Female character in Frankenstein with Feministic perspective

Name         : Dodiya Mehul Maheshbhai 

• Roll No           : 23
• Enrollment No: 206910840120011
• Class               : M.A. Sem 2
• Paper Name    : The Romantic Literature
• Question  : Women character in Frankenstein with feministic perceptive 
• Words    :  2210
• Year                          : 2017/19
• Submitted to   : Smt. S. B. Gardi Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University 

Question 1  : Female character in Frankenstein with Feministic  perspective.

Frankenstein; or the modern Prometheus, is the Gothic novel Written by Mary Shelley. It is famous for the anthropology because of now a day we find that the science also develops as well as 19 century Mary Shelley think. I means today Robert and surgery also a part of imagination of Mary Shelley.

About the Author

           Mary Shelley was born on 30th August 1797, in London. She was the daughter of William Godwin, he was the Philosopher and political writer and her mother was a Feminist, name was Wollstonecraft, the writer of ‘the Vindication of the Rights of woman’.  She never knew her mother who died shortly after her birth. Her father left to care for Shelley and her older half sister Fanny Imlay, and her father married to Mary Jane Clairmont in 1801. Shelley never got along with her step mother. Her step mother decided that her stepsister Jane should be sent away to school, but she saw no need to educate Shelley.

      Thus Shelley often used her father’s extensive library. Shelley could often be found reading, sometimes by her mother’s grave. She also liked to daydream, escaping from her often challenging home life into her imagination. During the summer of 1812, Shelley went to Scotland to stay, there she experienced a type of domestic tranquility she had never known. After the returning she had a relationship with P.B. Shelley. He was the devoted student of her father. He was still married. Both were fled England together with the help of her step sister Jane. The Shelley were in Switzerland with Jane Clairmont, Lord Byron and John Polidori. The group entertained themselves one mainly day by reading a book of Ghost stories. Lord Byron suggested that they should try their hand at writing their own horror story. It was at this time that Mary Shelley began work on what would become her most famous novel, Frankenstein, or the modern Prometheus. After the suicide of Fanny and also P.B. Shelley’s wife they able to  wed in December 1816. She did not have the easiest marriage. Their union was riddled with adultery and heartache, including the death of two more children. In 1819 their son Percy Florence, was the only one child to live to adulthood. Mary’s life was rocked by another tragedy in 1822 when her husband drowned. He had been out sailing with a friend in the Gulf of spezia.

     After the death of her husband she worked hard to support herself and son. She wrote several more novels including Valperga and the science fiction tale The Last Man.  Marry died of brain Cancer on Feb 1, 1851 in London. 

What is Feminism?

              Feminism is the theory that Men and Women should be equal, politically, socially and the economically. 

         The feminism has not inaugurated until the 1960s, behind it, however lies two century of the struggle for the recognition of women’s cultural role and achievements and for the women’s social  and political rights, marked by such a books like Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of women, John Stuart Mill’s The subjection of women and the American Margart Fuller’s Women in the 19th century. There are some special assumptions like,

1. Intellectually inferior
2. Physically weak
3. Emotional, irruptive and irrational
4. Suited to the role of wives
5. Women could not vote
6. They were not educated at school and Colleges
7. A married woman’s property and salary were owned by her husband.
8. Rape and physical abuse are legal within marriage
9. Divorce available to men but women far more difficult to women.
10. Women had no rights to their children if they left a marriage
11. Society Patriarchy

          First of I would like to tell you that Mary Shelley was the daughter of Wollstonecraft, who is one of Feminist. Whose books are very significance for Feminist activity. Of course it is true that the birth of Mary Shelley, she gone away but we can say that they have some spatiality on her writing like to feministic perspective and the Gothic Novel. Of course she (Mary Shelley) was not the Feminist, but however we find that she wrote feminist criticism in her famous Gothic novel ‘Frankenstein; or the Modern Prometheus. In her novel she wrote women character like Caroline Beaufort, Elizabeth Lavenza, Justine Moritz and the lady Monster, but it’s all above characters are minor than Man Characters. We find that she wrote above characters in many feministic perceptive. Thus the author characterizes each woman as passive, disposable and serving a utilitarian function. The sake of the teaching male character a lession or sparking an emotion within him. Each of Shelley’s women serves a very specific purpose in Frankenstein. The few women who we can see in the novel are submissive women, confined to their homes, engaged in housework, caring for their husband and children or they are simply servants. Men have the opportunity of having intellect. Men work consists in business, studying, travelling around the world.

• Caroline Beaufort

      She was the mother of Victor Frankenstein and William Frankenstein, and the wife of Alphonse Frankenstein. Who adopted Elizabeth and Justine. According to movie, she died at during the child birth and according to Novel she died at the fever. If we see the novel on feministic perceptive we should not forget the important women character in the Frankenstein. Caroline was devoted her life to her father, and when her father died she married her father’s best friend. Finally she dies needlessly sacrificing herself for her son’s mate; this is a lifetime dedicated to men. when Caroline died, Victor says:

             “She indeed veiled  her grief and strove to act the comforter to us all. She looked steadily on life and assumed its duties with courage and zeal. She devoted herself to those whom she had been taught to call her uncle and cousin. Never was she so enchanting as at this time, when she recalled the sunshine of her smiles and spent them upon us. She forgot even her own regret in her endeavors to make us forget.”

