Role of Women in Frankenstein

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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. 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. Victor treats Elizabeth as a possession instead of a human being and believes that any compliment she gets receives is from his doing. Elizabeth even goes as far as acting docile around Victor and clearly accepts her role as someone with fewer rights. “All praises bestowed on her, I received as made to a possession of my own” Victor states about Elizabeth (Shelley 44). The novel takes place in a patriarchal society where man is the powerful figure and woman is obedient to his every wish. Women accept that they are second class citizens because that is the culture they are raised to follow. Women in Frankenstein are forced to act mannerly because that is how men classified an attractive woman. Women are forced to act passive because men deprive them of

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