Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Feminism

1. Introduction

Mary W. Shelley wrote her novel Frankenstein in a time in which women were expected to stay at home, care fore the children and do the household. Men normally worked outside the home in the public sphere, the division of roles was very strict 1 and men were valued over women 2 .

Science and research were domains exclusively for men. Although she was no scientist, her husband and several other scientists, e.g. Erasmus Darwin, influenced Mary Shelley. She has however somehow entered a male sphere, which was normally forbidden for her.

This could perhaps be one of the reasons why she did not publish her novel herself but her husband Percy.

Another reason for this could be that women writer had a bad reputation. Their works were normally regarded as bad because they did not have a good education 3 . A woman writer was regarded as “unladylike” 4 , she was expected to be “modest, chaste and docile” 5 and an “angel” 6 . The only duty of a woman was to be a good wife and especially a good mother, she was normally the only responsible for the education of the children because the men went to work and never participated in nurture. This essay will examine the role of each woman in Frankenstein in the 19 th century, the importance of a mother for a child and the failure of Victor Frankenstein to create and nurture a child without a woman.

2. The role of women in Frankenstein

2.1 Margaret Saville

The first woman the reader gets to know in Frankenstein is Margaret Saville, the sister of Robert Walton. Margaret and Robert write letters to each other while Robert is on his way to the North Pole. His sister stays at home, which is typical for those

1 Cf. Anne Kostelanetz Mellor, Mary Shelley: Her Life, Her Fiction, Her Monsters (New York & London: Routledge, 1988), p. 115.

2 Cf. Ibid.

3 Cf. Johanna M. Smith, “‘Cooped Up with ‘Sad Trash’: Domesticity and the Sciences in Frankenstein”, in Frankenstein: Complete Authoritative Text with Biographical, Historical and Cultural Contexts, Critical History and Essays from Contemporary Critical Perspectives, ed. Johanna M. Smith (New York: St. Martin’s, 2000) pp. 315-316.

4 Fred Botting, Making Monstrous: Frankenstein, Criticism, Theory (Manchester: Manchester UP, 1991), p. 108.

5 Ibid.

6 Ibid.

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times. The women were supposed to be at home, occupied with the household and nurture of the children while the men went to work. In Robert’s case, he is a “real” man risking dangers on his way to his aim. In his letters, he tells his sister about his thoughts, sorrows and adventures and the story about Frankenstein and his monster. He needs her letters; they support him in hard times (“I need them most to support my spirits” 7 ) and in one of those letters, he thanks her for her “love and kindness” 8 and her “gentle and feminine fosterage” 9 . So he is probably Margaret’s younger brother and as his elder sister, it is her duty to care for him and to take part in his education. In the 19 th century, women were expected to help in the household and to look after their yo unger brothers and sisters. They have a mother role, like Margaret who worries about her brother and who tries to encourage him whenever she can.

2.2. Caroline Beaufort

Caroline Beaufort is the next woman introduced in the novel. She is the daughter of a merchant who is the best friends of Alphonse Frankenstein. After her father has lost a lot of money, Caroline starts working in order to earn money to survive. There is no mother and when her father becomes ill, she cares for him until his death, being the perfect daughter. His death makes her “an orphan and a beggar” 10 . Alphones Frankenstein, “a protecting spirit” 11 , rescues her and marries her two years later. She is an “ideal of female devotion” 12 , at first, she is devoted to her ill and poor father, then she marries his best friend and is devoted to him 13 . But Alphonse treats her as an equal; he is thankful, does everything for her and wants to recompense her “for the sorrows she had endured” 14 . He stops working after their marriage in order to be able to travel a lot with his wife for whom the climate changes are good because of her ill health. When their first son Victor is born, he helps her with his nurture, which is quite untypical for a man in those times. Caroline is “the perfect daughter, wife and mother” 15 . There is also a kind of indebtedness 16 in her actions. Alphonse has rescued

7 Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Three Gothic Novels, ed. Peter Fairclough (London: Penguin Books, 1986), p. 276.

8 Ibid., p. 272.

9 Ibid., p. 274.

10 Ibid., p. 290.

11 Ibid.

12 Mellor, Mary Shelley, p. 116.

13 Cf. Ibid.

14 Shelley, Frankenstein, p. 291.

15 Botting, Making monstrous, p. 100.

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her and now she has to fulfil certain duties for him. She is a good wife, housewife and childcare provider 17 . Also as part of her indebtedness, she visits the poor in order to help them like a “guardian angel” 18 . On one of her visits, she finds Elizabeth whom she takes with her.

2.3. Elizabeth Lavenza

Elizabeth Lavenza is the motherless daughter of a Milanese nobleman who has disappeared after having given her into a poor foster family. Her mother has died when Elizabeth was born. Alphonse allows Caroline to keep her, which shows that Caroline cannot take decisions on her own. Elizabeth is like a gift for little Victor, he regards her as his possession, she is “more than sister” 19 for him and they call each other cousins. She is very beautiful, a “living spirit of love” 20 and the two children have a happy childhood together. When Elizabeth gets scarlet fever, Caroline is again the ideal of self-sacrifice 21 . She cares for Elizabeth, n ot worrying about her own health. But her role as Elizabeth’s nurse kills Caroline. She dies a few days later. This care is typical for a loving mother. Just before her death, she tells Elizabeth to take her place in the family. Elizabeth takes this role i mmediately, she becomes the new “mother”, comforting everybody after Caroline’s death, forgetting her own sadness. She is also indebted to the family because Alphonse saved her life by allowing Caroline to keep her. When Victor goes to university in Ingols tadt, it is her who writes letters to him, also when he is on his journey to Scotland. She always worries about him like a mother and in her letters, her main topic is her family, typical for a woman of this time because she had nothing else in her life besides her home. It is also her who asks Clerval to accompany Victor to Scotland. Also typical is that she stays at home waiting for her Victor while he is away in order to study and fulfil his dreams. After the death of William, Elizabeth thinks that his death is her fault because she has given William the miniature the murderer wanted to have. It should have been her duty to protect him as a good mother but she has failed although it was not really her fault. As a good daughter, she also wants to keep her promise to marry Victor. In

16 Cf. Smith, “Cooped Up”, p. 312.

17 Cf. Mellor, Mary Shelley, p. 116.

18 Shelley, Frankenstein, p. 292.

19 Ibid., p. 293.

20 Ibid., p. 297.

21 Cf. Mellor, Mary Shelley, p. 116.

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