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Name
Composition II
Frankenstein Application Essay
Date
Feminism
Mary Shelley incorporates several responses to issues facing women through her
deep exploration of how women were treated and their roles in the male-dominated and oriented
society, and tries to seek independence and liberation through her gothic romance novel,
Frankenstein. She depicts women as a group that has been neglected and incapacitated in the
patriarchal society that only focuses on offering privileges to men (Mary). Women were
conditioned always to request help from men. However, Mary Shelley decides to break this norm
through her novel, Frankenstein. She insisted on equal opportunities for both genders. Mary
Shelley incorporates female characters in her novel though they are represented through male
perception and gaze. The representation is an interpretation of how women are used as conduits
for and signals of the relationship between men and other men (Mary).
Mary Shelley depicts herself s one of the leading prolific writers for the so
labelled Gothic Romance and what she could refer as a ‘woman’s book’. Shelley represents
gothic romance as a way to escape the roles and the bad names that had been branded on them by
men. This gothic genre is a way of enabling women to break out what the society expected of
them and encourage women writers to expand their skills beyond. She explains a contemporary
society in which women are restrained from pursuing any other career from being housewives.
Females were believed to be less intelligent, weaker and inferior to men (Haddad). For instance,
reading, writing and thinking were considered inimical characteristics to women. John Ruskin’s
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comment further exemplified that a woman’s power was not meant for creation or invention
(Collings). A woman who would try reading or writing would be referred to as unfeminine,
unredeemable, presumptuous and intrusive. In the patriarchal culture, women authorship was
termed a rebellion against men who were the leading authority.
The gothic genre of Mary Shelley’s novel exempts women from being amongst
major characters as they are excluded from society’s social order (Theodor). Mary Shelley omits
the voice of women in her work and describes few details about them, as this is still what
happened in societies. Women are depicted as inferior and unsuccessful in the novel. This gothic
genre novel is, therefore, a liberation of women from being serving as pleasure objects and grant
them a new sense of independence where they could enjoy equal opportunities as men and
express themselves. The Gothic novel possess a tradition that is purely and peculiarly a female
domain.
Despite the patriarchal nature and orientation of the society, Mary Shelley
perceives a woman in a different way. She perceives women as equal writers, readers and
thinkers as men. She, therefore, believed on equal opportunities for both genders in other areas
such as education. For instance, Victor Frankenstein, out of his knowledge of science, creates a
monster creature that ends up claiming lives of several women characters (Haddad). The creature
kills an innocent woman, Justine Moritz. Additionally, there are monstrous births in the novel
where life creatures are created without a woman. Mary Shelley, therefore, attributes the birth of
the monster creature to Victor and claims that he did not have the patient to make his creature
proportionally. She handles the theme of motherhood as one that requires patience that is
ascribed to women, but most men lack (Collings). She related the lack of patience to the anxiety
and ambition of men in their activities and their desire to eliminate women. She also handles the
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theme of motherhood by arguing that women be neglected and hated. This is reflected in the
death of an innocent woman who had been wrongly accused and killed (Theodor).
In conclusion, the feminist, Mary Shelley, clearly shows how the female sex had
been made inferior and neglected equal opportunities to men. The author uses feminism as a
major theme of her novel to critique the way of treatment and subordination of the women to the
so branded superior men. Expression of ideas and pushing liberation through writing was a
perfect way woman used in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century to seek equity and
independence. Her gothic genre further shows how gothic novels excluded women from the
general social order (Collings) and the need to seek liberation from such bondage. The feminist
therefore insists on equal chances to both men and women in the society. She also calls for
respect for other feminists as her (Theodor).
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Works Cited
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus 1818. Mary Shelley, 2014.
Haddad, Stephanie S. 'Women As The Submissive Sex In Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein''. Student
Pulse 2.01 (2010): n. pag. Web. 7 Sept. 2015.
Collings, Tanya. 'Frankenstein And Feminism: Contemplating The Memoirs Of Elizabeth
Frankenstein'. Anthropology of Consciousness 22.1 (2011): 66-68. Web.
Theodor, Tomasson. ‘The Education of a Monster.’ 2010. 15-16.