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Essay On Feminism In Frankenstein

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When reading Frankenstein people would not typically finish it and say this text has a good sense of feminism that comes along with it. Feminism in Frankenstein is very hard to distinguish, the reader just has to look in the right places. The audience has to really pay attention to the underlying concept that the female gender is important to the overall text of the story. Most people would argue that there really is not an underlying concept of feminism, but the book in itself is a statement of feminism. Even though the book says for Mary from Percy the fact that A women wrote a book back then and it was enjoyed widely and still is today is a shout out to feminism. Back then people did not really believe that women had what it takes to …show more content…

Women were seen as property to whoever the male head of their family was. All of the women were inclined to do their duties weather as a mother, daughter, or wife. Shelley did a great job at conveying these gender roles throughout Frankenstein. Wether talking about Caroline Beaufort or Elizabeth Lavenza the readers can clearly see that women were expected to be mild mannered, maternal, and a pleasure to be around, as well as do what their husbands expected of them. Shelley took each and every single women mentioned throughout this text to express that these women were what made the novel stand. In the story Caroline is described as being there to take care of her sick father. Portraying her as a gentle and selfless women, because she puts the needs of her father before her own. As she does when Elizabeth falls ill therefore causing herself to fall sick. When Elizabeth is brought into the picture she is already thrust into the roll of future wife to Victor as his possession because Caroline states in the novel that “I have a pretty present for my Victor tomorrow he shall have it” (pg 320). When caroline describes Elizabeth as a present that is the moment Elizabeth becomes just a possession for …show more content…

You just have to read the book from a feminist perspective when you read it. Women in the story are essential to the overall course of the story. Men throughout the novel are flawed and they would not have made the same decisions if they had any female influence in their choices. The monster may have never come into existence if Victor would have talked to Elizabeth. The creature possibly would not have become a monster if he had any female influence whether it was maternal or intimate. The lack of female influence in the novel preludes to the outcome of the

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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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In doing so, examine the feminist lens’s interpretation of the text. How are gender roles defined? Where to women fit into the text’s plot line. What do you notice about the women in this text? Is this congruent (similar) to society’s view of women, by today’s standards?

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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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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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You will notice that throughout the play women’s rights played a huge role in the story, mainly in Juliet’s decision making. In the play Romeo and Juliet, the submissive characteristics of Juliet, show the control men had over women at the time. Juliet allowed Lord Capulet

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One character, Justine, is very passive and used as a device to make Victor feel guilty for creating The Creature; as her major contribution to the plot was The Creature framing her for her brothers death and shortly after, being sentenced to death. Another female character, Safie, is used to teach The Creature how to speak: “My days were spent in close attention…and I may boast that I improved more rapidly than the Arabian…I could imitate almost every word that was spoken… I also learned the science of letters” (Shelley 106). Even the most prominent female character in the book, Frankenstein's lover and wife, Elizabeth, is killed by The Creature on their wedding night, in order to again make Victor regret creating The Creature, and eventually die of his unhappiness. Mary Shelley's depiction of women might be her indicating the roles of women at the time as inferior, a similar thesis brought about by Mary Wollstonecraft in A Vindication on the Rights of Women.

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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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The feminist theory is based on finding and exposing negative attitudes toward women in literature. Their goal is to reveal the reality of how women get portrayed in literature due to the fact that most literature presents an inaccurate view of women and are most of the time minimized. In the Catcher in the Rye there is a few female characters such as Sunny, the girls at the club, and Sally who are put in situations that show nothing but stereotypes and puts them in a bad spot throughout the novel. J.D Salinger decides to put some of the female characters in situations that can cause those who read this novel to think bad or leave readers with a bad image of women. This bad image on women is due to the fact that he decided to portray some of

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In Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein, Elizabeth, Caroline, and Justine represent a seemingly “perfect” woman. Mary Shelley ironically writes about each woman with a brief impersonal description of their status and relevance to the story. Elizabeth is presented to Victor as a object for his affection. Victor refers to his cousin as “My more than sister, since till death she was to be mine only” (Shelley 25).

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Interestingly enough, the novel resembles Shelley’s own life and can be interpreted as a reflection of her perception of families. Shelley shares many of the same characteristics with most of her characters. As the main character in the novel, Frankenstein’s creature is depicted as “a motherless orphan” who had an “unnatural birth” (Griffith). This correlates with Shelley’s own childhood as she was raised without a mother and her birth was in some ways “unnatural” as mothers are not naturally made to die during childbirth.

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Frankenstein’s Monster as a Tragic Hero Aristotle once said that "A man doesn 't become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall" (Carlson). In Frankenstein, many argue that Victor Frankenstein himself is indeed the tragic hero of the novel. I believe that the creation of Victor Frankenstein (the monster) is the actual tragic hero. There are several components to being a tragic hero, two of the most important are their tragic flaw, and the component of a tragedy or a tragic ending to the story. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is without a doubt tragic through many characters in different ways, but in my eyes, the creature is the character that sticks out with the most characteristics of a tragic hero.

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Duality is shown in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, a gothic tale of a scientist whom looks to advance the life-giving qualities of mother nature. Through this novel, Shelley proves that good and evil in human nature is not always simple to define, and that everyone has both of these qualities within them. The duality of human nature is shown through the characters of Victor Frankenstein and his monster, who are both heroes in the novel while simultaneously displaying anti-hero qualities. Shelley forces the reader to sympathize with them both but also creates gruesome ideas of the two. Frankenstein’s creature places himself in a submissive position when he begs his creator to have mercy on him and asking the creator to “create a female for [him] with whom [he] can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for [his] being.”

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Each female character is treated by men as a possession. However, there are also moments when they are presented as confident and challenge a male authority. This would have been exiting for Shakespeare’s female Elizabethan audience as women

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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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The monster comes to realize that, “[he] applied much personally to [his] own feelings and conditions… [his] person was hideous and [his] stature gigantic” (109). The monster ultimately displays a longing interest in expanding his knowledge, but each time he tries to apply it, he gets turned away because of his appearance. The use of the words “hideous” and “gigantic” ultimately reveals the monster’s self-doubt as his appearance undermines his capability. Mary Shelley’s stance on the idea of feminism results from her desire to prove that reproduction cannot take place without a woman. In the time period Frankenstein was written, the idea of separate spheres created a gap between

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