When reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, one cannot help but notice that the women characters seem to have little substance compared to the male characters. This may have been caused by the time period in which she wrote: one in which females were considered inferior to males. This difference between the sexes can be looked at using a variety of different perspectives. Johanna M. Smith, a professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, discusses this issue using feminist eyes in her essay entitled "'Cooped up': Feminine Domesticity in Frankenstein." The main points in Professor Smith's essay are that the female characters are there only to reflect the male characters, and that the Frankenstein family has a weird style of living, which she describes as a "bookkeeping mentality" (Smith 279).
The transient nature of humanity continually questions the ever-changing values and ethics in society. Although a contextual difference of 150 years, Mary Shelley’s gothic novel, Frankenstein and Ridley Scott’s science fiction film, Blade Runner focus on similar concerns and issues reflected by the zeitgeists of the people of their time. Blade Runner and Frankenstein illustrate the evolution of the role of women, the necessity of nature and parental responsibility through the manipulation of selective and skilful techniques. The women in Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein are conveyed as weak and helpless characters, a rigid dichotomy compared her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women that fight for gender equality and criticized the "false system of education" provided for women. The debilitated women in Frankenstein imitate what was socially expected of women in her time, while the monster demonstrates the only alternative available that is self-education.
The examination of the critiques raised in the book, may be broken down into thefollowing main components. After giving brief information about the writer and the book in the introduction part, the essay will continue on examining the characters as victims of the Empire, which represents the imperialist system. The first victim is the barbarian girl one in which will be examined in relation to her otherness as an outsider and as an enemy of the Empire. The Magistrate as the second victim and his self journey will be examined inrelation to his evaluation to become the other. Woman as the third victim of the Empire isthe part which I discuss women’s silenced and powerless positioning in the society.
Bertha Mason: object of terror, or object of pity? Discuss Charlotte Brontë’s depiction of Mr Rochester’s first wife. Brontë depicts the character of Bertha Mason in such a way that we can perceive her as an enigma of sympathy, but also one of terror. When reading the novel, it is apparent that the relationship between Jane and Bertha goes much further than their mutual relations with Mr Rochester. Throughout the concerning chapters, Brontë allows the reader to explore their own interpretation of Rochester’s former bride, Bertha, through both the eyes of Jane and the description of the environment in which she inhabits.
Ot having a name also shows that although she was a somewhat significant character in Steinbeck's novel in real life and in that period women in general are not especially this one. All these people were forced into isolation; everyone of them had his or her version of a dream in the hope it would bring upon them a better life at the time mostly referred as ‘The American Dream’. Curley’s Wife is the center of Stienbeck's novel and her importance in the novel is of how she is the downfall of the Dream- it is because of her (or, rather, because Lennie kills her) that the dream dies. Curley's wife, dressed in red, foreshadows the danger her character gives. In her first appearance she stands in the doorway and blocks out the sun- this physical darkening is metaphorical of her darkening of the dream.
Women, in Mary Shelley’s classic novel Frankenstein, are viewed as surprisingly innocent, passive, and pure. The three women characters experience horrific deaths including brutal murder and degradation of their female roles. The women in Frankenstein represent the treatment of women in the early 1800’s, which at that time was a time when women had limited rights. Shelley’s incorporation of suffering and death of her female characters portrays that in the 1800’s it was acceptable for a typical women to be treated poorly. The treatment of women is so poor that they are regarded as property and have minimal rights in comparison to the male characters.
First of all, the movie never portrays Caroline Beaufort as being the daughter of the unfortunate merchant, Beaufort. In the novel, once Beaufort dies, Alphonse Frankenstein weds his daughter, Caroline. The movie also leaves out the adoption of Elizabeth. This leaves the viewer wondering why Victor is marrying his sister and why they are so intimate. The movie also seems to portray Elizabeth's appearance very differently than the novel's description.
"In Frankenstein the female characters and their values are presented as a direct contrast to the ambitious, self-seeking men." In light of this statement discuss the presentation of women in 'Frankenstein' ‘Frankenstein’ was written in the first half of the 19th century where women were stifled by powerful patriarchal values. Women were conditioned to believe that the key to survival was with a man’s help. ‘Frankenstein’ is primarily a novel about male ambition and power with women merely featuring on the side-lines. There are three primary narrators featured in ‘Frankenstein’: Walton, Victor Frankenstein and the Creature however we never hear from the women directly.
In Frankenstein, “The Monster” is Frankenstein's creation. The creature possesses all of the qualities that humans suppress, or should suppress, as children: villainy, murderous thoughts, revenge, etc. Some people would have thought that Frankenstein wanted to replace his dead mother. Instead of doing what every other man does, marry someone like his mother, Frankenstein rejected Elizabeth, who was physically like his mother and had a history like that of his mother. Frankenstein wanted to recreate his mother, but instead he made a creature comprised of the socially repressed elements of Frankenstein (the monster) and his wish for his mother.
But what is lacking from these analyses is a balance between the two different fields of study. Literary analyses of these subjects have the tendency to take a feminist approach and to ignore the legitimacy of mental illness. Medical analyses of these subjects have the tendency to take on a scientific approach and to ignore society’s effect on mental illness, especially textbook analyses. There needs to be more analyses that balance the two disciplines and that look at The Yellow Wallpaper from scientific and philosophical perspectives; the narrator was both a victim of her society and of her own