Wednesday, June 11, 2014

What is the role of women in the novel and what do they symbolise? In this light, what may be the consequences of Victor’s attitude towards the...

In Shelley's Frankenstein, Victor's attitude toward the monster's request to have Victor create a female dooms both him and the monster, not to mention his eventual wife, his brother, and his best friend. 


Victor very reluctantly agrees to create a female, but the first chance he gets he destroys what he's done up to that point.  This impulsive destruction dooms him to be haunted by the monster, and dooms the monster to a life of loneliness and revenge. 


Surprisingly, perhaps, Shelley, though her mother was an avid feminist, does not give any central roles to women in her novel.  Women are pedestalized.  They are represented as nurturers, comfort-givers, objects of worship.  They are beings to be idolized.  But they don't play any central roles. 


Similarly to so much other literature coming from patriarchal societies, the women in Shelley's Frankenstein are portrayed as victims.  They exist in the novel to show the hideous nature of the monster's actions, and the consequences of Victor's behavior.

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