Frankenstein and the Depiction of Women

The three women characters in Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein experience horrific events including brutal murder and degradation of their female roles. The women in Frankenstein represent the treatment of women in the early 1800’s. Shelley’s incorporation of suffering and death of her female characters portrays that in the 1800’s it was acceptable. The women in the novel are treated as property and have minimal rights in comparison to the male characters. The feminist critic would find that in Frankenstein the women characters are treated like second class citizens. The three brutal murders of the innocent women are gothic elements which illustrates that women are inferior in the novel. The destruction and creation of women in the gothic novel Frankenstein depicts the unimportance of women in the novel’s society.
The women in Frankenstein are forced to be submissive, a trait that illustrates their submission towards men. Victor treats Elizabeth as a possession instead of a human being and believes that any compliment she gets derives from his doing. Elizabeth acts docile around Victor and accepts that she is a second class citizen. “All praises bestowed on her, I received as made to a possession of my own” (Shelley 44). The novel takes place in a patriarchal society where man is the powerful figure and woman is obedient to his every wish. Women accept that they are second class citizens because that is the culture they are raised to follow. Women in Frankenstein are forced to act mannerly because that is how men classified an attractive woman. Women are forces to act passive because men deprive them of their individual rights. “ Like Elizabeth’s destruction, the monsterette’s creation and destruction dramatize how women do not function in their own right but rather as signs and conduits for men’s relations with other men” (Smith 323). Elizabeth is the fiancée of Victor Frankenstein who frequently pushes back their wedding constantly. Victor pushes back the wedding so he can find time to complete his creation of man. Elizabeth and other female characters in the novel express their passivity by acting chaste around men to be seen as proper. “The saintly soul of Elizabeth shone like a shrine-decorated lamp in our peaceful home. Her sympathy was ours; her smile, her soft voice, the sweet glance of her celestial eyes…” (Shelley 45). Elizabeth is an attractive woman because she presents herself as a beatific young woman who abides to her role as a servant to man. Elizabeth’s docile and holy presence is an example of how women in Shelley’s novel are supposed to act around men. Elizabeth shows her docile nature because she was once an orphan like Justine, a servant to the Frankenstein family.
Elizabeth’s mother Caroline acts saintly like her daughter Elizabeth. Caroline sacrifices her life when she aids Elizabeth to recover from a severe case of Scarlet Fever. Caroline remains gentle and proper free from anger or blame on her deathbed. Caroline “Died calmly; and her countenance expressed affection even in death” (Shelley 50). Women in the novel are portrayed as docile while the men are depicted as angry and wild. Victor Frankenstein is extremely hot-blooded and ill- tempered. “My temper was sometimes violent, and my passions vehement” (Shelley 45). The men characters expect woman characters to be gentle to counteract their violent nature. However, the woman characters in Frankenstein lose their voices and rights when counteracting man’s vehemence.
The passive dispositions of women characters in Frankenstein are symbolic to how women are deemed as unimportant figures in the novel’s society and how they are controlled by the male characters. The definition of a symbol is an object or a word that represents another object. The main character, Elizabeth, possesses a calmer disposition than her brother who is more intense and violent. Elizabeth’s docile nature represents how she becomes a play-thing to young Victor. “I looked upon Elizabeth as mine- mine to protect, love, and cherish” (Shelley 44). Elizabeth is described as a possession rather than an individual. Many women like Elizabeth are treated as though they are not capable of making their own decisions and need a man to guide them. Elizabeth symbolizes how women in the 1800’s are treated like things rather than human beings and how they are easily manipulated like toys. Elizabeth’s gentle repressive nature represents how women are oppressed in Frankenstein’s society.
Another character, Justine, is an innocent young Catholic woman who remains silent although convicted of murder. Justine, despite her innocence, is sentenced to death by a jury of men. She is accused because she falls ill and exhibits abnormal behavior. She never puts up a violent struggle to fight for her life but willingly takes the death penalty for a crime she had nothing to do with. Justine’s silence symbolizes how she is dictated to act quietly and humble since she is a women. Feminist critic Ross Murfin notes that “So many women characters in Frankenstein embrace the domestic life that the novel might seem to advocate the doctrine of separate spheres…” (303).Although people may agree that Shelley promoted the unequal gender role of females, the author of this paper argues that Shelley emphasized the oppression and brutality of women in order to have her voice heard.
