Feminism as Discusses in Frankenstein
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Feminism as discusses in Frankenstein
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has been brought out with addressing feminism through various female characters and how they have been depicted.Feminism as Discusses in Frankenstein. The novel has portrayed women to be inactive and seldom has there been a case of active role played. It cannot be said that women characters in the novel are not enough or few in number only that they have been suppressed in taking a passive role and are not seen in action within the narrative. For the purpose of answering the question of how and how well does Mary Shelley incorporate responses to feminist issues into the novel Frankenstein, I will channel my attention on two characters, Elizabeth and the female monster.
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I will begin by discussing Elizabeth as a character and how she plays a feminine role in the novel. On her first appearance, she receives a description of being ‘very fair’ to her hair which was ‘the brightest living gold’ (Rose, p. 818). The description goes ahead to depict her blue eyes which were cloudless and owning out of this world features in her body. From the orphan children she was with on her first appearance in the novel, Victor’s mother, Catherine, finds her attractive due to aspects as those described of bodily appearance. This comes before we get to know her real character, selfness, talents, or voices and we get to know her better side of life based solely on her appearance. From this we can deduct that the way females look is crucial and if they have good looks, they can be portrayed to have positive characteristics without being sure of their personality.
After first appearance, Elizabeth does not develop or play a moving role in the novel where we find her again being described by Victor, one of the main characters in the novel. From the novel, we realize that Victor’s view on Elizabeth is an object used to satisfy his pleasure instead of looking at her as a human who has feelings. To Victor, Elizbeth was ‘beautiful and adored’ (Crook, p. 114). Even though we can associate this phrase with an expression of affection, we can also view it as Victor admiring her based on her beauty. His choice of words in describing her shows that his main agenda is to use Elizabeth for pleasure while there were many words that could have replaced the simple summary of ‘beautiful’ like caring or rather intelligent. Feminism as Discusses in Frankenstein. When we scrutinize the word ‘adored’ in the phrase, we depict that Victor describes her based on the effect she brings to him and this confirms that her role is to satisfy his pleasure and no other major task is seen being conducted by her in the novel.
Feminism in the novel is also discussed in the novel using the female monster a character that does exist. The creature tells Victor that ‘I demand a creature of another sex, but as hideous as I am’ (Zonana, p.176). Even though the novel has been focusing on females as objects of satisfying males’ pleasure, in this instance beautiful is not much of a concern to the creature. The monster yearns for a female’s companionship, who would take away loneliness. Almost in his entire life, the monster made an observation that Felix and Safie used to make each other happy and perhaps could have learnt that relationship involving a male and a female brings happiness and could take away his loneliness. However, by demanding that she be hideous as him, he brings the aspect of possessing the female and through that no other man would wish to have her same way as the monster believes that no female would want him. Therefore, the monster would possess the female on the common denominator that both being ugly.
According to Victor, the female monster is viewed to be less affectionate. In his creation activity, he pauses the process to contemplate his action of creating another ‘fiend’ to Earth and resolve to put her down before she gets life. Victor’s decision is driven by the thought of the female monster bearing children. In his narrative, it is pointed out that ‘one of the first results of those sympathies for which the daemon thirsted would be children’ (Yousef, p. 205). We see victor assuming that since she is a woman, the first desire the monster will have is to bear children. This can be described as defining a feminine desire by the ability of motherhood.
The contemplation of ‘race of devil’ that could be bored out of her and the creature, Victor ruins her. Feminism is brought here in that, instead of worrying about the ‘race of devil’ that could be born, he could have created her without the ability to give birth. This would rule out the possibility of having more devils, as well as the creature, would get a companion to take away loneliness. Motherhood defines womanhood according to Victor by destroying his second creation instead of creating a woman who could not bear children revealing his views of women being mothers only. In this novel, women, Victor’s perspective on women is they exist to be practically mothers and have no other role if not being mothers. Feminism as Discusses in Frankenstein.
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In a recap, feminism in Frankenstein has been developed by assigning women a role in satisfying men’s desire and pleasure. Instead of characterizing them on their true character, their beauty is used to scale them on their personality. Their desire is limited to only being a mother if a woman is to be described as complete. Male characters are seen have total possession of women as property and objects of quenching men desire.
Works cited
Crook, Nora. “Mary Shelley, Author of Frankenstein.” A New Companion to The Gothic, Malden, MA & Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell (2012): 110-122.
Rose, Ellen Cronan. “Custody battles: reproducing knowledge about Frankenstein.” New literary history 26.4 (1995): 809-832.
Yousef, Nancy. “The monster in a dark room: Frankenstein, feminism, and philosophy.” MLQ: Modern Language Quarterly 63.2 (2002): 197-226.
Zonana, Joyce. “They Will Prove the Truth of My Tale”: Safie’s Letters as the Feminist Core of Mary Shelley’s” Frankenstein.” The Journal of Narrative Technique 21.2 (1991): 170-184. Feminism as Discusses in Frankenstein.