The Women of Frankenstein

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a reflection of the time, society and culture the author experienced. There are very personal undertones in the novel, as Shelley lost her mother soon after she was born and grew up with little or no female influence outside of the writing her mother left behind. Shelley’s critical characters in Frankenstein, including the protagonist and antagonist, are male. Frankenstein’s entire life is influenced by the men around him, while the women are weakened, each portrayed as submissive and taking a back seat to the men in their lives.

Two female characters who are most memorable for their submission and subservience in Frankenstein are Justine and Victor’s fiancé Elizabeth. Justine is framed for a murder she did not commit and ultimately chooses not to fight against the inaccurate charges. She notes: “I have no power of explaining it” (Shelley, 1996, p. 93). The language used here suggests Justine feels like battling the justice system would be useless because the court has already made up its mind. She comes across as weak, passive and broken. She is, essentially, submitting to the courts and to the police, which during the time Shelley wrote, were likely two professions dominated largely by men. Justine does not stick up for herself or for what she knows is the truth, and it is an undeniable sign of weakness from one of Shelley’s memorable female characters. Elizabeth is also portrayed as submissive, though in a different way. She is Victor Frankenstein’s fiancé and is first presented to him as though she is an object. His mother tells him that she has “a pretty present for my Victor – tomorrow he shall have it” (Shelley, 1996, p. 30). That gift is actually Elizabeth, and the language and objectification set the stage for Victor to view Elizabeth as a thing to be possessed and owned. This is seen when Victor Frankenstein says of her: “I looked upon Elizabeth as mine…all praises bestowed on her I received as made to a possession of my own” (Shelley, 1996, p. 30). Victor very explicitly states that Elizabeth is a belonging, leaving no doubt about her role in the story and in his life.

Shelley’s personal life and the influence of her family are evident throughout the telling of Frankenstein. Shelley lost her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, ten days after Shelley was born, and grew up with her father, William Godwin. Though Shelley did not know her mother, Wollstonecraft was a prominent feminist of her time and fought against the idea of women being submissive, conforming creatures incapable of rational and intelligent thought (Wollstonecraft, 1792). Wollstonecraft’s idea of women is in sharp contrast to the women that her daughter crafted in Frankenstein. The women of the novel are a clear deviation from Wollstonecraft’s feminist teachings. That, however, does not mean that Shelley did not value her mother’s ideals, and instead, crafted a novel that was reflective of the time period during which she lived. Rather than forming strong, independent, free-thinking female characters that would have exemplified Wollstonecraft’s feminist values and gone against the reality of the time, Shelley held true to the experiences that she knew.

Ultimately, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein does not promote Mary Wollstonecraft’s views of feminism, but Shelley’s female characters are indicative of the prevailing attitude toward women of her time. Shelley created weakened female characters such as Elizabeth and Justine who embodied the traits her mother spoke out against while spending most of her time developing the novel’s main male characters in Victor Frankenstein, the Monster and Robert Walton. Shelley’s novel clearly included influences from her own experiences, as she lived in a predominantly patriarchal society with her father and, later, her husband, while still providing commentary on the role of gender during the nineteenth century.

References

Shelley, M. W. (1996). Frankenstein. Charlottesville, Va.: University of Virginia Library.

Wollstonecraft, M. (1792). A vindication of the rights of woman. Retrieved from http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=4148&pageno=8