Feminism in Frankenstein

Feminism in Frankenstein

Introduction:-

               

There is another phrase of Feminism and we can see it in Frankenstein Gynocentric (it deals with women criticism).

         Before analyzing Feminism in Frankenstein, let’s have a look on the feminine relation to the novel in detail.

The relation of the feminine to the novel:

           The faminity of the novel is not the product of,

                           “Neither Female nature nor even female culture,

                          Strictly speaking…but of ideology and cultural myth”

-Nancy Armstrong

 At first, I want to discuss about this topic so I want to say that the early nineteenth century was not a good time to good time to be a female writer particularly if one was audacious enough to be a female novelist. Contemporary “wisdom” held that no one would be willing to read the work of a woman; the fantastic success of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein served. Most people think of Frankenstein as a giant, stupid, green, monster with bolts holding his head on and a gravelly incoherent voice that terrorizes small towns.

However, the novel has been written by Marry Shelley, that the monster in popular culture is derived from, is a well developed multi-layered piece of literature with many overarching themes. One of the least thought of themes in the modern conception of Frankenstein is feminism. However, feminism subtly pervades the entire novel. The story of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley explores feminist themes through the characters of the story, plot development, and the setting of the novel.

Depiction of Women Characters in Frankenstein:

        

Women as the Submissive Sex in ‘Frankenstein’:

 In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the author characterizes each woman as passive, throwaway and serving a utilitarian function. Female characters like Safie, Elizabeth, Justine, Margaret and Agatha provide nothing more but a channel of action for the male characters in the novel. Events and actions happen to them, usually for the sake of teaching a male character a lesson or speaking an emotion with him. Each of Shelley’s women serves a very specific purpose in Frankenstein.

First, Justine’s character is a very passive, seldom vocal character in the novel. She is tossed back and forth between her family and the Frankenstein’s, until she is ultimately framed for the murder of William Frankenstein. Justine defies the expectations of one wrongfully accused of mans laughter, remaining tranquil and peaceful.

In her own words, she explains,

“God knows how entirely I am innocent.

But I do not pretend that my protestations

Should acquit me; I rest my innocence on a

Plain and simple explanation of the facts…”

            Not only do her speech and actions demonstrate passivity, but the simple act of being framed proves this to be the purpose behind her character:

“But I have no power of explaining it…

I am only left to conjecture concerning

The probabilities by which it might have

Been placed in my pocket”.

            Thus, Justine becomes an inactive, docile victim of circumstance. The next female character encountered is the young cottager’s daughter Agatha, whom the monster studies. Agatha’s purpose, as a kind and gentle female, is to exhibit and embody all virtue and sensitivity. These are the first lessons learned by the monster; he has never seen such tenderness before now. Agatha most moves him in her interactions with her blind father:

“Agatha listened with respect, her eyes sometimes

Filled with tears, which she endeavored to wipe away

Unperceived”.

            Agatha’s female character, through its inactive and tender nature, serves to teach the monster his first lessons on healthy human relationship and love.

            The monster’s next lesson comes from another female close to Agatha. When Safie arrives at the cottagers’ from Arabia, she must be tutored to learn English. As the monster continues his observances of the happy family, Safie’s lessons become his own as well. Thus, because of a passive female, the monster’s first academic education results:

“My days were spent in close attention…and

I may boast that I improved more rapidly than

The Arabian...I could imitate almost every word

That was spoken…I also learned the science of letters”.

            It is inconsequential to the novel whether Safie herself learns the language, as long as the lessons being taught to her are influencing and furthering the monster. She is a means to his educational end, becoming yet another passive, action-channeling female character.

            Perhaps the most important emotional channel in the novel is Frankenstein’s betrothed Elizabeth. Described as a submissive, gentle character from the beginning, Elizabeth has always been a soft spot for her fiancée. Frankenstein views her as a possession:

“I looked upon Elizabeth as mine – mine to protect,

Love and cherish. All praises bestowed on her I received

As made to a possession of my own”.

