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Introduction
When reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein one notices the gender bias of the time a bit less, because the female characters in the novel, though traditional Victorian ladies, were strong and capable. In fact, one major plot point revolves around the idea that Frankenstein cannot create a female, nor does he dare even try. The female is the key to reproduction, and he cannot, in good conscience unleash a pair of such monsters like the one he created on the world, just in case they might reproduce. Many reviewers discuss the female characters of the story, but seem to pass over this small detail. There is even debate that comes back every now and then that Mary Shelly could not have written this complex story at the tender age of eighteen, and that her husband, Percy Shelly, must have done it.
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However, according to O’Grady and Dobrovolsky (1992), there are linguistic devices that female writers use which can be used to identify the gender of the writer with a reasonable expectation of validity. They discuss gender-variable differentiation, citing more use of closely defined and named color, a higher incidence of “politeness formulas”, such as “would you” and “please” etc. and a higher incidence of verbal hedges, like “perhaps” and “maybe.” This characterizes the writing of Frankenstein, though it could be attributed to the more Victorian style of the time. However, it is widely agreed by now that this novel was, indeed, the work of the very precocious Mary. It is widely understood that Mary Shelley wrote for the female public, even though she originally wrote the novel on a wager among friends. “She fitted character and plot to the tastes of the public, especially the feminine public.
For this very reason her books mirror the conventions of the times.” (Nitchie xiii) In the novel, even nature was female, and certainly not weak. (Renfroe, Alicia 2008) Mary Wollstonecraft, as her daughter well knew, was killed by puerperal fever, contracted when she was unable to expel the placenta after Mary Shelley’s birth in 1797. (Hoeveler 46) So the ladies in her fiction were strong, in spite of the restraints put upon them by society. Shelley, herself, was an anomaly, since she wrote the book at eighteen. This is still argued among critics, as some believe she would not have been able to write this at eighteen. Shelley skirted the idea of incest at first with Elizabeth, who was raised as Victor’s sister, though only a distant cousin. Elizabeth Lavenza was his cousin in the 1818 edition, his adopted sister in the 1831 edition. She writes to her recalcitrant fiance/cousin/brother Victor to release him, if he wishes, from fulfilling their engagement; she notes, “as brother and sister often entertain a lively affection towards each other, without desiring a more intimate union, may not such also be our case?”(52) (Shaffer 67) Elizabeth is a strong character, and mostly responsible for Victor following his dream of discovering a new species.
The story of Frankenstein began one evening in 1816, when Mary was relaxing with Percy Shelley, Lord Byron and Claire Clairmont near Geneva. Lord Byron proposed a challenge for everyone to write a ghost story. her husband and Byron, who discussed galvanism Shelley used a recent nightmare to start the story, probably having dreamed after hearing completed the novel within a year. At Eton College Shelley had become interested in Luigi Calvani’s experiments on dead frogs’ muscles and electric current which made them twitch. It is possible James Lind, his teacher, had demonstrated the technique to Shelley. Byron and Shelley talked about Dr. Darwin’s experiments with a piece of vermicelli, and she could easily have listened in,
A major plot point develops when Dr. Frankenstein refuses to create a mate for his monster, and the monster then kills his new bride, Elizabeth Lavenza. It is sad, because the monster realizes too late that she had accepted him. “Frankenstein can be read as a means of writing woman back into her plot through a creative incursion into the masculine realm of production.” (Roberts 60) Not to continue with creating the female monster is something over which Victor agonized, and even after the death of his wife, Victor refuses to even try, knowing that even if he could make a female, he must never do so.
Elizabeth is constantly faithful to their betrothal, even though it requires years to consummate. She continuously writes to and provides emotional support to Victor. She sends someone to check on him or goes herself when she is able. She also cares for the others at home, without a thought to what should be required of her in her station. She transcends her class.
