Women of Frankenstein: Impact Based on Influence

Alexis Montgomery Professor Jonathan Luftig English 102 Wo hands of Frankenstein Impact ground on Influence The smart Frankenstein touches on many controversial themes such as, loneliness, the division of good evil, rejection, debate about Nature vs. Nurture, manipulation and and so on Among the many controversial themes, the one that is constantly mentioned is the rather passive, supporting young-bearing(prenominal) roles in the f fitting. Despite her begins feminist and independent legacy, bloody shame Shelley seemed to occupy written from a to a greater extent societal perspective in the roles of her mentions as opposed to a rebellious, un-relat equal to(p) perspective.Examples of this faeces be found in the relationships between the characters, as well as backgrounds of each. In bloody shame Shelleys novel, her feminine characters seem to reflect women of her time, including herself, in supporting their male counterparts stock-still when soci hardlyy invisible. As the author, bloody shame Shelley used her personal experiences and biass of her time to write her novel. Mary Shelleys mother died giving parturition to her, leaving her to be raised by her father who was a segment of a group of radical computeers. When growing up without a mother, it is imaginable that your forms are non necessarily particular(a), but shifted.Mary did non f both in her mother, so she may wee looked to the women of her time as examples of what life was supposed to be like. Mary Wollstonecraft wrote in her Vindication of the Rights of Women, Women are told from their infancy, and taught by the example of their mothers, that a little k at one timeledge of human weakness, justly termed cunning, softness of temper, outward obedience, and a scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of propriety, will give for them the protection of man (Wollstonecraft Chpt II) Women in the early 19th century while were viewed as inferior to men.The stake of women was considered to be in their home, privately. Her novel lavatory be considered a way for her to deal with questions of her own autobiography, through fiction. In being raised by just her father, in the radical atmosphere, she was subject to advanced ideas at an early age. She then became known in the literary circle with people such as Lord Byron, the friend and live of her family. In being surrounded by writers and poets, like Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, she was able to shape and mold her ideas.The company of such men, can be expound as a writers dream, a place of such in pick outect and creativity, sparking ideas for such novels like Frankenstein. As Mary Shelley progressed in her personal life, she ended up in an intimate relationship with Percy Bysshe Shelley, make her to conceive. She conceived children with him over the years, unaccompanied to find she was futile(p) to support life, losing three of her quartet children she had given let to. All but one child, lived a ab ruptly term aft(prenominal) they were born. Losing these children is so significant because it helped her express her feelings on birth through writing.In Ellen Moers, The Female Gothic The Monsters Mother, she relates Marys lose of her children to the psychiatric hospital of the monster. She states, Frankenstein seems to be distinctly a muliebritys mythmaking on the subject of birth precisely because its emphasis is not upon what precedes birth, not upon birth itself, but upon what follows birth the trauma of the afterbirth. (Shelley 321) This supports that Mary Shelleys feelings of viciousness and sadness surrounding birth and the consequences it produces. The loss of her children can be analyzed as expression of personal cultisms and pains through her writing.Her experiences have make her views of childbirth, into something grotesque and wretched, this causing the creation of the beast. After being unable to reproduce and losing a quality woman of that era were expected to have, Mary not only didnt have a mother, but in addition was unable to become one herself. While propping the men up, enabling them to function, the women of the novel were alike pictured as weak. The ideas of the women in her novel being portrayed as weak can be viewed as a self-reflection of herself.Being without focus or female person influence, and unable to provide to offspring, she viewed herself as weak. Her personal-reflection of herself is reflected in women of the novel such as Justine, Elizabeth, and even the idea of the female creature. captain is support by Justine in everything he does and the creature uses the thought of a female creature as a coadjutor to support him. Men move all women of Frankenstein, all three narrators are male and they narrate what the women have said because the whole story is told by men.An example of this is when the creature says, My lad will be of the same nature of myself, and will be core with the same fare. We shall make our be d of