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). Smith begins her essay by looking at the historical factors that may have contributed to this seemingly sexist book. Shelley, writing in the first half of the 19th Century, was in a period in which a woman "was conditioned to think she needed a man's help" (Smith 275). In the novel itself, no women speak directly. The book has three basic narrators: Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, and Frankenstein's monster.
The treatment of women is so poor that they are regarded as property and have minimal rights in comparison to the male characters. The feminist critic would find that in Frankenstein the women characters are treated like second class citizens. The three brutal murders of the innocent women are gothic elements which illustrates that women are inferior in the novel. The destruction and creation of women in the gothic novel Frankenstein depicts the unimportance of women in the novel’s society. The women in Frankenstein are forced to be submissive, a trait that illustrates their compliance towards men.
Unsex Me Here In her essay Shakespeare’s Sister, Virginia Woolf analyzes the reasons behind the lack of female authors in Elizabethan England despite it being such a prominent time for literature. She discovers that, according to the history books, women at the time had very little rights and were tragically mistreated members of society. On the contrary, the women pictured in the works of art at the time were smart and cunning, or at the very least had strong, influential personalities. One of these women being Lady Macbeth from The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare. Woolf interprets the contrast between the women in fiction and the real women of the period as evidence that the famous characters are nothing but impossibilities imagined upon by men.
‘The role of female vampires in the novel is to warn of the dangers of female sexuality’ consider the presentation of the female vampires in Dracula in the light of this comment Many may argue that the novel Dracula highlights the suppression and belittlement of women during the 19th Century. In Victorian England, women’s sexual behaviour was dictated by society’s rigid expectations. A Victorian woman was either a virgin or else she was a wife and mother. If she was neither of these, she was considered a whore, and thus of no consequence to society This idea is reinforced by Stoker with the contrast of the ‘brilliant white teeth, that shone like pearls against the ruby of their voluptuous lips,’ the virginal white is contrasted with the hellish red of their lips shows the battle the women went through suppressing and hiding their sexual desires. Stoker’s choose of women as the temptresses may be a warning to the women of the Victorian era to beware about pushing the boundaries of their sexuality.
It is rather surprising that a novel written by the daughter of so prominent a feminist should be so strikingly devoid of strong female characters. Many critics agree that Mary Shelley’s Gothic novel Frankenstein is littered with passive women that suffer placidly, then expire once exposed to the transgressions of the world . An initial reading of the novel might produce the notion that Shelley had very little to say on the subject of women. The entire cast of female characters appears to remain within the domestic realm, quietly performing their duties as mothers, sisters, wives and daughters for the men. Some might even say Shelley ardently agreed with the position in which they found themselves and the securely fixed roles during the Victorian era.
"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.
Most analyses of this piece have been from prominent feminists, who targeted the patriarchal structure of the society in the 19th century as the major cause of insanity of the narrator. Some of the most extreme feminist critics have even stepped further to claim that the narrator is initially not ill at all, hinting that the societal bonds of marriage imprisoned and twisted the mind of the poor narrator. Though this claim has not yet been verified, there are indeed several conspicuous signs that showcased societal imprisonment of women in The Yellow Wallpaper. For example, John’s overconfidence of his own medical knowledge led to his misjudgment of the narrator’s condition; whereas societal norms seem to force the narrator to believe in that misjudgment: “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency—what is one to do? (1.10)” And under these torturing social rules,[change] the narrator, as a women and a wife, has no control over the pettiest details of her life, and she can do nothing for herself except from asking help from men, who dictates her life: “My brother is also a physician, and also of high standing, and he says the same thing” (1.11) And it is obvious that the chauvinistic ideas during
His novel , A Tale of Two Cities, can be refered in this regard. Women in literature have been given dull traits than mails. They mostly been portrayed as angelic , untouched , ignorant of worldly affairs ,passive ,cause of evil ,totally independent ,sacrificing ,foolish ,docile, a victim ,and unable to take any action. Susan Koppelman Cornillion states in her essay “ The Fiction of Fiction”: “women internalize the male idea of the feminine and create themselves in the shape of that idea (page,113). In a male society ,male literature has been created.
By utilizing the Handmaids as a representation of the females in the Gileadean society, the author exposes the flaws of an anti-feminist society through objectification and the absence of agency. The Handmaid’s Tale illustrates women who are strongly objectified by men. An example of how Handmaids are objectified is through their names. The women are named after their assigned Commander; their name which consists of two parts is constructed with the prefix, ‘Of’, followed by the suffix of their Commander’s name. The main character’s Handmaid name is Offred, meaning that she is property of Fred.
Both of these writers includ women as an element of their Gothic fiction, but they are used in contrasting fashions. In the Gothic genre, women are often times portrayed as either oppressed by a tyrannical masculine character, or in a forced position to make a tough decision. The former is the case in “The Black Cat,” although the beginning of the story makes it seem otherwise. This is exemplified by the narrator when he states, I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others. I suffered myself to use intemperate language to my wife.