Frankenstein: Shelley Use of Mascuine and Feminine Roles :: Free Essay Writer

Frankenstein Shelley Use of Mascuine and Feminine RolesShelley began writing Frankenstein in the federation of what has been called her male coterie, including her lover Percy Shelley, Lord Byron and his physician John Polidori. It has been suggested that the entice of this group, and particularly that of Shelley and Byron, affected her portrayal of male characters in the novel. As Ann Campbell writes The characters and secret plan of Frankenstein reflect . . . Shelleys conflicted feelings about the masculine circle which surrounded her. surely the male characters in Frankenstein be more developed that those of the females. Elizabeth Fay has suggested that the female characters are idealised figures in much of Shelleys work, particularly in the descriptions of Carolean and Elizabeth, the two mother figures in the novel. Carolean is, on surface value, a perfect parent, together with her husband, which renders Victors irresponsibility in abandoning the cock more unforgivable. Sh e possessed a mind of uncommon mould which was too soft and benevolent she is compared to a fair exotic flower which is shelter by Alphonse she drew inexhaustible stores of affection from a very exploit of love to bestow on Victor, and her hug drugder caresses are some of his branch recollections. She is the idealised mother, a figure that Shelley viewed wistfully, as her own mother died when she was ten days old to be replaced by a disinterested stepmother. Carolines parenting provides the care that Frankenstein might well have lacked, had he been left field to his father alone his father dismisses Agrippas work without explanation, thereby pose Victor on his course towards destruction. This is the first introduction of a theme that continues throughout the book, that of the necessity for female figures in parenting and in society. Without a mother figure and left only with Frankenstein who subsumes both parental roles, the creatures life is b thinlyed by his imperfection an d lack of companionship. However, Caroline is also the trigger to Alfonses chivalry, thus presenting him in an improved light and allowing his character to develop at the expense of her own jerry-builtness. This is a feminist comment from Shelley, whose mother Mary Wollenstonecraft was a notorious feminist and an central influence. Justine, too, is an idealised figure, described during the trial as having a tolerate which, always engaging, was rendered, by the solemnity of her feelings, exquisitely beautiful. She is the archetypal innocent, being beautiful, weak and entirely accepting of her fate to the point of martyrdom.