Role of Feminism in Mary Shelley's Life and Frankenstein - Research Paper Example

? Role of Feminism in Mary Shelley's life and Frankenstein Mary Shelley was the daughter of the two revolutionists William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. Having as illustrative personalities as her parents meant that she was also quite an open minded and intelligent person with the ability to make up her own mind about the rightness or wrongness of the norms of the society. Shelly married the poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley who further contributed in developing her mind. She was a prolific reader and a writer, her most famous work being Frankenstein published in the year 1818 which is read to this day. Shelley’s mother Mary Wollstonecraft is considered to be the one of the leading women who brought the feminist movement forward in the eyes of the public. She was quite the advocate for the rights of women and even published a few works on the issue. One of her most famous works is A Vindication of the Rights of Woman that came out in the year 1972 in which she writes about “the rights and status of women against the claims of society and law” (Elroy). She touches the debate over whether women were truly as unintelligent as the society stated that they were. She argues that females were, in fact, as clever as the males and not “weak and artificial and not capable of reasoning effectively” (Burke). The only reason why they were thought of to be less informed than the other sex was because they had not had the benefit of an education. The men were sent off to universities whereas the young girls stayed behind at their homes being taught the art of how to act in the society. She insists that both the genders should be treated equally and not be thought less of by the other. She claims that education for the women was important as they were the ones who gave birth to and looked after the children. The same children who were the future of the society and would be responsible for what path it would take. If the women were educated, they would inculcate the right qualities in their children which, in turn, would be beneficial for the society. Even though Shelley’s mother died just a few days after the girl was born, she did have an influence on the child from her grave proving the saying of books being eternal correct. William Godwin himself was quite a radical philosopher who believed that both the sexes should be treated equally and supported his wife’s ideas. He encouraged Shelley to read a lot and she made sure to go through every of her mother’s books published or otherwise as well as her other notes and letters. Reading these gave her an insight into her mother’s mind and beliefs. She thought more about the world around her and how the women were treated by the society. She grew up to be a feminist and did not bothering following what the society thought was right. Her mindset and belief shows through her few works including Frankenstein. The fact that Shelley wrote a book like Frankenstein with all its horrors in itself was telling. When the book was first published under a pseudonym, it received quite mixed reviews but was popular enough for the second edition to be released. However, when it came out with Shelley’s name on the cover, people thought they were being cheated. In those times, the close minded society did not appreciate women penning books and a scary one at that. Also, the book was so well written that some people found it hard to believe on who exactly the real author was. They thought that it was actually written by the woman’s husband but she had just gotten her name on the cover. Again, this sentiment shows how it was easier for them to believe in a man having the brains to write such a material, the same task which seemed impossible for a woman. Even though the term feminism did not come until 1894, the whole concept behind it does fall suitably over Shelley’s believes (Zohrab 5). However, one can only take into account the broad definition of the term as it varies depending on one’s perspective of the things around. This is also because of all the progress over the years regarding the issue “as each generation of Feminists wins its battles and retires, the next generation comes along with a completely new set of worries, complaints and demands” (Zohrab 5) . During Shelley’s time, they were fighting for the right of education for women when now that is no longer an issue in most of the parts of the world. One problem solved, now the feminists have risen to complain about women being judged on what clothes they wear, etc. Generally though, “feminism is a social enterprise, a moral and political framework concerned with redressing social wrongs” (Thompson 7). Frankenstein is not a book that shoves feminism in your face. Shelley does not follow the usually walked path of the writers who support feminism by creating intelligent, strong willed and brave female characters who are not afraid to make their own decisions and follow them to the end. Almost all of the women in Shelley’s novel portray the vulnerability that is the result of being brought up in a society where those of the female sex are not given any importance. They are so used to being ordered about and having others do things for them that they cannot lift up a finger in their own defense. Her characters are the perfect examples of how the women were in those times. Despite that, the modern feminists still express their disappointment about the lack of strong, female characters (Youngquist 341). Elizabeth – Frankenstein’s fiancee – for example, is quite open to theatrics even if they are not on purpose. When William – Victor’s younger brother – body is discovered, she faints because of the shock and is “restored with extreme difficulty” (Shelley ch. 7). This is entirely unhelpful as there are more important issues that need looking after rather than an unconscious woman. It is a similar case with Justine – Victor’s adopted sister. She becomes ill and cannot leave her room for the next few days. The strange circumstances around William's murder arouse suspicions and Justine is accused “of so frightful, so appalling a crime” (Shelley ch. 7). Elizabeth makes a feeble attempt trying to prove Justine’s innocence but in vain. We are shown how a woman’s word was not given the same importance as the man’s was which insinuates that it is only the women who are capable of lying and/or breaking their promises. They await Victor’s arrival having full faith in his ability to turn the things around due to his sex. Even something as important as Justine’s decision of life and dead solely depends on