Mary Shelley's Frankenstein - A Review

By Arijah Siddiqui

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 a 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 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. 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 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 which 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 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 theory in order to present her views on the origin of species and to replace God with science. The author presents a conflict between 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 women 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 an attempt made by strong women to gain power and destroy the civilization. This develops a causation relationship between love and revenge.

Hence, Mary Shelley's scientific ideology is carried out to dominate female 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.

I am a Pakistani undergraduate student, currently enrolled in the program of Bachelors of Science in "Social Development and Policy from Habib University, the batch of the year 2020", I am an author of several articles at Ezine Articles along with that I have my own blog named as "The Just In". I also write for "The Sindh Times" and " http://www.Parhlo.com."

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