mary shelley's frankenstein

This analysis emerged from a visit to the Shelley exhibit, where I found myself fascinated by a paradox in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein -- how she critiques the erasure of women while seemingly depending on male collaboration in her own creative process.

Sometimes the most compelling feminist arguments come wrapped in their own contradictions.

As I read Frankenstein after visiting the Shelley exhibit, I became more aware of a captivating paradox in Mary Shelley’s work. She critiqued the erasure of women and the dangers of patriarchal science, yet her own creative process seemed to depend on male approval and collaboration.

Women like Elizabeth, Caroline, and Justine appear in the novel but mainly serve as emotional supports or victims in the lives of male characters. Elizabeth although described as Victor's equal towards the beginning of the novel is ultimately regarded as Victor’s betrothed rather than as a person with her own ambitions. Although Victor initially refers to Elizabeth as his “beautiful and adored companion,” which suggests emotional closeness or even equality, she rarely expresses desires of her own. In a moment of despair, Elizabeth writes, “Alas! I would I were in peace with my aunt and my lovely William, escaped from a world which is hateful to me, and the visages of men which I abhor. (Shelley, Vol. 1, Ch. 7)” This quote reflects her alienation from the male-dominated world around her and a longing to return to a feminine space, suggesting how Shelley uses Elizabeth’s voice to hint at a deeper dissatisfaction with patriarchal constraints. This leads me to think that Shelley, a woman writing in a male-dominated world, may have intentionally crafted a narrative where women are silenced to highlight the dangers of that imbalance.

I’m also struck by how male ambition drives the plot. Victor is so fixated on creating life that he completely overlooks the natural, life-giving power of women. He seeks to gain ultimate control by creating life without a woman, yet when he succeeds, he is horrified. This seems to critique patriarchal science, a realm where men seize power without considering responsibility, empathy, or consequence.

The creature’s suffering also connects to this theme. He enters the world unnaturally, without love or care and, most importantly, without a mother. It makes me wonder if Shelley suggests that motherhood, compassion, and female presence are vital. Without them, society literally creates monsters.

When Victor first sees his creation come to life, his horror feels like more than just scientific failure ; it seems to reflect something deeper about what happens when men try to control life without any feminine input. In Chapter IV of Volume I, as Victor watches his creature animate, he’s forced to confront what his isolated, obsessive work has actually produced. He recoils in disgust, saying that “even Dante could not have conceived the horror of that countenance. (Shelley, Vol. 1, Ch. 4) ” Dante’s Inferno is an epic about a journey through the layers of hell, each representing different kinds of moral transgression. By invoking it, Shelley suggests that Victor’s act of creation that is cut off from human feeling and feminine care, is not just a scientific error but a moral violation with consequences. By invoking Dante’s Inferno, Victor unconsciously connects his revulsion to moral wrongdoing. I think his horror comes from some buried recognition that he’s violated something fundamental by trying to create life while completely excluding women. The creature's grotesque appearance isn’t just unsettling but the result of what happens when you strip away empathy, care, and nurturing from the act of creation. Victor’s isolation has literally bred a monster instead of progress.

Shelley constructs Victor as a cautionary figure in a male-dominated literary and scientific world. His ambition to create life without a woman reflects how patriarchal science tends to erase the role of women, especially in nurturing. Viewed this way, the creature is not merely “monstrous” due to his looks but is a product of a world that denies feminine qualities like compassion and emotional care.

What complicates this feminist interpretation is what I learned about Mary Shelley’s own creative process and how collaborative it was. Rather than being a hindrance, Percy Bysshe Shelley inspired her. His presence and support seemed to fuel her creative expression. After experiencing deep trauma and loss, Shelley wrote not only to process her pain but to turn it into something meaningful. This act of creation feels both powerful and empowering.

However, it raises a question about whether this collaboration was a way for her to seek validation from her husband. Similarly, her dedication of Frankenstein to her father hints at a pattern, perhaps an attempt to gain approval from the men in her life. This creates a fascinating tension: Shelley critiques a world where women are silenced yet her own creative process appears to need male support and approval.

The moment when Victor destroys the female creature shows just how terrified he is of what women might do if given real power. This fear reaches its worst point in Volume III, Chapter 20 (/Chapter 3), when Victor starts imagining what could happen if he actually finishes creating a female companion. His anxiety spirals completely out of control, and he convinces himself that “She might become ten thousand times more malignant than her mate... a race of devils would be propagated upon the earth. (Shelley, Vol. 3, Ch. 3) ” The word “malignant” is especially revealing. It suggests not just danger, but something invasive and diseased, like a cancer that spreads. This choice of language reinforces Victor’s irrational fear that female autonomy is somehow corrupting or threatening. Shelley uses this word to reveal how deeply patriarchal systems associate female power with destruction even when that power hasn’t been expressed. What strikes me about this is how Victor’s fear has nothing to do with anything the female creature has actually done since she doesn’t even exist yet. The phrase “ten thousand times more malignant” shows how much more dangerous he thinks female power could be compared to male power. Victor is admitting that he’s terrified of women who might think and act independently. Shelley exposes how men often silence women not because of what they’ve done, but because of what they might do. Yet by writing this scene, Shelley fights back against that very silencing as she’s giving voice to the female power that Victor is so desperate to destroy.

This scene embodies Shelley’s warning about suppressing female agency. By destroying her, Victor follows a pattern that runs throughout the novel: women are silenced before they can express themselves or take action. Justine is executed before she can defend herself; Elizabeth is murdered moments after becoming Victor’s wife; and now the female creature is dismantled before she can even be born. Shelley uses this destruction to emphasize not only Victor’s cruelty but also how patriarchal systems erase female voices before they can fully form.

Yet in writing this moment, Shelley restores what Victor erases. While Victor refuses to collaborate with the feminine, Shelley embraces it. Through her act of creation, she gives voice to the very forces Victor seeks to destroy, showing that what he fears is what the world needs most: empathy, balance, and shared power.

Perhaps this contradiction strengthens Shelley’s feminist message rather than weakens it. By illustrating a world where the complete lack of feminine influence creates literal monsters, while also demonstrating through her own experience that women can create powerful, lasting art with support and collaboration, Shelley may advocate for a more nuanced approach to gender and creativity.

The novel suggests that real progress requires collaboration, not domination, an impactful idea even today. However, Shelley’s experience shows that this collaboration must be a true partnership. When women are genuinely supported and valued as creative partners, they can produce works that challenge the very systems that try to silence them.

Shelley’s critique goes beyond individual characters; it challenges an entire framework. By exposing the consequences of creation without feminine input, she argues for the need for balance between masculine and feminine approaches to knowledge, power, and responsibility.