Frankenstein
Mary Shelley put herself ahead of the revolutionary movements in feminism in the early nineteenth century. In her writing, she was attempting to show the problems in her own society in an age before others had begun to have similar ideas. Shelley wanted a more balanced society, increasing the power of woman, and decreasing the stature of man. Victor Frankenstein's newest creation, a monster, appears as such a horrible creation that people often label it as evil before ever giving him a chance. However, the monster is much more human one might think. The monster has a desire to learn and a want to love, but these feelings and emotions seem to disappear with Victor's denial of a female partner for him. "You must create a female for me, with whom I can live with in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being" (Shelley, 124). But why should Victor not create such a creature to satisfy the monster? The answer is quite complex. In Victor's mind, the creation of a female monster would allow for, "a race of devils... propogated upon the earth, who might make the very exitence of the species of man a condition precarious and full of terror" (Shelley, 140). It is the females' ability to reproduce that is Victor's primary fe
Although it may seem unorthodox to some, Shelley gets her point across. Although the monster plays a significant role in this novel, he is never truly appreciated, and is also opressed by human society, as were the women. It is only after rejection and feelings of frustration and loneliness does the monster become agitated and violent (Ellis, 131). Victor, it seems also posseses a fear of women. Through the display of Victor's fear of women, she exposes her own desires to propel females to the head of society. Even the monster wants a female to keep him satisfied, he never stops to think that this female may not have the same feelings for him, nor does he care. Another concept that is used in Shelley's portrayal of her time is seen through the fact that, in the novel, women rarely take an active role. It is interesting that Mary Shelley would voice her thoughts of feminism and the opression of women in this novel mainly through the voices of two male characters in the novel, Victor and his creation. Besides the fact that she was being accused of heinous acts of violence she did not commit, she was also being assumed guilty by her closest friends, further making the female look like the so-called "bad guy" and further opressing women. With the new millenium upon us, one can only hope that males and females can put their prior encounters in the battle of genders behind them, and that both genders can be treated equally without exceptions, whenever this happens, Shelley's goal with have been attained . Primarily in reading the novel, one realizes that a woman never actually speaks. But, when one looks at this with a feminist viewpoint, the reasoning seems different. Victor, in his movement against feminism, attempts to hold women back in their fight to prove themselves as equals. He does not create a female not only for the fact she would be able to reproduce, but also the fact that she would be female, and at this moment males are in power. Mary Shelley shows us in this novel that women are more than objects or possessions; women have abilities, they have power, and they have potential.
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Acceptance Essays
