Passive Women In Frankenstein By Mary Shelly

The story is set in the 1800’s. Where a woman’s worth was determined by her marriage status. Once married, she will become the legal property of her husband. Women could not vote nor testify in court. Women have no say in anything and have to leave the thinking for the men because women were incapable of rational thoughts and were only available for care giving.

Women were seen as nothing but a benefit to men. Margaret Saville , sister of Robert Walton. Margaret’s character is useless the only reason she was mentioned was because of her relationship to Robert. Nothing about her personal life was written her purpose was to care for Robert and his Feelings Victor’s mother, Caroline, met his father after her father died of poverty. Victor describes his father meeting his mother by stating, “He came like a protecting spirit to the poor girl, who committed herself to his care; and after the interment of his friend, he conducted to Geneva, and placed her under the protection of a relation” (Shelley 28). As seen, Shelley described women as weak creatures that cannot survive without the help of men.

As for Elizabeth, she waited her whole life for Victor and would follow everything he said without questions asked. Women are seen as objects. “My mother had said playfully, ‘I have a pretty present for my Victor -tomorrow he shall have it. ’ And when on the morrow, she resented Elizabeth as her promised gift. ” (Shelly, 21).

Moreover, Justine the servant took the blame for the murder of William and that shows how passive women were. Instead of investigating the evidence and trying to find the real killer she just took the blame. She said to Victor “Dear sir, you are very kind to visit me” and she said “I see no room for hope. ”

In conclusion, women in Mary Shelly’s book were not taken seriously and their characters were not as significant as male characters even though Mary’s mother Mary Wollstonecraft was a feminist icon. But the story was set in 1818 which makes sense why Shelly would try to silence women and in that era women usually published their books anonymously. Also, they weren’t able to testify in courts so silencing women seems like the right thing to do.