Women As Objects In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

During the eighteenth and nineteenth century women were considered to be inferior to men. In 1818, Mary Shelley wrote the novel Frankenstein with a male's perspective, but still showed characteristics of feminism. Since Mary’s parents felt strongly about feminism, she followed in their footsteps with this book. Mary Shelley correlates the monster with women in her time period by writing the monster as weak she also portrays women as object. While showing women like objects and also paralleling them to the monster it also shows how women were treated differently in that time period. “This last blow overcame her, and she knelt by Beaufort's coffin weeping bitterly, when my father entered the chamber. He came like a protecting spirit to the poor …show more content…
"I have a pretty present for my Victor—tomorrow he shall have it." And when, on the morrow, she presented Elizabeth to me as her promised gift, I, with childish seriousness, interpreted her words literally and looked upon Elizabeth as mine—mine to protect, love, and cherish”(31). Elizabeth was regarded as an object by Victor's mother, she even said “I have a present for you Victor” and although she was a woman she still treated Elizabeth like and object. The reason Victors mother may have trated Elizabeth like an object was because that’s how woman were viewd by all genders and woman didn’t care enough to change it because they were used to it. Most woman liked being treated as fragile and that they needed men to be a hero for them because they didn’t know they could feel like they didn’t need any men because they were independent enough to make their own decisions and not be told exactly what to feel because of their husbads. Elizabeth not only is shown as an object, but also as weak and helpless when she is killed by the monster. Instead of taking care of herself and defending herself against the monster she decide to wait for Victor to come and rescue her. By Mary showing how Elizabeth reacted toward being killed by the monster she displays that woman knew they were weak and did need help from men because that’s what they are expected to do wait for the men. The monster does this in order to inflict pain on Victor so she is seen as collateral damage because she dies in order to hurt him and yet again she is treated like an object by even her own fiancée. Even though it shows Elizabeth as weak, it also portrays the monster as strong when he wanted to inflict pain on Victor which shows that he has overcome his period of weakness and feeling lonely. When the monster stopped being weak and feeling bad for himself as well as lonely he took matters