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The Absence Of Women In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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The constant passiveness and submissiveness of women towards the decisions and actions of men lead to their portrayal as being absent due to their minor roles. The absence of women could have been the very reason why there are so many downfalls throughout the novel. According to Shelley, Victor wanted to be a creator so “a new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me” (32). This clearly shows his obsession of superiority and insanity by not needing God or a woman to conceive a living being. Victor clearly has a “fascination and horror” of women since they are the “origin of life,” but have monstrous features when conceiving a child (Braidotti 65). In addition, Victor has “womb envy,” which is a jealous notion that since men are superior to women, men should be given the privilege to …show more content…

The pregnancy of women is controlled by nature which can have a multitude of mistakes, but if men and science were to be combined, there would be no mistakes in conceiving a child (Braidotti 71). This is seen in Victor because he believed he “succeeded in discovering the cause of generation and life” and even more so of “bestowing animation upon lifeless matter” (Shelley 31). Shelley criticizes this outrageous belief that Victor and some men follow by Victor creating a deformed creature with detrimental consequences for not only Victor but to his loved ones. The absence of a woman led to a horrific creation.
The constant romanticizing of the beauty of women contrasts the ugliness and separateness of the creature. According to Shelley, Elizabeth was so beautiful that she had a “celestial stamp” (17). This shows that Elizabeth was more than human being due to her innocence and sensitivity that set her apart from everyone. The creature’s experience

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There is also the concept of the balance of masculinity and feminity throughout the novel. Victor, although he is a male character, displays a need to create something and care for it, even if it is to fill some sort of abstract ‘debt’ he feels towards his parents and Elizabeth, and he inevitably ends up abandoning his creation. Victor’s desire to create a living being, despite the way he treated after its birth, is a trait that one typically associates with

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1847 Words | 8 Pages

6.How does Victor’s male ambition lead to dire consequences? Victor was blinded by his male ambition and neglected the outcomes of his desire. Men are thought to be able to achieve anything they put their mind to, that their conquest for knowledge and drive would ultimately be rewarded with the same level of success. Mary Shelley challenges this idea, showing that even the most driven people can also have their goals lost. Victor did not see that his neglection of the monster would result in the monster’s revenge.

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386 Words | 2 Pages

Victor goes to university to create his monster and stay there for long time. Victor 's passion about creating the monster is more important than staying with Elizabeth. When Victor was there for long time busy creating the monster, he loses contact with elizabeth, which made her thought that Victor found someone else he loves or he doesn’t love her anymore. This illustrates women weakness and inferiority. Elizabeth doesn’t have any power over Victor because her love is only from one side.

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1845 Words | 8 Pages

As a child, Victor was emotionally neglected by his father. He was never taught how to be a father because he did not have a good role model to look after. Consequently, when Victor’s creation came to life, he did not know how to act. He was scared and tried to run away from his problems. Since his creation has no parental figure to support and teach him, he develops behavioral problems and is very confused.

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1075 Words | 5 Pages

In the award winning article, “Passages in Mary Shelly's Frankenstein: Towards a Feminist Figure of Humanity?” Cynthia Pon addresses masculinity and feminism in terms of conventions, ideals, and practices (Pon, 33). She focused on whether Mary Shelly's work as a writer opened the way to a feminist figure of humanity like Donna Haraway argued. The article has a pre-notion that the audience has read Frankenstein and Haraway's article. Pon has a slight bias, due to her passion as a feminist writer.

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613 Words | 3 Pages

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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798 Words | 4 Pages

Victor manifests hatred onto the embryonic creation, assuming the creature is programmed with evil nature. Instead, the creature, who desires affection, consumes his aversion and mirrors it. As Victor’s resentment becomes clear for the creation, he too forms animosity, forcing Victor to promise him happiness in the form of a female counterpart. Victor undertakes the promise, but reneges on it. He “destroy[s] the creature on whose future existence [the creation] depend[s] for happiness” and watches the creation, “with a howl of devilish despair and revenge, withdr[a]w.”

