Frankenstein: AS & A2 York Notes

The women in Mary Shelley's “Frankenstein” are generally presented as powerless and passive, the result of what Shelley's mother, the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, called in her “Vindication of the Rights of Woman” 'the pernicious effects which arise from the unnatural distinctions established in society'.

Women are confined to the domestic sphere, expected to be the moral centre and to be, as Elizabeth is described by Victor using religious terms, 'a shrine-dedicated lamp' in the 'peaceful home'. Caroline Beaufort, who becomes Victor's mother, establishes the model of femininity that the other women in the Frankenstein household will follow. The way Victor describes his father's rescue of her is telling: 'He came like a protecting spirit to the poor girl, who committed herself to his care'.

Part of the problem is that women are not educated properly. While Victor has formal schooling and devotes himself to the study of science, Elizabeth is encouraged to read poetry and admire nature, to have emotional rather than rational responses; she is taught nothing of practical use, and is concerned mostly with doing good, like Caroline before her. As Mary Wollstonecraft had argued, 'unless the understanding be cultivated, superficial and monotonous is every grace'. The only woman whose understanding is cultivated in this novel is Safie, and she is independent in a way that Elizabeth would not be able to understand.

Justine is the most passive of all the women in the novel, often appearing to have little character of her own in the way she attempts to mimic and mirror Caroline. She is somewhat ironically named, given that Justine means 'righteous' or 'fair', since her fate is anything but just. While so unfairly dealt with, however, she is the only character in this entirely secular world to call upon God. Resigned to her fate, she even exhorts Elizabeth to learn to commit herself to the 'will of heaven' (p. 89).

The responses of Elizabeth to the trial and hanging of Justine provide a good example of how powerless women are, and how ineffectual they are in the outside world. Her attempts to save Justine are pathetic with inevitable failures: 'I will melt the stony hearts of your enemies by my tears and prayers', she promises, but tears and prayers are of little use in the face of the judge's 'harsh unfeeling reason'. Frustrated by her own powerlessness, Elizabeth can only wish 'that I were to die with you', as she cries to Justine. All Elizabeth can do, as Kate Ellis has suggested, is display her own goodness.

The life of women in “Frankenstein” does frequently seem extremely limited: they are rescued, they suffer and they die. If they are really good, they are completely resigned to their lot. Both Justine and Elizabeth show the same submissiveness and self-sacrifice that can be seen in Caroline Beaufort's character. Perhaps we should not be so surprised to find that Victor needs to escape the 'silken cord' of the home in order to fulfil his desires.