Perhaps the only positive feminist theme in Frankenstein is the comparison of femininity to nature. Throughout the novel, subtle themes of romanticism are mixed in with the dark gothic themes. When sickly and stressed from the goings on of the plot, Victor Frankenstein is able to take solace in nature. it is the only thing that is able to comfort him. Nature is constantly described as beautiful and female. However in this case, nature is not possessible or passive but rather strong and vibrant. Its positive feminine qualities are emphasized in Victor’s descriptions of his interactions with nature. “I pursued nature to her hiding place.” The plot as well as Victor portrayed nature as feminine and positive. When the monster awakens for the first time, he runs off to the forest. Nature provides all the things that victor refused the monster when he abandoned him; food, water, fire and education of how to survive. Edible berries tasted good to the monster but inedible ones tasted bitter. Nature becomes the mother of the monster. Through romantics themes about nature, Mary Shelley emphasizes the positive qualities of femininity, and without the passivity or possessibility that 19^th century Genevian society gave women.

Since Frankenstein was published in 1816, the general story of Frankenstein’s monster has been adapted into different stories, plays, musical, and movies. However, times have changed drastically, in most western cultures, and women are no longer mandated to work in the domestic sphere, and are not treated as badly as they used to. Still women make only 77.5 cents for every dollar a man makes and are objectified by the media. Although the plot characters and setting of the original Frankenstein Novel is often changed, its theme of feminism is still very relevant in the modern age. The fact that Frankenstein is still present in literature, theatre, and cinema, attests to the merit and eternality of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Women in Frankenstein are generally pure, innocent and passive. Though there are a few exceptions, such as Caroline Beaufort, who works to support her impoverished father, women are generally seen as kind but powerless. For example, Elizabeth stands up for Justine’s innocence but cannot prevent her execution. For both Victor and Monster, woman is the ultimate companion, providing comfort and acceptance. For Victor, Elizabeth proves the sole joy that can alleviate his guilty conscience; similarly, the monster seeks a female of his kind to commiserate with his awful existence. Each eventually destroys the other’s love interest.transfering woman’s status from object of desire to object of revenge; women thus are never given the opportunity to act on their own.

In the context of passive female characters, it is interesting to note that Marry Shelley’s mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, was the author of strongly feminist A Vindication of the rights of woman. One can argue that Frankenstein presents a rejection of the male attempt to usurp what is properly a female endeavor birth. one can also interpret the novel as a broader rejection of the aggressive, rational and male-dominated science of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. Though it was long met with mistrust, this science increasingly shaped European society. In this light Frankenstein can be seen as prioritizing traditional female domesticity with its emphasis on family and interpersonal relationships.

“It can be said that Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein can be examined from a feminist

Perspective. Although written by a female author, Frankenstein can be seen as

Enclosing the role of Women and holding back any future progress into equality.”

Writing in the 1800’s, Shelley was influenced greatly by her patriarchal society during the writing of the novel. In her 1831 introduction to the novel Shelley writes of her husband’s anxiety that she should ‘prove’ herself ‘worthy’ of her percentage-her parents being of literary fame. Whilst on holiday with her future husband and the poet Lord Byron in Geneva in 1816, Byron decided they should ‘each write a ghost story’. Spurred by a conversation between Byron and Shelley, and also by the work of scientists such as Galvani, Erasmus, Darwin and Humphrey Davy Mary Shelley began to write Frankenstein. All ideas Shelley had for the novel came from her acquaintances or from the studies, either way; her influences were prominently male and greatly affected by the outcome of the novel.

            One would perhaps assume a female author would write to try to advocate the position of women in an era where they were virtually unheard of in a field such as science-the subject of Frankenstein. Instead of having the main character as a female scientist, Shelley encloses the role of women by restricting their parts in the novel to the historical roles of child bearers and homemakers,i.e The character of Agatha De Lacey, who spends a large portion of her part in the novel ‘arranging cottage’ while her male counterparts either reinforce their traditional roles by physical work-such as Felix De Lacey leaving with his ‘tools’ and returning with ‘a load of wood’-or being a pillar of strength for a trail and weak woman-as seen when Agatha, who ‘sobbed audibly’, was comforted by her father.