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, two female characters are brutally murdered by the ignorance of Victor and his monstrous creation. Justine receives the death penalty despite that she is innocent and did not commit the crime. The decision made by man dictates the brutal fate ahead for Justine. They accuse her of being guilty and she dies silently. The deaths of the innocent women make the novel Frankenstein a compelling piece of Gothic fiction. According to the Dictionary of Literary Terms, Cuddon states that “Most gothic novels are tales of mystery and horror, intended to chill the spine and curdle the blood” (Gothic novel). The horrific deaths represent the gothic elements pertaining to women to represent their lowly treatment by men in society. Victor, the main character becomes responsible for the deaths of Elizabeth, Justine, and William. The horrific monster kills the innocent women and he becomes the eerie gothic element in Shelley’s novel. The novel is chilling and haunting because of the deaths of the innocent caused by a grotesque morbid monster. The monster kills Elizabeth because she is a possession of worth to Victor. Women characters in Frankenstein are possessions by the males to serve their sexual passions. “Elizabeth dies not because she is Elizabeth but because she is Victor’s object of desire” (Smith 322). Elizabeth is killed not because she has individual significance, but because she is a belonging of Victor that satisfies his needs and desires. She is killed because Victor denies the fulfillment of the monster’s request for the female monster. The female monster is destroyed by Victor because she is insignificant and second in comparison to Victor, a male. “…Elizabeth and the monsterette are simply counters in the struggle between Victor and the monster” (Smith 323). The struggles between the monster and Victor are solely what dictate the fate of the lives of innocent female characters Elizabeth and the female monster.
The destruction of the one female monster demonstrates how she is thoughtlessly killed because she had the ability of power. The male monster desires a female monster for her company and Victor creates her. Victor realizes that “… In all probability [she] was to become a thinking and reasoning animal who might refuse to comply with a compact made before her creation” (Shelley 144). The female monster was feverishly destroyed because Victor’s feared her individual power and thoughts. She has the ability to become the opposite of how women are forced to act in society and become a rebellious and powerful individual. The female monster is destroyed because she has no rights as a female and is treated not as a life but as an object. Victor the dominant male figure plays the role of God by destroying her. That “…Victor excludes the ugly monster indicates again how strictly men control the domestic sphere” (Smith 323). Victor ignores the monster and destroys his future mate, events that signify that the male characters in Frankenstein are important and female characters have no rights or say in society. Elizabeth is murdered by the monster as the monster’s revenge against Victor. Women are merely the possessions of man that are the objects of revenge. The monster kills Elizabeth because he knows that is Victor’s most precious possession, and he destroys her out of jealousy.
It is symbolic that the women in the Frankenstein novel are deprived of their instinctive female role to procreate when Victor created the monster. To be born from the tainted blood of an oppressed woman is not where man wants to come from. Instead, man uses science to create new life without the presence of a woman. Women are so degraded in society that they are created in the novel through a scientific process devoid of the female incubator. “In sum, Frankenstein’s descent is a grotesque art of lovemaking, the son stealing the womb that bore him in order to implant his seed” (Sherwin 885). Victor partakes in the grotesque act of joining animal and human body parts to create the male and female monster without the need of a female body. This separation of body parts represents an act of power that can be compared to Victor’s sexuality. Victor realizes that life is capable of being made by the most powerful members of society, and that women are completely useless to their society since now their only talent has been removed by science.
