Frankenstein Feminist Analysis

Whenever we hear the tale of Frankenstein, our natural instinct is to demonize the creature himself. We’ve heard of his heinous acts and known of his unnatural upbringing; yet, we never question the origins of his trivial motives. To our knowledge, this “mutation of alchemy” is inherently evil and nothing short of the story’s main antagonist. However, I believe Mary Shelley, the mastermind behind this novel, reveals different intentions beyond the book’s face value. Not only does Shelley present perhaps a more disturbing creature in her novel, she also covertly highlights the absence of women and their importance to society. The first aspect of Frankenstein that revealed itself was the motives of Victor. He is essentially your modern day
A lot of Shelley’s upbringing and feministic background can be accredited to her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft. Many parallels can be drawn between Shelley’s personal life and plot in Frankenstein. Like Victor, Shelley’s mother died young and the many women in their lives died as well. Beyond the fiasco that was occurring within the lives of our characters, I think Shelley was trying to portray a world in which women are not present. All throughout the story the women of Frankenstein are very passive and are tragically bound by the actions of men. It brings up the question that maybe the entirety of these tragedies wouldn’t occur had there been more involvement from women. Shelley was trying to send a message to her readers that a world cannot harmonize with unequal coexistence. Women in society have always been subjected to unfair pay and class stagnation. I think if more women grasped the message Shelley was trying to convey, they would defy the norm and be more ambitious. We would see more women running for president and more women revered for their revolutionary ideas. With all the problems in the world today, patriarchies have outstayed their welcome. There is seemingly too much wrong with the world today, I think something has to change. Through Shelley’s message both men and women should equally guide the world; it can only be for the best. Perhaps a fusion between male and female presidents would have relieved us of the trillions of dollars we’re in debt and entirely saved us from unwanted