly, the women in Frankenstein are shown to be insignificant to the plot due to the loss of autonomy within the characters. “.....our union had been the favorite plan of your parents ever since our infancy,” (Shelley 138).

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Frankenstein is one of the most famous and adapted novels of all time, and many say that Mary Shelley invented the genre of science fiction through it’s creation, but can Frankenstein add feminism to it’s list of virtues? At first glance, it seems as if not. The novel focuses mainly on the conflict between two men, and the main female character in the novel, Elizabeth, falls into the classic gothic trope of the perfect, angelic heroine, who has little to no flaws or agency. Yet upon further examination, it is clear that Shelley parodies and builds on the gothic trope of the perfect woman in order to bring to light the detrimental effects of writing flat female characters, ultimately giving Frankenstein a feminist tone.

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