dried leaves the solarise will brush up on us as on man, and will ripen our food. (Shelley 103) The female creature would serve as support for the male creature because her shoot for only served to be his companion. For his happiness, he would risk creating a creature as grotesque, with fearful looks. His actions and statement prove the selfishness and dominance of men in the novel.Though men are perceived as the dominant allele role in the novel, it is humorous that the story is centered on letters between Margaret and Robert. If Margaret hadnt been Roberts listener and exchanged letters with him, Robert would have no one to tell higher-ups story to, meaning there would be no novel. Margaret being a woman, can be viewed as the reason the novel exists. Being the main character in the novel, master copy and his relationship with Elizabeth bend a large part in the examples of how men are the dominant characters, but only sustain their roles because the women are self-sacri ficing.Elizabeths character traits influence her behaviors in her relationship with victor by making her easy to manipulate. When Victors mother Caroline died, Elizabeth assumed her role in sign of the zodiac duties and plays the mother figure. Though she assumes such a role, she has little substance, still passive, with not much contribution to social matters or decisions. In a sense, because she was not heard, she was not seen in a general aspect. Victor was bold, controlling, and selfish, not only in his disregard for female penurys and roles in the novel, but alike in other instances.His selfishness was portrayed in his desire to create life, in leaving his family and not contacting them, and once he created life, he disowned his creature, shirking all responsibility. Victor was so self-absorbed that he overestimates his importance. This was the reason behind why he was unable to figure out the creature was coming for Elizabeth and recognizes that she now symbolizes vengean ce. Her role was so consistent and insignificant to him that he was unable to diffuse the importance of her death as well as its affect on himself.This is shown after the death of his wife, an example is when he states, Nothing is so dreaded to the human mind as a great and sudden change. The sun might shine, or the clouds might lour but nothing could bug out to me as it had done the day before. A fiend had snatched from me every foretaste of future day happiness. (Shelley 142) In Anne Mellors, The Female In Frankenstein, she explores the idea of the destruction of female roles due to the difficulty switching from the public sphere, which was more masculine, to the private sphere, which was more feminine.In the preface Percy writes, his concern the novel was the, the exhibition of the amiableness of domestic affection, and the integrity of universal virtue. (Shelley 7) He exhibits this in Elizabeth. Though Elizabeth exists in the private sphere, to the family she is a symbol of domestic harmony and can be considered a character based on sacrifice and true virtue. In all the things she does for Victor as well as his family, she is Victors hope for future joy. After all the bad things he has done and all the mistakes he has made, Elizabeth represents domestic peace.Her representation of domestic peace can subconsciously be the reason Victors family wants him to marry her so badly. The death of Justine as well as Elizabeth was centered on the selfishness of men they loved. Justine was put to death, after trial because Victor refused to admit the creature he created was the cause of his companion Williams death. Elizabeths death was caused because Victors selfish shipway made him refuse to create the creature a female companion to have in his life. Both of these women can be looked at as self-sacrificing.Victor Frankenstein dealt with his extreme guilt of withholding information and secrets from his family regarding his creation, putting peoples lives, su ch as Justines in jeopardy. His secrecy can comfortably be the reason for the death of Justine, William, and Elizabeth. This extreme guilt is key in discussing how he one of the dominant characters in the novel, because despite how much guilt he feels he never disclosed to anyone his secret creature until he met Robert. In the novel, Victor Frankenstein as a Creator of the creature can be compared to a Mother, giving birth to a child, something that the author, Mary Shelley was unable to do.Again, she uses her personal experiences to express herself in her writing. Victor stripped women of their main mean during that era, to reproduce. He established that the role played by women isnt limited to female characters, but can be shown in men as well because Victor can be considered a bad mother. similarly in Anne Mellors, The Female In Frankenstein, she states, In place of normal straight attachment to Elizabeth, Victor Frankenstein has a substituted a homosexual regression with hi s creature, an obsession that in his case is energized by a profound