Frankeinstein in Context

Rigoberto Vidaña
Cline
ENG102
16 October 2011

   Frankenstein: social and cognitive ideas that influenced Shelley writing

One of the main reasons that moved victor to create “the monster” was curiosity, the search for information, and of course the fantasy of exceeding the human limits is what this book presents. In the other hand it seems that Marry Shelley touches different feminine subjects in a subtle manner. Subtle as it was, femininity and reproduction was a reoccurring theme through Marry Shelley novel Frankenstein.  Marry Shelley’s beliefs are focused on the aspects of a female being innocent, dependent and unpredictable.  She portrays these characteristics through the women in the novel being weak, emotional and only useful to the procreation of future generations.

             Although Mary Shelly’s mother was a strong feminist, she herself believed that a women’s place was to be subordinate and dependent on male figures.  In the letter to Victor from his mother she explains that Elizabeth cannot coupe without him, “Come, dearest Victor; you alone can console Elizabeth. She weeps continually, and accuses herself unjustly as the cause of his death; her words pierce my heart. We are all unhappy; but will not that be an additional motive for you, my son, to return and be our comforter” (Shelley 45), after the death her son.   Even in paintings of Frankenstein’s mother, that his father had commissioned, his mother was depicted as dependent upon her father, “It was an historical subject, painted at my father’s desire, and represented Caroline Beaufort in an agony of despair, kneeling by the coffin of her dead father” (Shelley 49).  These almost insignificant portrayals of women really capture the way Mary Shelley believed refined women should act in accordance to femininity. 

            Innocence is a strong characteristic of femininity. 

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