Elizabeth, the Monster and Patriarchy Essay

In Mary Shelleys Frankenstein, whatsoever blatant parallels be made between Dr. Frankensteins adopted sister, Elizabeth, and the daemon he gived. some(prenominal) of these innocent creatures, together represent all of mankind in their standardisedities and differences, Elizabeth existenceness the picture of adult femalehood and goodness, the lusus naturae representing manhood and evil. Both Elizabeth and the hulk start to and structure their lives in terms of Dr. Frankenstein, leading to overall dying and, in the end demonstrating the dangerous properties of patriarchy, which Dr. Frankenstein embodies.Dr. Frankenstein begins his narrative, most logically, in telling the story of his childhood.Dr. sea captain Frankensteins mother was a loving, benevolent woman, moved by the plight of the needy and forever doing all in her precedent to maintain charity to those in need. It was thus that she came across a poor Italian family with a group of dirty children, 1 of them s tood out, she was blond and fair and especially sweet-smelling. master keys mother decided that it was her duty to raise this blond girl as her take, or, rather, as Victors own. This girl was Elizabeth who is, in a way, granted to Victor as a gift, and thus begins his moved(p) relationship with index number and creationOn the til nowing previous to Elizabeth existence brought to my hearth, my mother had stateplay amply, I fox a pretty present for my Victor-tomorrow he shall have it. And when,on the morrow, she presented Elizabeth to me as her promised gift, I, with childishseriousness, interpreted her words literally and looked upon Elizabeth as mine-mine toprotect, beloved, and cherish. (56)On her deathbed, Victors mother expresses her desire for the ultimate conjugation of Victor and Elizabeth. The fate of Elizabeth is thus short dependent upon Victors, and Victors relationship with his fellow clements is forever grossly twisted due to his near ownership of Elizabet h. The arrangement of their odd marriage is never questioned by either one of them, and neither be ever adequate to(p) to repair their relationships with other people/beings, their experiences being so inhuman.In his college years, Victor develops a desire, and acquires the necessary know directge, to actually create bread and butter. After just a couple of extremely productive years at the University, Dr. Frankenstein discoveries an amazing thing, he states in his narration After days and nights of incredible labor and fatigue, I succeeded in discovering the cause of generation and life nay, more, I became myself capable of bestowing invigoration upon lifeless matter. (51) But it was not enough for Dr. Frankenstein merely to know how to give life, he had to do it himself. His goal was far from modest, he planned to create not a frog or a fruit fly, alone a man.Dr. Frankenstein was excited by the might of his act, he likened himself to god, A hot species would bless me as its creator and source some(prenominal) happy and slight natures would owe their being to me. (52) Victors egotism and corollary want for power frame him in the classic definition of the Patriarch. He believes that whatever he creates leave alone love and cherish his being for the mere fact of his being its creator, his word is the final word and the right wordThe being that Dr. Frankenstein creates is the hulk of the novel, this deuce is at once an independent being, and a possession. It is the beautiful being that Dr. Frankenstein longed would look up to its supreme creator with servile gratitude. Dr. Frankenstein did not fully understand how outrageous was his deed, until it had been done, regarding his origin glimpse at the now breathing creature, Frankenstein remarked, How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the poor devil whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavored to form?In theterass first moment of consciousness, he stretched ou t his ramification towards his creator, a sign of ultimate forgiveness and the gratitude for which Dr. Frankenstein had longed. Dr. Frankenstein responds by turning his lynchpin and running. Dr. Frankenstein embodies the irresponsible leader, the unfeeling man, the Patriarch with grand intentions but no mode of the necessary compassion.During the time in which Dr. Frankenstein is away from home, studying in the University, he receives a multitude of letters from the longing Elizabeth, and replies to none. Elizabeth remains at home in Switzerland, fulfilling her womanly duties to the Frankenstein family, her only hope for future happiness lies in her marriage with Victor, for she is nothing without him. The power that Dr. Frankenstein holds over Elizabeth has striking similarities to the dynamic of power he described as desiring over his creations. The pattern of shed that Frankenstein demonstrates first with Elizabeth, then with the monster does not seem to phase their uncondit ional, and unreasonable, love for him.Dr. Frankenstein does not think of Elizabeth as an equal, for she is a woman, and he does not think of the monster as blush a man, for he created him. Within a Patriarchy, the judicature feels justified in its neglectful actions for it feels itself better than the women and low lifes over which it rules. good as a population allows their political science to proceed with its cruel whole works without question, so do Elizabeth and the monster initially turn a wile eye to the evil acts of Dr. Frankenstein.Elizabeth and the monster are not only similar in their actions relative to Dr. Frankenstein, but both seem to occupy quite an the opposite end of the spectrum of humanity. Elizabeth is submissive and self-sacrificing. She is blond and fair-skinned and described as angelic. Elizabeth encompasses