Mary Shelley's Bluestocking Now !

Contrary to numerous thinkers and philosophers of the Romanticist movement, many novelists have approached these times with different viewpoints, challenging the reforms. These philosophers fought against the radical changes people like Shelley proposed about social norms. These realist and neoclassicist authors added their work as a counterargument against the majority of novelists at the time. One notable neoclassicist that did not hold the same ideas as thinkers like Shelley was Jane Austen, the author of Pride and Prejudice. Austen is known for her devout beliefs that feminism is “not merely a ‘collective classification,’ but as a coherent body of opinions held by novelists on the identity of social functions of women” (Brown 322). Furthermore,

Deborah Heller, author of Bluestocking Now!, discovered connections between Mary Shelley and the Bluestockings theory. The Bluestocking theory deals with religion’s role in academic and casual writing, mentioning that “Bluestockings’ personal adherence to a ‘latitudinarian’ religious viewpoint opened the way for their characteristic advocacy for women’s education and social activism” (New and Reedy 255). Shelley’s usage of women throughout the novel highlight this important part of the theology. Both Victor Frankenstein’s mother and Elizabeth take on the roles of calming down Frankenstein and Frankenstein Sr. Additionally, Shelley hints at a socialist utopia of all family members with women having the same authority as men. Frankenstein Sr. retires after Victor’s mother convinces him to settle down and serve as a father figure for the family. The Creature also has a significant role in this theory when the Creature demands Victor Frankenstein to create a female companion for itself. Shelley’s incorporation of female figures prove that her agenda is to use religion and biblical figures as means of a feminist movement. In Frankenstein, Elizabeth and Victor’s mother resemble Shelley’s vehement passion about women’s major roles within both the family and the individual with the help of Shelley’s

By comparing the Creature to Adam and Satan, Shelley forces the audience to take a step back and assess how the bible relates to the Creature even though the Creature is not a creation of god. Meanwhile, Shelley implies that Victor Frankenstein’s ability to create a living being elevates himself to the role or the same authority as a divinely figure, which undermines the conception of god in 19th century Romantic