In this passage from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor is overcome with disgust and horror at the sight of the creature he has reanimated. Consumed with fear, Victor decides to “seek a few moments of forgetfulness” (Shelley 35) and falls asleep. In his dreams he envisions his lover, Elizabeth transforming into his dead mother. Victor wakes from his nightmare with a start, only to face another one in real life. Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein is often interpreted as a response to the Enlightenment, but this text may also be a reaction to the Social Contract Theory that arose from this movement. The Social Contract was intended to promote equality among men, but it does not call for equality between the sexes (“Jean”). As Jean Jacques Rousseau
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Although Victor can procreate, he does not create life through sexual reproduction because all the female characters in Frankenstein are marginal to the plot. Instead of having children, Victor decides to “bestow animation upon lifeless matter” (Shelley 31). His strong desire to “infuse life into an inanimate body” (Shelley 35) rather than prolonging it, may stem from his grief and longing for his absent mother. Thus, Victor attempts to become a mother to make up for the loss of his own. By doing so, he oversteps the boundaries of nature, and what results from his labour is monstrosity. In this passage, Victor comes to realize this, as he laments the creation of “the demoniacal corpse to which [he] had so miserably given life.” (Shelley 36). While this passage on its own does not show the destruction due to the absence of women, it reveals Victor’s regret for his actions that he otherwise would not have carried out, if he had had the women in his life to stop …show more content…
In this excerpt, Shelley uses Victor, a male character, to communicate the thoughts of the female sex. Shelley does this by projecting the voice of a new mother onto Victor’s character. In earlier parts of the text, Shelley uses metaphors to compare Victor’s lab work to childbearing. “I began the creation of a human being” (Shelley 32) suggests that Victor has been impregnated. When he locks himself up in his laboratory, and becomes “emaciated with confinement” (Shelley 32), he goes into confinement, just as a woman would, during her pregnancy. This passage depicts the aftermath of Victor’s unnatural pregnancy and it describes Victor’s emotional state after the childbirth. He feels a “breathless horror and disgust” (Shelley 35) for “the being [he] had created” (Shelley 35). These feelings are similar to those of a mother suffering from postpartum depression. Shelley, through the use of these metaphors to describe Victor’s pregnancy, has created a sense of femininity in Victor. When Victor meets Walton after experiencing such feminine matters, Victor is able to give a voice to his female side. However, without looking beneath the layer of metaphors of childbearing, a taboo and feminine subject, Walton and other readers not only hear Victor’s story, but they also listen. Walton, who listens to Victor’s voice
Although Victor can procreate, he does not create life through sexual reproduction because all the female characters in Frankenstein are marginal to the plot. Instead of having children, Victor decides to “bestow animation upon lifeless matter” (Shelley 31). His strong desire to “infuse life into an inanimate body” (Shelley 35) rather than prolonging it, may stem from his grief and longing for his absent mother. Thus, Victor attempts to become a mother to make up for the loss of his own. By doing so, he oversteps the boundaries of nature, and what results from his labour is monstrosity. In this passage, Victor comes to realize this, as he laments the creation of “the demoniacal corpse to which [he] had so miserably given life.” (Shelley 36). While this passage on its own does not show the destruction due to the absence of women, it reveals Victor’s regret for his actions that he otherwise would not have carried out, if he had had the women in his life to stop …show more content…
In this excerpt, Shelley uses Victor, a male character, to communicate the thoughts of the female sex. Shelley does this by projecting the voice of a new mother onto Victor’s character. In earlier parts of the text, Shelley uses metaphors to compare Victor’s lab work to childbearing. “I began the creation of a human being” (Shelley 32) suggests that Victor has been impregnated. When he locks himself up in his laboratory, and becomes “emaciated with confinement” (Shelley 32), he goes into confinement, just as a woman would, during her pregnancy. This passage depicts the aftermath of Victor’s unnatural pregnancy and it describes Victor’s emotional state after the childbirth. He feels a “breathless horror and disgust” (Shelley 35) for “the being [he] had created” (Shelley 35). These feelings are similar to those of a mother suffering from postpartum depression. Shelley, through the use of these metaphors to describe Victor’s pregnancy, has created a sense of femininity in Victor. When Victor meets Walton after experiencing such feminine matters, Victor is able to give a voice to his female side. However, without looking beneath the layer of metaphors of childbearing, a taboo and feminine subject, Walton and other readers not only hear Victor’s story, but they also listen. Walton, who listens to Victor’s voice