Justine Moritz, is the girl who cared for the Frankenstein young children and was going to be adopted into the family until she is accused, tried and convicted of the murder of the youngest boy. Justine might have been forgiven if she had confessed and then she might have been kept in prison for life. Ho9wever, she maintained her innocence throughout the entire ordeal. She was strong right up to her execution. Sadly, even after that, Victor cannot bring himself to tell what he knows, so he is responsible for her death and for the fact that she was not bought with honor on consecrated ground. This is a horrible burden of guilt for him.
The story of how Victor’s father met his mother shows her to be exceptionally strong and courageous. “Caroline Beaufort possessed a mind of an uncommon mold, and her courage rose to support her in her adversity. She procured plain work; she plaited straw and by various means contrived to earn a pittance scarcely sufficient to support life, (Shelley, Mary, p21 1816) Her support, and willingness to share with both Elizabeth and Justine, shows her to be the ideal mother of the Victorian era. However, she dies from scarlet fever, before Victor even begins his studies, so now he has no mother to guide him.
The women in this novel were all stronger, more forthright and more virtuous than the main character, Victor Frankenstein. The novel revolves around his frailty and folly. By contrast, all the women, even the poor woman in the woods who cared for the blind man are more honorable. Many papers and even books have been written about the feminist elements in the novel and some even believe it was a symbol of Mary Shelly’s repressed sexuality. (Not unusual for the time.) The novel could be called feminist, because it explores female consciousness from within a totally male-dominated culture. Sadly, most feminist critics only explored the sexual themes within the novel, some taking the stance that it is Mary Shelley’s exploration of her own awakening sexual identity.
This is somewhat doubtful, though, since she did have children and lost two that we know about. In the essay, “Horrors Twin: Mary Shelley’s Monstrous Eve,” Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar tell us about her “waking dream accompanied her precipitous entrance into teenage motherhood” (116) makes Frankenstein a feminist novel “because its author was caught up in a maelstrom of sexuality” (116) while writing it. (Patnaik, Sumeeta 2008) Referring to this kind of feminist criticism, Anne K. Mellor argues that Mary Shelley’s reason for writing Frankenstein was to provide her audience with ethical uses of language and to define her environment: “She wishes us to see that human beings typically interpret the unfamiliar, the abnormal and the unique as evil” (Mellor 134). I cannot see this as particularly feminist.
Summary
I believe there is ample evidence that Mary Shelly wrote this novel, and this is supported by the incorporation of feminist attitudes within the work. The linguistic style seems to point to a female author, as does the content. The strong female characters are atypical for a male author, and they certainly support the feminist stance of Mary Shelly. His attitude was, possibly, only in the initial developmental stages at the writing of Frankenstein, but she was not yet alone in Victorian culture to raise a child with no help from her late husband’s family. There are certainly many things in the story that suggest sexuality, repressed or not, such as the creation of a living creature. However, the strong female characters remain the most salient indication of Shelly’s attitude that women were at least as capable as men. I still believe that Mary Shelly wrote this book in an attempt to write a good story, but her feminine viewpoint could not help but be incorporated.
References
Gilbert, Sandra M. and Susan Gubar. “Horror’s Twin: Shelley’s Monstrous Eve.” Edited by Harold Bloom. Modern Critical Views: Mary Shelley. New York: Chelsea. (1985): 115-136.
Mellor, Anne K. Mary Shelley: Her Life, Her Fiction, Her Monsters. New York: Metheun, 1988.
O’Grady and Dobrovolsky, Eds.,1992,Contemporary Linguistic Analysis, Copp Clark Pitman Ltd. Missisauga , Ont.
Patnaik, Sumeeta, 2008, Bibliographic Studies on the Work of Mary Shelley. Web.
Renfroe, Alicia, 2008, Defining Romanticism: The Implications of Nature Personified as Female in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, University of Tennessee. Web.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein, A Norton Critical Edition. Ed. J. Paul Hunter. New York: Norton, 1996.
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