Paradox Of Gender In Frankenstein

Gender in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and its 2004 Television Adaptation (2004)

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: A Modern Prometheus (1795)—a paradox for both gender theorists and filmmakers. A paradox for filmmakers, because most of the book consists of needlessly verbose reflections on natural scenery, emotions, and relationships, with little dramatic tension or any of the other elements that makes for a page-turning thriller; there is conflict, much melodrama, and occasional moments of horror but not enough to maintain much suspense. Nevertheless, Frankenstein appears to be one of the stories most frequently adapted in film, and even more so if one counts films that owe it a debt without giving credit, such as Blade Runner and the recent television

The paradox for gender theorists is the existence of a novel by a self-avowed Victorian feminist with barely any female characters of any significance, and much

While the novel clearly invites the reader to suspect that Victor is schizophrenic, the monster existing only in his own hallucinations, up until the very end when Walton meets the creature. Reading the novel naively, one must continually wonder if Frankenstein is not himself the monster, and the murderer of Henry, Elizabeth, and perhaps his own father (who passes away entirely out of a nervous breakdown apparently); William could truly have been murdered by Justine, or a passing robber, for all we know (in the novel). It does not damage the implicit critique of masculinity that the monster is revealed as real by his final meeting with Walton, as by that time, the reader has had plenty of time to perceive that the monster is suspiciously similar to his creator in some ways, while also perhaps representing Victor’s alienation from his own virility in others. Their similarity is highlighted in the novel, for instance, when Walton praises each of them especially for their eloquence--which seems to hint that Victor may be spinning his story in order to get what he wants, an accusation Victor makes of the monster. And the monster embodies Victor’s absent virility both through