Women In Frankenstein
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein employs all of the literary standards of the gothic horror novel. Nightmares, murder, monsters, and madness are just some of the devices that rear their ugly heads within the narrative. But there is an added element which makes the doubly horrifying to any unsuspecting feminist who might decide to pick up this classic, and that is the strict division of gender roles that are assigned to the novel’s characters.
The domestic circle that the Frankenstein family represents might be more shocking to some feminists than Victor’s own hideous progeny itself. This is truly a novel of oppressive gender extremes. Sexuality is repressed and ambiguous. The women are cheerfully subordinate; the men blindly egotistical. A good feminist interpretation of this novel should be a required supplement to any first reading of the text because gender/sexual tension can be found at the heart of every major issue in this novel.
Veeder put it most succinctly by stating......
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