'In Frankenstein, a man arrogantly takes on the responsibility of giving birth, and the female characters pay for his arrogance.' How far and in what ways do you agree with this view?
'In Frankenstein, a man arrogantly takes on the responsibility of giving birth, and the female characters pay for his arrogance.' How far and in what ways do you agree with this view?
Reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1831) from a feminist perspective brings to light many questions of moral and ethical importance, particularly those associated with the idea of the male protagonist taking on the birthing role as expressed in this view. I very much agree with the negative stance on his usurpation of the mother as it inevitably proves to be destructive, clearly demonstrating a quality of arrogance and disregard.
In order to appreciate this viewpoint, we must interpret Victor’s ‘workshop of filthy creation’ as a kind of womb and the ‘labour’ of his ‘toils’ as a parallel to the process of labour in natural childbirth. This would suggest that he has taken on the responsibility of giving birth and literally usurped the position of the mother. The issue is, as observed by Anne K Mellor, that in doing this ‘Frankenstein has eliminated the female’s primary biological function and source of cultural power’1. In Shelley’s time, the function and freedom of women in society was already incredibly limited, so this can certainly be viewed as an arrogant act as it ‘supports a patriarchal denial of the value of women and of female sexuality’1, arrogant because it suggests he views himself as a male to be superior to the female. This can be extended as evidence of a wish to ‘eliminate the necessity to have females at all’, supported by his violent destruction ‘with trembling passion’ of the female being he creates at the thought of her reproducing as he realises ‘the first sympathies’ of the elopement of the creatures ‘would be children’. Also in this ‘passion’ we can interpret Victor’s horror at natural sexual relationships.
Victor’s other motives for taking on the responsibility are also undoubtedly arrogant:
‘Life and death Appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first
Reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1831) from a feminist perspective brings to light many questions of moral and ethical importance, particularly those associated with the idea of the male protagonist taking on the birthing role as expressed in this view. I very much agree with the negative stance on his usurpation of the mother as it inevitably proves to be destructive, clearly demonstrating a quality of arrogance and disregard.
In order to appreciate this viewpoint, we must interpret Victor’s ‘workshop of filthy creation’ as a kind of womb and the ‘labour’ of his ‘toils’ as a parallel to the process of labour in natural childbirth. This would suggest that he has taken on the responsibility of giving birth and literally usurped the position of the mother. The issue is, as observed by Anne K Mellor, that in doing this ‘Frankenstein has eliminated the female’s primary biological function and source of cultural power’1. In Shelley’s time, the function and freedom of women in society was already incredibly limited, so this can certainly be viewed as an arrogant act as it ‘supports a patriarchal denial of the value of women and of female sexuality’1, arrogant because it suggests he views himself as a male to be superior to the female. This can be extended as evidence of a wish to ‘eliminate the necessity to have females at all’, supported by his violent destruction ‘with trembling passion’ of the female being he creates at the thought of her reproducing as he realises ‘the first sympathies’ of the elopement of the creatures ‘would be children’. Also in this ‘passion’ we can interpret Victor’s horror at natural sexual relationships.
Victor’s other motives for taking on the responsibility are also undoubtedly arrogant:
‘Life and death Appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first