How Does Shelley’s Frankenstein Comment Upon Gender Issues?
In her world-renowned novel, Frankenstein; or the Modern Prometheus, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley recounts the tragic story of the miserable Victor Frankenstein and his monster. The plot of the story is centered around the novel’s subtitle: “The Modern Prometheus”. Mary Shelley portrays Victor Frankenstein as the modern incarnation of Prometheus because he symbolizes the dire consequences resulting from seeking god-like knowledge and power. Much more than the horror story embraced by today’s popular culture, Mary Shelley’s novel is a forceful social, political, and psychological commentary that reflects on the time in which it was written. The author overtly addresses the socio-cultural …show more content…
This novel is narrated through the voices of Walton, Frankenstein, and the Creature, but the stories of the female characters only appear briefly within these narratives. In fact, according to some literature scholars, “these three men who narrate their autobiographies push the women to the perimeter, relegating them to passively serving as an audience for male stories” (Davis 307). Shelley portrays the female characters as docile, submissive, and compassionate, which corresponds to the Victorian ideals of the female gender. For instance, Elizabeth Lavenza is described as “docile and good tempered” (Shelley 66), and her “gentle and affectionate disposition” (Shelley 73) makes her the perfect maternal figure for the Frankenstein family. Safie De Lacey also symbolizes the submissive and caring nature of women because she renounces her luxurious life to reunite with her lover. The male characters, on the other hand, are self-absorbed and single-minded individuals who are all engaged in overambitious “quests that remove them from domestic interaction with women and take them to barren and inhospitable lands” (Davis 308). The author shows that these male characters are tameless beings on several occasions. In Walton’s first letter, he vaguely alludes to Margaret’s “evil forebodings” (Shelley 1) of his expedition, and Elizabeth implores Victor to stop his research and come home before he falls ill. Yet, these men do not listen to the supplication of the powerless female characters, and they find themselves in dire situations in the end. Thus, Mary Shelley shows the evils of a “masculine
In her world-renowned novel, Frankenstein; or the Modern Prometheus, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley recounts the tragic story of the miserable Victor Frankenstein and his monster. The plot of the story is centered around the novel’s subtitle: “The Modern Prometheus”. Mary Shelley portrays Victor Frankenstein as the modern incarnation of Prometheus because he symbolizes the dire consequences resulting from seeking god-like knowledge and power. Much more than the horror story embraced by today’s popular culture, Mary Shelley’s novel is a forceful social, political, and psychological commentary that reflects on the time in which it was written. The author overtly addresses the socio-cultural …show more content…
This novel is narrated through the voices of Walton, Frankenstein, and the Creature, but the stories of the female characters only appear briefly within these narratives. In fact, according to some literature scholars, “these three men who narrate their autobiographies push the women to the perimeter, relegating them to passively serving as an audience for male stories” (Davis 307). Shelley portrays the female characters as docile, submissive, and compassionate, which corresponds to the Victorian ideals of the female gender. For instance, Elizabeth Lavenza is described as “docile and good tempered” (Shelley 66), and her “gentle and affectionate disposition” (Shelley 73) makes her the perfect maternal figure for the Frankenstein family. Safie De Lacey also symbolizes the submissive and caring nature of women because she renounces her luxurious life to reunite with her lover. The male characters, on the other hand, are self-absorbed and single-minded individuals who are all engaged in overambitious “quests that remove them from domestic interaction with women and take them to barren and inhospitable lands” (Davis 308). The author shows that these male characters are tameless beings on several occasions. In Walton’s first letter, he vaguely alludes to Margaret’s “evil forebodings” (Shelley 1) of his expedition, and Elizabeth implores Victor to stop his research and come home before he falls ill. Yet, these men do not listen to the supplication of the powerless female characters, and they find themselves in dire situations in the end. Thus, Mary Shelley shows the evils of a “masculine