Frankenstein: AS & A2 York Notes

Eighteenth-century women were passive and powerless. Women were confined to the house, doing housework and teaching children how to behave. Mary Shelley shows this in “Frankenstein”. Mary Shelley's mother was Mary Wollstonecraft, who wrote the first feminist book, called “Vindication of the Rights of Woman”. Mary Wollstonecraft also wrote a Gothic novel called “Maria, Or the Wrongs of Women”.

They are often described in very religious terms. Victor's mum, Caroline, is a good example of the ideal woman and other women copy her. Women are always looked after in “Frankenstein”. They can't do anything for themselves.

Women don't get an education. Victor gets to go to University and study science. Elizabeth has to stay home and look after the kids and Victor's dad. She doesn't get taught to be rational or clever. She just has to be a good person. It makes you wonder what Victor would have talked to her about. If she hadn't died, he'd probably have soon got bored with her. He says she has a 'saintly soul'. They have very limited opportunities.

Justine's the most passive woman in the novel. She doesn't even seem a real person, just a copy of Caroline. She copies Caroline in how she talks and looks. She is hanged and this is not right or fair. She is innocent. Still she is the only person in the book to call on God, as though she still believes in God even though he allows her to be treated badly. She even gives Elizabeth the advice to accept the will of heaven.

What happens with Elizabeth at the trial and hanging of Justine shows just how useless women are. They can't do anything outside the home. Elizabeth thinks she can save Justine by crying and praying. She can't, but everyone likes her and thinks she's really a good person.

Women don't have much of a life in “Frankenstein”. They have to be submissive and sacrifice themselves. They are passive and dependent on men, and most of the time the men seem to just want to get away from them. Certainly Victor and Walton do. There don't seem to be any women at the University and there aren't any women on Walton's ship either.