Article Writing Homework Help
I need some assistance with these assignment. shelleys use of masculine and feminine roles Thank you in advance for the help!
I need some assistance with these assignment. shelleys use of masculine and feminine roles Thank you in advance for the help! In the same way, women are treated differently in the society that Mary Shelley lives in. They are not seen as equals of men and their intellectual capacity is not recognized. Women are just placed in the background, and the males normally dominate. This is also observed in the novel, where it is noted that “the male characters are more developed than those of females” (Campbell, 2009). It is also to be noted that Shelley began writing the novel in the company of her male acquaintances, including her husband Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and John Polidori. It has been suggested that the influence of this group affect her portrayal of male characters in the novel. Campbell writes that “[The] characters and plot of Frankenstein reflect … Shelley’s conflicted feelings about the masculine circle which surrounded her.”
I will be focusing on Chapter 16 of Frankenstein, but I will first raise and tackle issues with the book as a whole, as this will be essential in understanding the significance of Chapter 16 in contributing to the story and affecting our analysis on gender.
The novel has a theme that “knowledge leads to destruction”. For me, this reflects the status of women in their society, in that knowledge is more restricted for women, relative to the knowledge made available to men. This restriction is not because women are less able, but because of the culture of their time (Ty, 1992).
In addition, the theme of knowledge leading to destruction is probably coming from the influence of the Church. Women at their time are more religious than men, being intellectually limited in society, while men tend to be more scientific in approach. Thus, this book places a limitation on what is man’s domain, and what is God’s domain. Science should not cross to what is divine and holy. Thus, Victor is punished in the end for the sin of crossing over God’s domain (Campbell, 2009).