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Victor also conducts a figurative abortion with his previous lifestyle after he commits himself to create a being from galvanism: “I at once gave up my former occupations; set down natural history and all its progeny as a deformed and abortive creation; and entertained the greatest disdain for a would-be science, which could never even step within the threshold of real knowledge” (Shelley 27). Mary Shelley might be highlighting the issue of abortion along with miscarriages to express how much sorrow she felt from her first miscarriage (as The Creature brings sorrow to Victor, its mother/father). Another concept that Mary Shelley might have implemented into Frankenstein could be the idea of Nature vs. Nurture, or

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1548 Words | 7 Pages

(Shelley 41). Victor neglected his family while in the two year process of creating human life. While spending countless hours on his creation, Victor became ill, malnourished and sleep deprived because of the his state of mind that isolation had caused him. The amount of isolation Victor put

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915 Words | 4 Pages

In James Davis’ literary essay “Frankenstein and the Subversion of the Masculine Voice,” he discusses the oppression of women and the minor roles of females in Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein. With a feminist perspective, Davis claims, “He [Victor Frankenstein] oppresses female generation of life and of text; he rends apart both the physical and the rhetorical ‘form’ of female creativity. In fact, all three male narrators attempt to subvert the feminine voice, even in those brief moments when they tell the women’s stories” (307). Throughout his essay, Davis demonstrates the underlying message of Shelly’s subversion towards men and the social consequences of misogyny. Davis draws parallels between the three men, Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, and Victor’s creation, Frankenstein, in which they

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1120 Words | 5 Pages

In the novel Frankenstein, the author Mary Shelley shows the everlasting power of nature by limiting the knowledge man can learn about it. Throughout the book there are many times when Victor yearns for nature in order to heal him from the misery and violence in his life. This misery and violence are caused by his determination to learn more about the natural world. The monster Victor creates, due to his loneliness, defies the unwritten rules of nature and exemplifies the supernatural aspect of the novel. Victor’s mood completely shifts when he is around nature and he instantly feels calmer when near it.

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1494 Words | 6 Pages

By objectifying and claiming Elizabeth as his own, he promises to cherish and always protect her. This signifies the insensitivity of a woman’s importance in society. During Victors life, women were nothing but an object of affection or a object. Caroline, Victor’s mother, dies a respectable death.

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1363 Words | 6 Pages

Creating a scenario in which the more beautiful and young a character is, the innocent and caring they must be. When we are first introduced to Elizabeth, Victor begins to first describe her beauty in relation to her being, “Her person was the image of her mind... she appeared the most fragile creature in the world... everyone adored Elizabeth” (Shelley 66). Through her beauty and youth, Elizabeth is seen as fragile, kind and easy to approach.

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1921 Words | 8 Pages

Shelley’s novel encompasses the unknown and how ambition drove Victor’s passions, ultimately leading him to the tragic end with many other bumps in the road along the way. As Victor had been in the study of life and its cause, the death of his mother had catalyzed a movement of grief which had started, “…depriv[ing him]self of rest and health. [Which he] had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation…” (Shelley 35). Even though he knew that he had been raiding graveyards, Victor believed that he created the body with the ‘finest body parts’ available.

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879 Words | 4 Pages

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein examines how the presence of a mother, negatively or positively, affects the development of a child. Victor’s mother, Caroline Frankenstein, dies while Victor is still a young man (he is about 17 years old), breaking their relationship between mother and son. Because Victor loses his bond with his mother, he is unable to act as a mother would when he creates his creature. Caroline Frankenstein’s absence in Victor’s life creates a disunion between the mother and child bond, which is evident in Victor’s creation and his fragmented relationship with the creature. Caroline Frankenstein, Victor’s mother, portrayed a traditional mother in the Frankenstein household, until her death.

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