The female character is destroyed by Victor because she represents power and rebellious thought. Victor conjures up that the female monster could become more grotesque and vehement than the monster which fulfilled his reason for why he destroyed her body. “…She might become ten thousand times more malignant than her mate, and delight, for its own sake, in murder and wretchedness” (Shelley 144).The monster is destroyed because Victor is afraid to create a female monster because she can create inside her own body more monsters to populate the earth with. “…And a race of devils would be propagated upon the earth, who might make every existence of the species of man a condition precarious and full of terror” (Shelley 144). The female monster is feared by Victor since she has the ability to increase the amount of daemons in the world and heighten the amount of terror on earth. The result of destroying a female monster that has been artificially created depicts how women can easily be created and destroyed in the novel. The women in this society are shackled by the power of man who have their stolen every right, power, and ability.
Consider the roles of women through various time periods and notice how many of them had to face similar plights as the women in Frankenstein face. Many women like those in Shelley’s novel suffer from inequality and oppression. Many women are treated like property and are deprived of rights that men have. The women are murdered and one is created in Shelley’s novel which represents how quickly women can be replaced. Even in present day women still face the challenges of competing against men. In the early 1800’s, women are clearly presented in the novel as classless individuals who are forced to comply as submissive beings living under the wing of man, the dominant leader in Frankenstein society.





Works Cited
“Gothic novel.” A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. Ed. J.A. Cuddon. 4th ed. N.p.: Blackwell Publishers LTD, 1998. Print.
Murfin, Ross C. “Feminist Criticism and Frankenstein.” Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Ed. Johanna M Smith. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2000. 296-305. Print.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Ed. Johanna M Smith. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/. Martins, 2000. Print.
Sherwin, Paul. “Frankenstein: Creation as Catastrophe.” PMLA 96.5 (1981): 883-903. JSTOR. Web. 16 Oct. 2009. .
Smith, Johanna. “’Cooped up’ with ‘Sad Trash.’” Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Ed. Johanna M Smith. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2000. 313-331. Print.
Murfin, Ross C. “Feminist Criticism and Frankenstein.” ” Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Ed. Johanna M Smith. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2000. 296-305. Print.
Smith, Johanna M. ed. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Ed.. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2000. Print.

Discrimination in the Workplace

Discrimination in the workplace has been prevalent throughout the history of man and has branched into various forms in past and existing time periods. Many individuals suffer immense losses and are jobless, privation governed solely because of the existing forms of job discrimination. Age discrimination adversely affects older generations because of job labeling, vulnerability to verbal abuse, and need for higher salary. Fortunately, there are acts and government agencies that protect those exposed to unfair discrimination.
In the 1960’s, age discrimination became a major issue in the American workplace since jobs were made unavailable to older American citizens. Older citizens were costly to hire because of previous job experience and employers refused to hire them. Employers ensured their intentions of hiring young employees by various techniques such as labeling ages for their jobs. Job labeling became a way where employers could eliminate the risk of hiring an older person. “Ads printed in newspapers dictated the ages of prospective employees the company was willing to hire” (Blank 1). Companies were unwilling to hire older people because they were more experienced workers and many required benefits. Employers felt that “Replacing older workers with younger workers as accost-savings technique-- circumventing pension payouts and decreasing wages” (Byron 315). Older Americans had very little way of applying for jobs since employers were legally allowed to display favoritism and sport age discrimination in the workplace. The high competition of younger and more-able workers made finding near impossible for older American workers.
Age discrimination in America begins with employers analyzing the attractiveness of a prospect employee solely by their age. The age of a worker reveals how strong a person is and what type of salary and/or benefits they require for the job. According to Gilbert Lee’s theory he believes that “Age discrimination in the workplace should be relatively high in the 20’s, drop in the 30’s, and rise steadily thereafter” (256). New workers searching for their first job are exposed to job discrimination because employers do not want to risk hiring a brand new worker who has not yet earned a reputation. Young people newly siphoned into the workplace cannot be trusted by employers because little is known about their background. At the peak age of thirty, workers have obtained work experience, are strong and alert, and do not require a hefty salary. Employers show favoritism to the 30 year old work candidates and will hire them over the twenty-two year old. However, discrimination peaks for senior citizens because they require more money and benefits.
