"Oh, Praise the Eternal Justice of Man!" A Feminist Reading of the Monster in Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"

Abstract

This essay studies the monster of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein from a feminist point of view and sheds a new light on the meaning behind the monster. The aim is to show that the monster - in his development from uninformed to liberated - is in fact a feminist heroine figure that strives to attain equality through fighting patriarchy, which in this essay is represented by his creator, Victor Frankenstein. By showing how the monster is "a female in disguise", an embodiment of "the other" and a victim of patriarchy, this essay analyzes the monster's personal development in three steps, one for each chapter. The textual analysis is supported primarily by the thought of Mary Wollstonecraft and Simone de Beauvoir, but also takes into account voices from other and more modern feminist critics.