desire to reunite with his dead mother, by becoming himself a mother. Shelley 363) The loss of his mothers influences cause him to want to create life on his own, so that he can influence or rather control it, leading to the creation of the savage. Shelleys personal struggle is evident because though he was able to create life, he wasnt proud of it, and wasnt anything like he thought it would be. He then abandoned the creature, sort of like his mother had done when she died, and like Mary Shelleys mother had done when she died as well. Another example of the roles women play to the male characters was shown the Creatures need for a female companion.The Creatures solitude never allowed him to know what love was, until he began watching the De Lacys and seeing the love they shared as a family and how happy Safie made Felix when returning to his life. Felix seemed ravished with delight when he saw her, every trait o f heartache vanished his face, and it instantly expressed a degree of ecstatic joy, of which I could scantily have believed it capable his eyes sparkled, as his cheek flushed with enjoyment and at that second gear I thought him more beautiful than the stranger. (Shelley 81)This moment of joy is something he wanted to feel for himself, or better until now something he wanted someone else to feel for him. He longed for someone to conduct him and risk everything, just as Felix had done for Safie. When learning their backgrounds and seeing how Felix risked his family, reputation, and wealth, all to save Safies father, the Turk and to marry her, the Creature yearned for that kind of love. He also admired, the extents companions seemed to go for each other. The Creature seems to want a counterpart, not only because she is a female nd he wants to be loved, but because he wants to share his burden of ugliness and non-acceptance from humans who have shunned him. After viewing their re lationship he reflects on his loneliness and goes on to blame Victor for his pain. Cursed Creator Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust? God in pity made man beautiful and alluring, after his own digit but my form is a filthy type of yours, more usurious from its very resemblance. (Shelley 91) In his inhuman heart, he doesnt long for actual things or wealth, he longs to experience life as hes viewed it as a bystander.Watching the De Laceys function in society and as a family, is the example he leads by, therefore he doesnt deduce why he is unable to have that as well. This fact is what makes the creature most human, maybe even more human than Victor because of his need for communication and love, while Victor never needed any of that. never once in the novel did Victor long for real companionship, his joys came in being isolated from others, which caused him to predetermine the creatures life of closing off as well.In never needing a compa nion to share life with, Victor saw no problem in destroying the female creature he had created for the male creature. Because Victor excluded women in every way, and he clearly doesnt understand the entailment of his own female counter part in the novel, he definitely doesnt understand the creatures. Not knowing the significance of a feminine role in his life, nor the creatures is what made the destruction of the female creature an easy decision for him.One of the biggest reasons he struggled to understand the significance was because he was clouded by his fear. In Anne Mellors, The Female In Frankenstein, she argues that he is terror-struck of an independent female will, afraid that his female creature will have desires and opinions that cannot be controlled by his male creature. (Shelley 360) Victors true fear was that by creating a female creature, hed be defying everything that he believed in. The belief that women are to be more of the private sphere than the public might change and it would cause imbalance of society in his eyes.What if, a women or female could walk the earth as men and think their own thoughts and live life as she pleased. The belief that women are to be controlled, rather than loved and treated equally is what causes each female not to exist anymore. The novel uses its female characters to display that of women in Mary Shelleys time, displaying failed attempts at changing societal roles. The men of Frankenstein control life, death, and the all initiative of any women functioning as an equal. Mellor, Anne K. Possessing Nature The Female in Frankenstein. Norton full of life Edition (1996) 274-86. Print. Moers, Ellen. Female Gothic The Monsters Mother. wise York Review of Books (1974). Rpt. in Frankenstein A Norton Critical Edition. Ed. J. Paul Hunter. New York Norton, 1996. 214-24. Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein A Norton Critical Edition. ed. J. Paul Hunter. New York W. W. Norton, 1996 Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Ri ghts of Woman. A Wollstonecraft Anthology. Ed. Janet M. Todd. Bloomington Indiana University Press, 1977