•  Elizabeth Lavenza

          Elizabeth was an orphan girl, who was four to five years younger than victor, whom the Alphonse Frankenstein and Caroline Beaufort adopted. Thus she has became a step sister of Victor Frankenstein but however both are fall in love with each together. We find that in this novel Elizabeth embodies motif of passive women, as she waits patiently for victor’s attention. We find that she also suffered, as a woman, as lover and also as sister. We find that in her character that she became inferior than Victor.

               According to Feminist perceptive and definition that Men and women should be equal. But we find that Elizabeth did not get equality. When she adopted by Frankenstein family. She was very beautiful or very emotive. We find that Mary Shelley wrote this character very passive. As lover she did not get a respect from her lover, like when Victor had gone to Ingolstadt for more Knowledge, and during her experiment He did not write a letter her, of course he wrote but he did not write as a lover and also he did not give a respect as a lover. Therefore she did not tell about it. When she went to meet him at Ingolstadt, there He also did not give a time for her and also he did not tell about her experiment which is doing during this time. This shows us what  Victor really feels for Elizabeth, she is like a trained pet that make her work and waits for her master at home. Thus Mary describe this character very inferior than male characters. She also suffering from physically. She is very emotional and Irrational, like when Victor leave and behave like very cruelly she became more emotional and irrational. And when Victor return to his day to day life Elizabeth also forgets all his cruelty and accepted as her lover and wed. but however after the marriage still she did not get peace like at the wedding night Victor’s Creation killed her. Thus we can compare this character with Feministic perspective at first wave. Some critics believe that Elizabeth is herself of Mary Shelly. If we compare Mary’s Life and Elizabeth’s life we find that most of events have same. Mary loved P. B. Shelley and during her life she faced two death first is her step-sister Fanny and second is P. B. Shelley’s first wife. As well as Elizabeth has faced two deaths like first Victor’s brother William, who is killed by monster, and second is Justine. Whom is very closer friend of Elizabeth. Elizabath did not even have the opportunity to go to college, to travel or to live by herself. At the end of novel Victor plan to marry, and Victor is asked though Elizabeth is never questioned. She has to get married beacuase of she is a woman. He hardldy  cares about her throughout the story; this is the reason why Elizabeth is murdered. When the monster say that he will be at his wedding night, Victor thinks only of himself, he does not think of his patner. 

• Justine Moritz

   Justine is the housekeeper for the Frankenstein family. We do not learn much about her character except that she embodies the best in suffering for a just case. She represents graceful suffering in the face of injustice, much like a martyr. Justine is well treated by the Frankenstein family and is regarded not as household help, but with the esteem and affection accorded a family member. Thus we can say that Victor Frankenstein’s families take care only for as a slave. We can find that in this character that Women have not rights for rising hand. When Monster killed William, the mass have believe that this murder has done by Justine because of she finds a locket of Victor and Elizabeth’s, which is saw by William, and thus people lunching. Thus through the character of Justine, Mary Shelley addresses the issues of equal treatment for domestic help and the accommodation of those in need of aid. Because of all that she endures, Justine is sympathetic character who elicits a favorable response and empathy from the reader.

•  Lady Monster

      The various film adaptions have managed to create the female monster, which Victor Frankenstein never created in the novel. The question is why Victor refused to create a female figure, that is to say, why Mary Shelley do not want a Female monster. First of all the monster threatens its creator; if he did not make a fellow like him, the monster will ruin Victor’s life. Victor has different theories for refusing to create a female monster. Firstly both monsters could reproduce and have children, which would mean the end of the world. Secondly if the monsters became murders, then could destroy humanity. According to Movie; after the creation of Monster, Monster is not accepted by society, only for its ugliness. Thus Monster demanded a lady Monster thus He run away but Victor does not want to create more, whose will became destroyed society and human being. That time Victor did not create the monster but when Monster killed her wife I means Elizabeth, He create one lady Monster. After the creation Both, Creature and Victor Frankenstein fought each other only for a lady, there we find that women has not rights to choose her partner. When lady monster realize her face to creature face, I mean when she choose her partner herself, that time Victor made her confused at list it (Lady Monster) Committed suicide.

• Conclusion

  The feminist Criticism was not inaugurated until late in 1960s. Mary Shelley published this Gothic novel in 1818. Thus we find that her problems in her works. The second reason is that her mother was the most significant feminist, whose books were inspired women to Rights. Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus is not only a Gothic novel full of horror and science fiction, it is a novel that criticizes society By the absence of important women in the novel, Mary Shelley is depicting a patriarchal system. Reader realize  what is missing in the work to find femininity.

             Through her novel, we find that Mary Shelley lived in the 19th century when women barely  had a voice in society. She was a woman ahead of her time, yet she could not write a novel denouncing the sexist system in which she lived, because then this novel would never have been published. She used the Gothic and terrifying ingredients to make the world see what would happen if the man managed to dominate the science, that is, if the man was able to violate nature. Mary Shelley make Frankenstein a masterpiece, which has been analysed from very different points of view and which even today remains a mystery.

• Cites works

https://www.mytutor.co.uk/answers/5323/A-Level/English-Literature/Discuss-feminism-in-Mary-Shelley-s-Frankenstein

https://electrastreet.net/2014/11/monstrosity-and-feminism-in-frankenstein/