Shelley also promotes male achievement. Various male authors are mentioned in the novel, such as Felix’s reading of Volney or Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner, but there is no use of work from female authors.

It can be said that Shelley had been indoctrinated with male ideology from a patriarchal society and the research she conducted into the sciences. Thus her novel Frankenstein-with a male protagonist-reinforces the stereotypes men and women had traditionally been associated with.

A common aspect of literature analyzed by feminists is the portrayal of women. In Frankenstein this is evident in two ways. Firstly, their physical appearance and behavior. Simon De Beauvoir, a 20^th century feminist, claimed women were either presented as being spiritually perfect or sexually promiscuous. Although in the novel the latter does not appear, the former is very important. Caroline Beaufort serves as an early example of this. When her father died she ‘attended him with the greatest tenderness’ and done all she could to support the both of them with menial work. On her deathbed years later, Frankenstein describes his mother as being the ‘best of women’, reinforcing her good qualities to the reader. as with Caroline, her adopted daughter Elizabeth is seen to be virtually perfect by all in the novel. She is one of the only people who do not believe Justine to be the murder of Frankenstein’s brother William. And is angelic in her nature.

However, Justine mentioned to be ‘very lever and gentle, and extremely pretty’-is soon vilified. Although ‘unjustly condemned’. Blamed for the murder of the William, she was ‘threatened and menaced’ to the stage where she confessed to her male persecutors in order to obtain absolution.

Reference is also made later in the novel to the dreadful example of Eve and the apple by Frankenstein: ‘the apple was already eaten’. Being Eve’s fault that both her and Adam were expelled from the Garden of Eden, the apple is a classic symbol of discrimination against women in literature. one would expect a female author not to mention the Biblical reference, but this is perhaps another example of how Shelley had been indoctrinated by male ideology. But this and the vilification of Justine overshadow the better female characters in the novel and one could argue that it would be hard to defeat the dogma surrounding male and female roles in society with such bias against women as shown here, the novel has a  detrimental effect on equality between the sexes.

A second way the portrayal of women is evident in Frankenstein is in the type of work they do. Agatha de Lacey typifies the role of house-keeper .Shelley reiterates this ideology in her novel. Frankenstein is the scientist. Men also have a substantial amount of control over their female relations. Frankenstein’s mother tells him on her deathbed that ‘my firmest hopes of future happiness were placed on the prospect of your union’ and late in the 18 his father asks of him ‘Tell me….whether you object to an immediate solemnization of the marriage’. Although Elizabeth is in favor of the marriage, the two men discussed and agreed on its taking place without an actually consulting the bride. Similarly, the union between the Arabian Safie and Felix De Lacey.

            Through her father’s ‘promise of her hand in marriage’ Felix helps her father to escape from prison. Safie was not consulted before this promise was given, and when her father breaks that promise he ‘commanded his daughter to think no more of her lover’, although Safie does rebel against this demand. Both incidents show how little power women had in their society, but also how little their male counterparts valued either opinions or their well-being.one would hope a female author would hand her female characters a little more respect in her novel, but it is clear that Shelley through Frankenstein seems to hold the same ideology as men.

Conclusion:

In a Nut-shell, one can clarify that Shelley’s Frankenstein can be seen as being extremely harmful to the hopes of a female authors trying to break down the traditional stereotypes of men and women. Shelley does not use her novel to offer a more unconventional view of women’s involvement in the sciences, and her portrayal of women, both in their appearance and roles in the novel, help to enclose the role of women and support historical inequality between the sexes. it is also possible to say that through living in a patriarchal society, Shelley had been indoctrinated by their ideology and was unable to contemplate a world where a woman’s position was more equal to that of a man’s. As a whole, Frankenstein can be seen as a novel of women with the deep layer.