Feminist Ideas in Mary Shelleys Frankenstein

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Overview of Feminism
The Background
Analysis
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

In the history of world literature there are titles which are known to everyone. Such is the novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818) by the British writer Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (17971851). The fate of the Swiss scientist Frankenstein, who created a living creature from dead materials and eventually turned into an executioner and at the same time a victim of his own creation, became a remarkable novel, which with the course of time captured wider cultural layers, going further exploring the issues originally designated by the author.

One of these issues and the subject of this paper is the theme of feminism in Shelleys novel. This essay analyzes the novel and its premises in the context of the authors background stating that the novel is bearing feminist ideas.

Overview of Feminism

Feminism is a contradictory phenomenon, thus many researchers, who attempts understanding the essence of feminism, as social phenomena, approach it in different ways.

Feminism to wide extent, is an aspiration for equality of rights between women and men, in all life aspects, and in another opinion, it is a feminine movement, with a purpose of elimination of discrimination of women and equalization of their rights with men. The different approach in observing feminism is mostly due to the particular epochs in which womens positions were considered and thus the various ways in which feminism showed up. In examining the context of feminism in literature, the background of the historical period in which this composition appeared should be considered. In the case of Marry Shelleys work, other factors play a major role as well.

The Background

Feminism has a long history, and perhaps and perhaps it is difficult to trace back its origin, where the womens resistance definitely preceded the occurrence of feminism as a completely formulated ideology. However, the roots of modern feminism can be trace back to the works of Mary Wollstonecraft a liberal writer, the wife of the political philosopher William Godwin and the mother of Mary Shelley, the author of the aforementioned novel and the essays analysis subject Frankenstein.

The attention was brought to Mary Wollstonecraft when she published her work A Vindication of the Rights of Man, which was immediately followed by A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, which is considered the first feminist document.

Let not men then in the pride of power, use the same arguments that tyrannic kings and venal ministers have used, and fallaciously assert that woman ought to be subjected because she has always been so&. It is time to effect a revolution in female mannerstime to restore to them their lost dignity&. It is time to separate unchangeable morals from local manners.- Mary Wollstonecraft in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) (Mary Wollstonecraft: Enlightenment Feminist)

Thus, it could be seen that the philosophy of Wollstonecraft is possibly the direct influence of Mary Shelley, although the influence of the ideas of feminism were somewhat subtle in her novel comparing to other themes addressed and definitely less radical than her mothers works for that time.

Analysis

Addressing the feminism in Frankenstein, Shelley did not use direct depiction, where instead of portraying strong women fighting for their rights, she used the opposite to demonstrate the state of women role in the society as a sign of alert.

In that sense, it could be said that the character Uncle Tom, in Harriet Beecher Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin, is somewhat similar.

In a similar way, the novel is full of passive female characters, and to some extent she exaggerates in this passiveness, where most of the characters either die in a self sacrificing manner, such as Caroline Beaufort or Justine, or stay helpless throughout the whole novel such as Elizabeth who eventually was killed by the monster.

In addition, one general similarity between all the female characters is their dependence on men in their life.

In that sense the created monster is more progressive, possibly Shelley wanted to outline that point in ironical way, where the monsters desire for a female, is depicted as a desire for an equal companion and someone to share with, rather than a woman that would be dependent on him.

Truth to be told, the nature of women at that time period was demonstrated in the novel, where all the positions given to women in the novel were the same in real life, although it should be mentioned that this was mostly due to the patriarchal society they lived in, the society that expected the women to be as depicted in the novel, and the same society that Mary Wollstonecraft tried to oppose.

In that opposition, possibly it was expected that the creation of Frankenstein would be a female character, in contrary the male monster along with representing the sin of trying to be god-like, similarly to women this monster suffered.

This suffering could be demonstrated in the theme of education where the monster similarly to women of that time relied only on himself in education.

Similarly, the educational journey of the monster could be paralleled with the womens. In this context, the educational journey of women, does not mean, the educational shell in which the women were wrapped to please men, but the education in which they achieve the awakening point, after which they realize that their position in life is not limited to being someone to be ruled over by men.

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In that sense the monster, is similar to the status of women, where they both were stripped of their identities, and the monsters hatred of the society is much more connected to the educated women being misunderstood by their societies.

They both educate themselves by secretly peeking into mens world.

Victors character is also an object that Shelley might have used as a target of her social refusal.

It could be said that the character of Victor is representing the society in general, and the values that they were representing in particular. In that matter, this statement could be paralleled to the similarity of women and the monster, where both of them fought-opposed the society in life and its representation-Victor in the novel.

The refusal of creating a female, is could be translated as a fear of his creation after which he destroyed it.

Finally, the message that could be sensed through the novel is the effect of education on women, the only path that should be taken to achieve something bigger than the hat you are expected from the society. In that sense the path of the monster was demonstrative until he was obsessed with self-destruction. The same self-destruction should be avoided by the women to escape the fate that was predicted by Shelley in her depiction of the female characters and the fate of the monster.

Conclusion

The feminism in Mary Shelleys novel is not so obvious at first sight, an opinion that could lie in the fact that Frankenstein was a unique novel in style as one of the first horror-gothic stories- a feature that could easily overshadow the theme of feminism in the novel. However, in studying the background of her mother being one of the first feminist, it was impossible for the researchers, scholars and ordinary people not to search for the signs of feminism. In that sense, it could be said that the feminism was more delicate in the novel, where it was portrayed only in representation of a whole set of characters. Additionally, the novel aside from feminism delivered many other important themes such as the theme of creation. However, in the context of the described epoch, Frankenstein was indeed a novel with a message to all the women.

Works Cited

Goodall, Jane. Frankenstein and the Reprobates Conscience. Studies in the Novel 31.1 (1999): 19.
Mary Wollstonecraft: Enlightenment Feminist. The Humanist.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein (Penguin Classics). Penguin Classics, 2003.

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