Mary Shelley's Reflection Seen In The Eyes Of The Creature '
Alyssa-Jean Yokota
Fleming
English 4, Period 5
12 March 2015
Shelley’s Reflection Seen in the Eyes of the Creature In the era in which Frankenstein was written, the role of women was strictly submissive. Although written by a female author, Mary Shelley identified every female character as an objectified, used, abused, and easily discarded being. Characters such as Elizabeth and Justine are passive and gentle women who are placed in the story as more of a supporting role for men instead of being independent individuals. They are also put under false consequences such as Justine being framed guilty because of her gender. Some critics claim that the negative roles women have in the novel are entwined with Mary Shelley’s life as a woman, …show more content…
This perspective does not enforce the idea of females being more powerful than the male gender, but more towards seeking an equal balance of roles. In today’s society, the power of women and the number of feminists are increasing through the usage of social media and women around the world are becoming more educated about their role. This empowering movement developed relatively recently with the assistance of new technology, the spread of awareness, and the availability of education. Before modern times, females were treated with less respect than men and were considered lower in status. Mary Shelley and her famous mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, both lived in this era. Wollstonecraft became a famous feminist philosopher, describing her many thoughts on the role of women in her time and her daughter Shelley, wrote a fiction story with many hints of feministic …show more content…
Like Mary, the creature grew up without a mother and carried heavy, self-effacing thoughts throughout its life. Mary was also very young and went through traumatic experiences when she wrote this novel, so it is no surprise that the descriptions of the creature are emotional and disturbing. Another hint at this perspective is the fact that the creature is never given a gender or name. Many readers perceive the creature to be a male because of its physical characteristics, but because of its many internal emotions and conflicts, it is possible to be considered feminine. But then again, following the feminine perspective, internal emotions may be applied to men and physical strength may be applied to women. Shelley’s pessimistic thoughts on herself were “essentially a ‘war within the mind’” (Hoeveler 47) and came through in the image of a horrid creature, but the way she described it was how she felt
Fleming
English 4, Period 5
12 March 2015
Shelley’s Reflection Seen in the Eyes of the Creature In the era in which Frankenstein was written, the role of women was strictly submissive. Although written by a female author, Mary Shelley identified every female character as an objectified, used, abused, and easily discarded being. Characters such as Elizabeth and Justine are passive and gentle women who are placed in the story as more of a supporting role for men instead of being independent individuals. They are also put under false consequences such as Justine being framed guilty because of her gender. Some critics claim that the negative roles women have in the novel are entwined with Mary Shelley’s life as a woman, …show more content…
This perspective does not enforce the idea of females being more powerful than the male gender, but more towards seeking an equal balance of roles. In today’s society, the power of women and the number of feminists are increasing through the usage of social media and women around the world are becoming more educated about their role. This empowering movement developed relatively recently with the assistance of new technology, the spread of awareness, and the availability of education. Before modern times, females were treated with less respect than men and were considered lower in status. Mary Shelley and her famous mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, both lived in this era. Wollstonecraft became a famous feminist philosopher, describing her many thoughts on the role of women in her time and her daughter Shelley, wrote a fiction story with many hints of feministic …show more content…
Like Mary, the creature grew up without a mother and carried heavy, self-effacing thoughts throughout its life. Mary was also very young and went through traumatic experiences when she wrote this novel, so it is no surprise that the descriptions of the creature are emotional and disturbing. Another hint at this perspective is the fact that the creature is never given a gender or name. Many readers perceive the creature to be a male because of its physical characteristics, but because of its many internal emotions and conflicts, it is possible to be considered feminine. But then again, following the feminine perspective, internal emotions may be applied to men and physical strength may be applied to women. Shelley’s pessimistic thoughts on herself were “essentially a ‘war within the mind’” (Hoeveler 47) and came through in the image of a horrid creature, but the way she described it was how she felt