ABSTRACT

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein tells the

story of scientist Victor Frankenstein’s
creation of a monster and the disaster
and woe.
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MARY SHELLEY’S
FRANKENSTEIN
- A REVIEW
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – A Review
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HARISH DANU

Mary Shelley, an all-rounder, who’s a novelist, travel writer, dramatist, author, essayist,
and daughter to a feminist and philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft, wrote an amazing
piece of gothic-themed literature named “Frankenstein“, the first science fiction
novel.
Frankenstein is one of the best-
presented works on gothic and horror
story plots which provides a well-
elaborated linkage between society’s
odds and evens. The novel contains a
number of framing devices, stories
surrounded by other stories in an exotic
manner. Shelley wrote this novel in
the early eighteenth century when
the revolution was in full swing, things
were changing and advancement was
at the peak. Hence, being a woman, it
was quite difficult for Mary Shelley to
dominate in the society against the
odds. Moreover, she explains her
journey and experiences using
rhetorical devices that can make ease
for readers to grasp the central idea of
the text.

“Frankenstein is a feminist critique of science”, this can’t be ideally said to be

true but critically Frankenstein shows a relationship between feminine roles and
scientific developments. There are no majority-female characters in this novel thus,
it can’t be said that Frankenstein was a feminist vision of text. But on the other
hand, there are a number of events that took place in the body of the novel that points
out the feminist perspective of the author.
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Mary Shelley became the first woman of the nineteenth century, who stepped forward
and wrote something using the symbolic tool. She used the character of Frankenstein to
portray the conditions of those women who were obliged to play roles in opposition to the
culture and demonstrated societal problems using her words.

Mary Shelley constructs a relationship between science and literature using the base
ground of metaphors, images, thoughts, and much more to elaborate the essence of
women and destruction in society using neo-classicism. She uses the ancient principles and
classical style of literature to establish her point in front of the audience. She emphasizes on
emotions and imaginations to define several implications created by the revolution at that
time; for this, she uses metaphors that were sexist and against male dominance.

Frankenstein pursuits modern science along with gender politics where she discusses
aggressive and dominant male legacy. Furthermore, the author of her novel created a male
monster to display the satanic sight of the male dominants and violence in the society that
attacks the female sex in all spheres of life.
Moreover, when science is brought up in a relationship with fiction and society, evolution
is the process that creates a diverse concept of production reproduction, human behavior,
and organisms. Mary Shelley in her novel confirms the most known theory of
evolution proposed by Charles Darwin.
The theory elaborates on the formation of a living organism in this world. Living things are
created by the natural combination of genetic and inherited orders, disorders, and
hormones. Mary Shelley uses the base of Darwin’s theory in order to present her views on
the origin of species and to replace God with science. The author presents a conflict
between the types of science. She divides science into two major categories and termed
them as “Bad Science” and “Good Science“. She highlights several implications that
are being caused for women especially with the development mode of science. Similarly,
a conflict between love and revenge is also visible in this text, when the monster wants love
and needs to be accepted by the society but instead, is rejected and declined by the people
which leads to the creation of a feeling of revenge and hatred in the monster’s objective
against the human life and this gives acceleration to the destruction.
If a comparison is carried out, the monster is the woman who fights against societal
problems and norms to enhance her own image in the humanitarian society but instead is
tied up with a number of constraints. Frankenstein’s approach in this novel is described as
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an attempt made by strong women to gain power and destroy civilization. This develops a
causation relationship between love and revenge.
Hence, Mary Shelley’s scientific ideology is carried out to dominate females in the
environment, during revolution necessarily. She wants the society to understand her
experience as a woman and to appreciate her value (specifically the gender) on the front.

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