The Female in Frankenstein Alice Brown and Alex Notarpietro

Applying a Feminist Reading Look at the representation of Male in the text Look at the representation of Female in the text Are these groups portrayed in a positive or negative light? Is the representation of that group stereotypical/common/controversial for the time period of the text? Which group has the most prominent voice/ dominant representation in the text?

Contribution of Structure to Feminist ideas in Frankenstein Mary Shelley works to distance herself from the plot of the novel; similar to the way Emily Brontë does for Wuthering Heights, a similarly early proto-feminist text. This text is extremely distanced, often told through letters and stories recounted to a character and then once again relayed to another before finally being enclosed in letters to the unseen and unfamiliar character of Walton’s Sister.

Females in Frankenstein Generally pure, innocent, passive Kind but powerless Women as the ultimate companion Comfort Support Acceptance Monster seeks a female to commiserate with him Very important in this text as they are vital to the storyline, even with the submissive way in which they are portrayed voiceless

Females in Frankenstein Elizabeth Portrayed in Mary Shelley’s novel as predominantly passive and voiceless in comparison to Victor Frankenstein. It is through the abundance of descriptions of Elizabeth’s physical appearance that a reader can recognise the idea that Elizabeth is regarded highly as she is ‘fair’ with ‘gold’ hair, leaving much to the imagination about her level of intelligence or independence. Elizabeth is a vital character in the portrayal of women in this novel as she is depicted as being an ideal woman in those times, waiting for Victor’s attention and affections, allowing herself to be reduced to an attractive piece of property rather than a human being, and never refusing the assumption that she should remain voiceless and powerless in a patriarchal society. Justine Justine’s character is an interesting one in the sense that she is completely accepting of the judicial system of the time after being convicted of the murder of William Frankenstein despite her rather obvious innocence. Never once refusing to accept the terrible fate in front of her by none of her wrongdoing and following the advice given to her to accept the judgement received. Justine’s character is used as a device so as to critique the understanding of the role of women in that society and their belief that women should remain silent, given no option other than to plead guilty to the wrongfully placed conviction which leads to her untimely death. Justine’s role in this novel is to accentuate the idea that women themselves believed they had no rights and that they deserved the treatment they received, no matter how unfair or how undeserving the individual in question may be.

Males in Frankenstein Victor Mary Shelley portrayed Victor as distinctly unsympathetic, despite or in fact due to his position as the protagonist of this novel: through arranging him in such a way as to make him unlikeable, a reader is instead positioned to form attachments to other characters, and examine why certain characters, like Elizabeth and The Monster are better candidates for their sympathies. Furthermore, while Victor displays the hallmarks of typical masculine success; aptitude in his craft, unflinching ambition and achievement, the only result of this is the suffering of those he ‘cares’ about, positioning a reader to question whether the archetypal male character that victor portrays is the ideal of what it means to be a man. The Monster Finally, Shelley portrays The Monster as a complex and emotionally rooted character as an alternative to Victor and his archetypal masculinity: he commits horrendous acts, of vengeance and rage and pain, the burning of the De Lacey home and the murders of many, out of motives that speak to the human condition: his loneliness and sense of loss and abandonment by his creator. Furthermore he is assigned non-traditional masculine traits, such as being created to be “beautiful”, and appreciates the love in the De Lacey household and the beauty of nature. This combines with his gentler language to portray an alternate model of masculinity, one that can appreciate the softer side of life, in which a reader can empathise and sympathise and understand that the accepted model of the time may not be right, and in many cases is extremely damaging.