Dear S Murray 1,
What an interesting topic!
Frankenstein could be indeed interpreted as a novel about gender
relations, and about the viciousness of human beings and especially of
men in power relations. The fact that it was written as a reaction to
the revolution and to the reign of terror against women and children
adds to the picture. This analogy - on tolerance, knowledge (the
male-dominated science), and cruelty - should stand in my opinion at
the heart of your work.
Contrasting the issues of gender to the advancement of technology and
enlightenment that are also related to the French Revolution,
"Frankenstein" could be interpreted as discussing the attempt of men,
scientists, to create a "baby" without a woman (See: Kim A.
Woodbridge, "The "Birth" of a Monster", 2001
<http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/maryshel/birth.shtml> and Susan Coulter,
"Frankenstein - A Cautionary Tale of Bad Parenting "
<http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/maryshel/coulter.shtml>).
Another line of thought is all that is connected to Shelley's
biography. One of the sources on gender in the French Revolution,
"Women in the French Revolution"
http://www.angelfire.com/ca6/frenchrevolution89/Revwomen.html also
mentions that "Women also fought to obtain some of the democratic
blessings of the Revolution for themselves. In response to "Rights of
Man and Citizen", prominent woman of letters and abolitionist Olympe
de Gouges wrote "Rights of Woman and Citizen" in 1791--a document that
called for the same suffrage, property and civil rights to pertain to
women as to men. Simultaneously, Mary Wollstonecraft, an English
radical who would be the mother of Mary Shelley, author of
Frankenstein, wrote the Vindication of the Rights of Women. It was a
work so far ahead of its time in demanding universal suffrage and
common-law marriages, among other things, that it foreshadows the
feminist movement of our century." (ibid).
This is not the only place where Shelly's work and biography meet.
Shelly's husband is apparent in Frankenstein:
"Messager's critique of revolution is mirrored in Frankenstein.
Shelley's novel explores the Romantic ideology that fed the
originating principles of the French Revolution and exposes the innate
selfishness of revolution in general and the promethean politics that
underwrite it. By subtitling the novel, "The Modern Prometheus," she
deliberately drew attention to the work of the two most prominent
promethean poets that she was intimately connected to - her husband
and Byron. The connection between Victor Frankenstein and Percy
Shelley is obvious. Not only were they both neglectful parents, but
they were victims of an overarching belief in the ability of men to
become gods through their intellectual prowess:
The Percy Shelley that Mary knew and loved lived in a world of
abstract ideas; his actions were primarily motivated by theoretical
principles, the quest for perfect beauty, love, freedom, goodness.
While Mary endorsed and shared these goals, she had come to suspect
that in Percy's case they sometimes masked an emotional narcissism, an
unwillingness to confront the origins of his own desires or the impact
of his demands on those most dependent upon him (Mellor 73)." (Source:
Smith, Orianne, "Revolution: 'The Enduring Nightmare of Grand
Solutions" in: _The Feminist Tradition of Mary Shelley and Annette
Messager_ <http://www.luc.edu/faculty/osmith/rev.html>).
Finally, Shelly's post-revolutionary, Romantic message is coincided
with gender issues: "This is why neither Annette Messager nor Mary
Shelley believes in the benefits of the revolutionary model for women.
The rhetoric of revolution is exclusively male, privileging lofty
ideas over the particularity of human life. Charismatic leaders use
language to persuade men to give up their subjectivity and fight for
an abstraction such as freedom or glory. It is no accident that
Frankenstein and his creation are extremely eloquent and able to sway
others to their cause by words alone (although the monster is
handicapped by his appearance). For Shelley, Frankenstein is doubly
damned: not only does he have the power to persuade others of the
rightness of his actions but like Satan he believes his own cant as
well. " (Source: Smith, Orianne, "Revolution: 'The Enduring Nightmare
of Grand Solutions" in: _The Feminist Tradition of Mary Shelley and
Annette Messager_ <http://www.luc.edu/faculty/osmith/rev.html>).
In other words - domestic relationships are intertwined in this work
with Frankenstein and the creature's relationships as well as with
societal developments.
Here are some additional sources
================================
Botting, F. "'Frankenstein's French-Revolution: Criticism, Literature
and Politics - The Dangerous Necessity of Monsters" Literature &
History-Third Series 1 (1990): 22-41.
Butler, Marilyn. "Frankenstein and Radical Science." Times Literary
Supplement 4 April, 1993.
Ellis, Kate. "Monsters in the Garden: Mary Shelley and the Bourgeois
Family." In The Endurance of Frankenstein Essays on Mary Shelley's
Novel (UCalifornia, 1982)
Mellor, Anne K. "Possessing Nature: The Female in Frankenstein."
Anne K. Mellor, ed. Romanticism and Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana
UP, 1988.
Moers, Ellen. "Female Gothic: The Monster's Mother. Literary Women.
Garden City: Doubleday, 1976.
Poovey, Mary. "'My Hideous Progeny': The Lady and the Monster." The
Proper Lady and the Woman Writer. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1984.)
Smith, Johanna. (ed and annotator) _Frankenstein _ Palgrave Macmillan
2000.
Search Strategy:
===============
frankenstein shelley "french revolution" gender
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=frankenstein+shelley+%22french+revolution%22++gender&spell=1
- please note, that reading this list of links might reveal even more
thought provoking ideas on the place of gender and of the French
Revolution in Shelley's Frankenstein.
I hope this answered your question. Please contact me if you need any
further clarification on this answer. |
