Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein includes many significant elements of Female Gothic while Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” features both Female and American Gothic traditions. Many of these elements refer directly to the major characters, neither of whom have a name that is not preceded by an article. They do not get names, but titles. These characters are, of course, the Creature and the narrator.
The Creature in Frankenstein fulfils the role of the Female Gothic heroine; he is basically orphaned, powerless, self-educated, seeks his absent parent, and exists in perplexing terrain. He has been abandoned by his parent/creator and is effectively orphaned. He is abandoned largely due to his appearance, objective attractiveness being …show more content…
The Creature is left alone, powerless, clueless, and penniless as the Female Gothic heroine is. Once he encounters humanity, all he wants is to be accepted by society. The Creature educates himself both through the education of others and by himself in order to gain this acceptance. He learns French because Felix teaches Safie, together, the Creature and Safie “improved rapidly in the knowledge of language, so that in two months [he] began to comprehend most of the words uttered by [his] protectors” (Shelley 88). He learns history in the same way, with Felix teaching Safie history through Volney’s Ruins of Empires and his extensive explanations. Although it is never explained how he learns to read, the Creature find books and learns through them as well. Eventually he seeks his absent parent, if only for Victor to “create a female” companion for him and exact revenge (Shelley 111). Another Female Gothic convention that Frankenstein follows is that the Creature is pursued by his father figure. This is the vehicle for the story and the reason why Walton and Victor meet. It is, undoubtedly, a more severe pursuit than the standard, Victor says to Walton, “I must pursue and destroy the being to …show more content…
The setting in “The Yellow Wallpaper” reflects this trend, remaining within a home, constrained even to one room. When the narrator describes the nature outside, it is a very controlled form of nature. The only example she has is the highly cultivated garden, “There is a delicious garden! I never saw such a garden—large and shady, full of box-bordered paths, and lined with long grape-covered arbors with seats under them” (Gilman). The paths, where the humans go, are separated from the rest of the garden. The narrator spends most of her time, though, physically barred from nature. She rarely goes outside in the beginning of her stay in the house, “I walk a little in the garden or down that lovely lane, sit on the porch under the roses, and lie down up here a good deal” (Gilman). After about the first three weeks of her stay in the house, she only observes nature through a window. The narrator no longer fits with this specific, cultivated manifestation of nature. Eventually she has no desire to leave the house whatsoever, even if she has to violate social norms in order to remain, “I don't want to go outside. I won't, even if Jennie asks me to” (Gilman). This is not an area of the short story which is a source of American Gothic guilt for the narrator. Her guilt comes from her inability to feel grateful
The Creature in Frankenstein fulfils the role of the Female Gothic heroine; he is basically orphaned, powerless, self-educated, seeks his absent parent, and exists in perplexing terrain. He has been abandoned by his parent/creator and is effectively orphaned. He is abandoned largely due to his appearance, objective attractiveness being …show more content…
The Creature is left alone, powerless, clueless, and penniless as the Female Gothic heroine is. Once he encounters humanity, all he wants is to be accepted by society. The Creature educates himself both through the education of others and by himself in order to gain this acceptance. He learns French because Felix teaches Safie, together, the Creature and Safie “improved rapidly in the knowledge of language, so that in two months [he] began to comprehend most of the words uttered by [his] protectors” (Shelley 88). He learns history in the same way, with Felix teaching Safie history through Volney’s Ruins of Empires and his extensive explanations. Although it is never explained how he learns to read, the Creature find books and learns through them as well. Eventually he seeks his absent parent, if only for Victor to “create a female” companion for him and exact revenge (Shelley 111). Another Female Gothic convention that Frankenstein follows is that the Creature is pursued by his father figure. This is the vehicle for the story and the reason why Walton and Victor meet. It is, undoubtedly, a more severe pursuit than the standard, Victor says to Walton, “I must pursue and destroy the being to …show more content…
The setting in “The Yellow Wallpaper” reflects this trend, remaining within a home, constrained even to one room. When the narrator describes the nature outside, it is a very controlled form of nature. The only example she has is the highly cultivated garden, “There is a delicious garden! I never saw such a garden—large and shady, full of box-bordered paths, and lined with long grape-covered arbors with seats under them” (Gilman). The paths, where the humans go, are separated from the rest of the garden. The narrator spends most of her time, though, physically barred from nature. She rarely goes outside in the beginning of her stay in the house, “I walk a little in the garden or down that lovely lane, sit on the porch under the roses, and lie down up here a good deal” (Gilman). After about the first three weeks of her stay in the house, she only observes nature through a window. The narrator no longer fits with this specific, cultivated manifestation of nature. Eventually she has no desire to leave the house whatsoever, even if she has to violate social norms in order to remain, “I don't want to go outside. I won't, even if Jennie asks me to” (Gilman). This is not an area of the short story which is a source of American Gothic guilt for the narrator. Her guilt comes from her inability to feel grateful