Victor and not the woman herself. There is always the possibility that if she had raised her voice and tried to defend herself, maybe her story would have been believed in and her life saved. Further on in the novel, too, Elizabeth also dies while she waits for Victor to come and rescue her from the clutches of the monster. She had not known that the creature had existed as Victor had thought her too innocent to be able to handle the truth. And here it is again yet another example of how the women were undermined in the society. Ironically, both times Victor is unable to live up to the pedestal that he is placed on. Reading such a portrayal of the female characters, one has have difficulty in believing that Shelley was a feminist. However, there are critics who argue the case of why she wrote such feeble minded characters in her best read work. Elizabeth and Justine are prime examples of how the women in the society behaved in those times. With the help of their characters, Shelley shows why it is important for the women to break out of their shell and step ahead and into the world. She kills off their characters to show that weak minded women have no place in the world; they were going to be left behind and forgotten about. The only way to stand side by side with the opposite sex was if they would grow intellectually as well as emotionally. Being educated would give them the much needed confidence to make their own decisions and pave their own way in life without having to be dependent on the men. However, there is one female who is shown to be having quite strong, positive character traits as compared to the other ladies in the book. Safie is an Arabian who lives with the other peasants but still comes off as the most important out of them because she is an educated woman. Even her name means “wisdom” and that subtly raises her character’s status higher than the other characters’ (Robinson 134). As Dickerson writes, “Safie bodies forth in a way that the other women in the novel do not… (she) is spirited, independent” (Dickerson 88). Her character does not die in the book unlike most of the other females. Symbolically, the monster represents the self-education of women as he seeks out and destroys those who are insipid, silly creatures who completely depend on the other sex. Safie, on the other hand, remains safe because of the education that she has and that sets her apart from all the rest of the women and manages to ensure her survival. As Collings observes, “If Safie represents woman as she is accepted into language and the family, the monster embodies woman as she is excluded from the world of images and words” (Collings 290). Victor, in all his manly arrogance, believes that he can play god and create “create life without the other” (Yousef). By starting the experiment on trying to create what he hopes is a human, he laughs off the role that women play in creating a baby. He performs an act that goes against the very nature of the female principle whose main aspect is the miracle of natural procreation. It is “the creature's nonbirth, occluding an unavoidably female act (that) has dominated feminist interpretations of Frankenstein” (Yousef). Using science, Victor has even gotten rid of the one thing that the females were held to be important for. However, this only manages to backfire at him as he does not keep the emotional impacts on the creature in his mind. He picks up different body parts and fixes them together to form a new person but he does not think of the emotional and mental development that a mother helps with for her child. Once he sees the deformed body – “the creature does not come to life as a small, helpless infant” – he pushes the monster away, he is no longer proud of his creation as it is not perfect but is, rather, quite far from that (Yousef). It is Victor’s rejection of the creature that results in all the death and destruction that is followed by his birth. He is unable to provide the creature with the love and care that he wants and needs. It is the mothers usually who shower their children with affection in any way that they might need it. Since the creature is the result of a scientific experiment, he has no mother to speak off and his father, or rather his inventor, refuses to acknowledge him. This shows that females not only biologically provide their children with all the necessities, but also emotionally. If the task had been that easy than Victor would not have run away from it when, in fact, that is what he does. And it is because of this that he provokes the monster’s temper which results in the deaths of all his loved ones and even himself. In her book Frankenstein, Mary Shelley has quite clearly displayed the consequences that have to be faced by men and women alike if both the sexes do not look at the other as an equal and downplay the other. If they are more accepting of each other, there is a greater probability of having a peaceful life with the maximum amount of satisfaction. There are certain roles that are followed by the genders but they should not be enforced on anyone, the final decision should be the person’s alone and whatever it is, the person should be respected for his ideals and not be judged upon. Bibliography Burke, Barry. "Mary Wollstonecraft on Education." 2004. infed. December 2013 . Collings, David. "The Monster and the Maternal Thing: Mary Shelley's Critique of." Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Ed. Johanna M. Smith. 2nd. Boston : Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000. 280 - 295. Dickerson, Vanessa D. "The Ghost of a Self: Female Identity in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein." The Journal of Popular Culture 27.3 (1993): 79 - 91. Elroy, Wendy. "Mary Wollstonecraft, founder of classical liberal feminism." 20 December 2011. Laissez Faire Club . December 2013 . Robinson, Charles E. "A Mother's Daughter: An Intersection of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman." Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley: Writing Lives. Ed. Helen M. Buss, D. L. Macdonald and Anne McWhir. Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2001. 127 - 138. Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. HarperPress, 2010. Thompson, Denise. Radical Feminism Today. 1st. SAGE Publications Ltd, 2001. Youngquist, Paul. "Frankenstein: The Mother, the Daughter, and the Monster." Philological Quarterly 70.3 (1991): 339 - 359. Yousef, Nancy. "The Monster in a Dark Room: Frankenstein, Feminism, and Philosophy." MLQ: Modern Language Quarterly 63.2 (2002): 197 - 226. Zohrab, Peter D. Sex, Lies & Feminism. 4th. New Zealand Equality Education Foundation, 2002. Read More