The Larger Role of Women in Frankenstein
The role of women in society has always been thought of as objectified and inferior to men. The themes of women in Frankenstein are representative of norms that existed during the early 1800s, which is around the time Mary Shelley wrote the novel. Shelley's comprehensive and feminist viewpoints worked as a foundation for her career and her life as well. The representation of women in Frankenstein play a far more complex and contradictory role than her prior writing that advocated principle of cooperation and empathy. The novel is likely expressing Shelley’s personal feelings and experience towards her self-identity and anxiety as a female writer during that time period. In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, …show more content…
Also, the women were treated as property and had minimal rights in comparison to the men. A prime example of this in the novel was how the women were destructed throughout the story and the brutal murders of women further more depicted how women were inferior to men. Victor said to Elizabeth ,“All praises bestowed on her, I received as made to a possession of my own” (Shelley 21), which further more showed how women were treated more as a possession to men than a human being and not living for themselves but living through the men they were with.Elizabeth acts docile around Victor and accepts that she is a second class citizen. Victor made it seem as if everything she was given credit for was because of him because in his mind she wasn’t capable of being anyone else other than who he wanted her to be. In the literary criticism Reading Between the Lines by Louise Knudsen she too also mentioned that “the women are represented solely, through the male gaze and perception” and goes on to explain how the women's roles were briefly described and their importance was little to none compared to the men's roles.Woman is the ultimate companion for Victor and the monster, and represents comfort and acceptance, which neither has experienced and never …show more content…
None of them, save Margaret, survive the novel and all of them live their fictional lives to serve a very specific function and impact a man’s life.All the Creature wanted was a female companion to love and care for and you realize that Shelley was trying to show the reader that women were being taken for granted.The passive dispositions of women characters in Frankenstein are symbolic to how women are deemed as unimportant figures in the novel’s society and how they are controlled by the male
The role of women in society has always been thought of as objectified and inferior to men. The themes of women in Frankenstein are representative of norms that existed during the early 1800s, which is around the time Mary Shelley wrote the novel. Shelley's comprehensive and feminist viewpoints worked as a foundation for her career and her life as well. The representation of women in Frankenstein play a far more complex and contradictory role than her prior writing that advocated principle of cooperation and empathy. The novel is likely expressing Shelley’s personal feelings and experience towards her self-identity and anxiety as a female writer during that time period. In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, …show more content…
Also, the women were treated as property and had minimal rights in comparison to the men. A prime example of this in the novel was how the women were destructed throughout the story and the brutal murders of women further more depicted how women were inferior to men. Victor said to Elizabeth ,“All praises bestowed on her, I received as made to a possession of my own” (Shelley 21), which further more showed how women were treated more as a possession to men than a human being and not living for themselves but living through the men they were with.Elizabeth acts docile around Victor and accepts that she is a second class citizen. Victor made it seem as if everything she was given credit for was because of him because in his mind she wasn’t capable of being anyone else other than who he wanted her to be. In the literary criticism Reading Between the Lines by Louise Knudsen she too also mentioned that “the women are represented solely, through the male gaze and perception” and goes on to explain how the women's roles were briefly described and their importance was little to none compared to the men's roles.Woman is the ultimate companion for Victor and the monster, and represents comfort and acceptance, which neither has experienced and never …show more content…
None of them, save Margaret, survive the novel and all of them live their fictional lives to serve a very specific function and impact a man’s life.All the Creature wanted was a female companion to love and care for and you realize that Shelley was trying to show the reader that women were being taken for granted.The passive dispositions of women characters in Frankenstein are symbolic to how women are deemed as unimportant figures in the novel’s society and how they are controlled by the male