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Response To Frankenstein By Mary Shelley

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Frankenstein Free Response
Towards the end of the 18th century, Europe experienced a scientific revolution that ultimately altered and challenge the views of those living in the time period. In the midst of the revolution’s mania, Mary Shelley wrote the book Frankenstein. In her work, not only can we see glints of the author’s personal history, but glimpses of the societal effects of the 18th century scientific revolution.
Mary Shelley, who was the daughter of known feminist writer, Mary Wollstonecraft, wrote Frankenstein as a critical response to the scientific and industrial revolutions. Shelley points a critical eye towards the dangers of science, analyzing how it truly can affect society. We can see this in many ways. The first being in …show more content…

Being the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, Shelley was exposed to feminist beliefs as her mother was among the first prominent feminist writers of the time. The author touched upon this moral attribute in her novel in addition to responding to the scientific issues that had arisen. While some may be puzzled as to how this could be, as the novel has an overall absence of female characters. This is exactly how Shelley was responding to the gender norms of her time. Specifically with the monster’s lack of a companion. With no female monster to keep the male creature at peace, Frankenstein’s world becomes dark. This is because at the exact point that Frankenstein swears he will never create a female companion for the monster, it marks Victor’s ultimate demise as the monster claims he will get his revenge. While during the 18th century, in a marital relationships the man held most of the power, in the novel Frankenstein the real power lied in the life of the female monster. If we were to break the novel down, we would be able to see that had Victor simply created a female monster, the original creation would have stopped his rampage and never have exacted his revenge on Victor by murdering his wife to be. This lack of women obviously reflects Mary Shelley’s feminist views of the time period.
At first glance, Frankenstein may appear to be simply a novel about a monster. In reality it not only challenges reader’s beliefs on the power of science and nature over man, but the power of females as well. All of which show Mary Shelley’s responses to the scientific and industrial revolutions of the 18th century as well as the feminist issues of the time period. The entire novel showcased very clearly how Shelley felt about the issues of her

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