Gender Criticism and Frankenstein - Essay Example

other words, the work of Mary Shelley, specifically in context to Frankenstein, can be critiqued for being male dominating and critically chauvinist in its character. The protagonist and the antagonist, both the main characters of the novel around which the story revolves, are male characters, which suggest the biased sense of character in the book. The women mentioned in the book solely perform a supportive, yet a subservient role to the picture. Moving past the characters, the themes of the text also portray gender anxieties.

The obsession with nine months, for instance, which Victor takes to create the monster, clearly reflects an issue with gender complexities, more of which would further be expanded on in the paper.This implies that Shelley was of the view that though women is the weaker gender, yet her role can`t be ignored in entirety to smoothly run the system. The other supportive roles, comparatively stronger in nature have been naturally attributed to men in the story. This biasness attributed to gender roles can be related in context to Shelley`s personal life, which was dominated by two male figures, her father and her husband.

Victor Frankenstein is inspired after having met Walton who takes nine month to explore the North Pole. Owing to his experiments, Victor ends up creating a monster, which is the underlying theme of the novel and creates the angle of fear and anxiety in the text. The two main characters in the novel, Walton and Victor are extremely ambitious and egotistical in nature, preferring a bond with another man instead of a woman. These traits have also been found characteristic to her husband in particular, reflecting the individual impacts of men on her life.

More so, a huge contrast is seen when she characterizes the women in the novel representing them as ‘proper’ women in compliance tothe expectations of the mainstream society. In this scenario, it may be concluded that Shelley had a strong impact of the trend during the time