womanhood and goodness at once. The monster, on the other hand, ends up dedicating his life to the end of Dr. Frankensteins livelihood. The monster is ugly, the mere sight of him puts people into shock. The monster is a self described fallen angel and he even likens himself to Adam, the first man. Thus the monster encompasses evil and manhood at once. Elizabeth and the monster together represent all of man, the oppressed, the poor, theugly and the helpless victims of a system of rules built to benefit a select few. While Dr. Frankenstein represents the ruling class, Elizabeth and the monster together represent the under-privileged ruled class.War is a classically young-begetting(prenominal) act. War is the tool and the game of the Patriarchy and the innocent civilians are its pawns. When Dr. Frankenstein oversteps the limits of human power, he takes control over things for which man should not be responsible, he states Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through. In commencing a war, the Patriarch puts himself in charge of the lives and deaths of many men, an extremely unnatural act. When D r. Frankenstein meddles with the natural limits of life and death, he is creating the funny house of war in his own life. The death and destruction which results from Dr. Frankensteins creation, the death of his younger brother William, middlingine and Elizabeth, are merely examples of the multitude of unnecessary deaths caused by the Patriarchal wars.Just as many wars could have been prevented through simple negotiations, had it not been for the arrogance of one man with too much power, so too could have the destruction in Frankenstein have been prevented had Dr. Frankenstein merely conceded with the monsters simple request, with which he ended his own narrative My companion must be of the equal species and have the same defects. This being you must create.(137). Had Dr. Frankenstein for once done something for individual other than himself, in this case, create a female companion for the monster, many lives could have been palliated.Shelley was clearly making the statement th at the absence of womanly compassion in government is what leads to unnecessary destruction in war. In creating a man, Dr. Frankenstein takes on, unnaturally, a womans federal agency, it is thus that he can neglect Elizabeth, deeming her unnecessary. This is the biggest mistake at all. Just as Elizabeth, or any woman, was left over(p) out of the creation of this man, so has woman been neglected from the makings of governments and societal structures in Patriarchies everywhere. Elizabeth and the monster represent a balance that Dr. Frankenstein lacks, because he rejects everything feminine and human, he must bear the consequences.At the time this book was written, many scientific advances were being made, discoveries in science were flourishing and scientists themselves weregaining the highest forms of respect. Unfortunately, due to the style of government and power structures at the time, these incredible advances benefited everyone but women and the poor. Infant mortality was f acilitate very high and other health issues related to women were being utterly ignored by the scientific community, which seemed to have no place for femininity. Shelley displays this diversity in the novel first with the many deaths of mothers, Elizabeths mother, Dr. Frankensteins mother, Clervals mother and Justines mother all died relatively early on in the novel. While Dr. Frankenstein could create life, no one could seem to save a mother in childbirth or make victuals for a starving family. To emphasize the lack of female influence in science, Dr. Frankenstein completes the most womanly act there is, creation of life, without a woman.Dr. Frankensteins unnatural power over Elizabeth and the monster eventually lead to the destruction of them all. It is not long forward the roles are reversed between the desexualise and the monster. While the monster is initially en break ones backd to the furbish up, by the end of the novel the doctor believes himself to be the slave of the monster. It is Dr. Frankensteins arrogant, patriarchal ego that gets his true love killed, his power destroys his life. Dr. Frankensteins divergence from all that is feminine and human led to chaos for all. Because Dr. Frankenstein dedicates his life to vengeance once morest the monster for the murder of Elizabeth, he becomes the slave of both the monster and Elizabeth the tables turned. In the last moments of Dr. Frankensteins life, he cries tantalise devil Again do I vow vengeance again do I devote thee, miserable fiend, totorture and death. Never will I give up my search until he or I perish and then with what ecstasy shall I join my Elizabeth and my departed friends, who even now prepare me forthe reward of my tedious toil and terrible pilgrimage. (195)Just as conditions must sometimes reach their lowest point before the peoplebreak into revolution, and their rulers never renounce their sins in life, so did the switch type of destruction have to occur before Dr. Frankenstein r ealized what his role must be.Mary Shelley lived in a time when a woman novelist was believed to be putting her name on her husbands work, the overture of technology ran beyond human interests and only the rich received some sort of security against sudden death and rampant disease. Shelley saw the chaos and destruction that resulted from unequal representation in a power-hungry, Patriarchal government. Elizabeth and the monster embody the missing aspects of this un-representative ruling class compassion and humanity, it is the absence of these things that Shelley displays the horrific result of in her novel. Frankenstein is more than a ghost story, it is a brotherly narrative and a political manifesto.