Patriarchy In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Shelley dominates her novel with male narratorial voices who marginalize women against their weak, subservient, and otherwise completely unheard voice upholding traditional ideas about woman as the object of male desire. While the women assume assigned roles of marriage and procreation, their purpose is to show the cruelty of the patriarchy and undermine seemingly male superiority that showcases the need for women and equality to have a fully functioning society. Although the men are the centre of the novel, they are morally flawed: Walton dismisses his sister’s advice in letters, Victor objectifies women and attempts to rid females from the equation of family, and his creature who murders women out of revenge. The perfection women is shown
against this in Caroline Beaufort’s raising of an infant, the model daughter Elizabeth Lavenza who took over as the matriarch of the family, Justine Moritz who selflessly sacrificed for Victor who was too selfish to own up to his mistakes, and both the creation and destruction of the female creature whose potential power is threatening to man.