Older Americans are exposed to the highest level of job discrimination despite their advantageous offerings to an employer. “ Older workers often exhibit higher job commitments, less turn over and lower rates of absenteeism than do young workers” (Byron 315). Older Americans are dedicated workers and offer exemplary work ethic compared to younger people who tend to be negligent. Older workers frequently face unemployment and are verbally discriminated because they are no longer youthful or in their prime. Older Americans are the workers who deserve the jobs they get denied from because of job discrimination. Their credentials and high experience make them immaculate in comparison to the younger job competitor, but the lack of respect for old Americans allows the young and less- experienced to persevere. “Mangers are predisposed to favor young employees and draw from stereotypical portrayals of older Americans” (Byron 315). The term “Over the Hill” and “Ancient” are the many mocking phrases that older individuals face in the American work place. Many employers want their workers to be charismatic and attractive so that their company gains admiration from consumers. Attractive young employees communicate strength to outsiders, which makes a company look strong and fresh. Young employees incorporate new blood to a company. The young employees have many years of working left in them, which is why hiring workers young becomes a financial benefit.
As older Americans continued to face more discrimination in the work place, Lyndon Johnson signed the Age Discrimination Employment Act of 1967 in order to dissipate the discrimination of older people from employment. The act protects against any type of age discrimination at the age of forty and above, the peak ages that discrimination starts. The act encourages that respect be returned to the older generations of Americans and the shrewd name- calling stopped. “The Age Discrimination Act in Employment Act of 1967 prohibits discrimination in employment based on age with respect to older individuals” (Kaye 774). The act has protected hundreds of Americans from the unlawful attacks of job discrimination based upon age. The act has helped instill fairness to older Americans searching for a job and considers it unlawful for an employer to stereotype or degrade workers because of age.
Although the Age Discrimination Act of 1967 can be seen as successful, there are many existing forms of job discrimination found in America today that pertain to solely age. An ageism survey reveals that “84% of working Americans more than 60 years old report one or more incidents of ageism including insulting jokes, disrespect, or assumptions pertaining to frailty” ( Byron 314). Disrespect of these older individuals is still prevalent in America and they are even mocked today. Many of these people who have become victims of age discrimination can file reports and have their cases reviewed with the chances of a settlement. Many of these cases filed have become legitimate age discrimination cases and the cases have successfully ended with monetary gain awarded to the victim. “In Fiscal year 2008, EEOC received 24, 582 charges of age discrimination and EEOC resolved 21, 415 cases and recovered 88.2 million dollars in benefits for aggrieved individuals” (Age Discrimination). The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is a government agency that protects people from discrimination in the work place. The agency has helped resolve the cases of hundreds of victims that have suffered through various types of job discrimination in the United States. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission provides help to people who feel that they were not hired because of their age, religion, race, or disability. The agency protects people of several discrimination factors and helps them collect money if they were degraded or discriminated against.
A recent case of job discrimination based upon age relates to Barbara Ehrenreich’s book Nickel and Dimed, a book about a writer’s struggle to take on the challenge of working low-paying jobs as a single woman. Barbara Ehrenreich was 57 years old when she started the project of Nickel and Dimed. Her age is the target of when age discrimination in the work place peaks since she is several years over the age of 40. Mrs. Enhrenreich’s age is one where many Americans should respect as her for being an elder. However, people treat Ehrenreich with little respect and force her down on her hands and needs despite her physical age and sore back. “It is the primal posture of submission” (Ehrenreich 84). Her job as a maid was a degrading experience and she gained very little respect despite of her age.
Age was not an important factor to an employer who hired and older woman like Ehrenreich because the employer could easily find another desperate worker to replace the elderly woman. Ehrenreich was forced to hide her pain and take medications so she could prove herself as an able worker. If she slowed up and complained she would have been easily fired and replaced. As an older citizen, Ehrenreich experienced that people do not respect people by their age but by the level of job they possess. “They think we are stupid. We are nothing to these people… we’re just maids” (Ehrenreich 100). Ehrenreich struggles to gain respect by the general public because of her job she pursues. She gains little respect because she is an elder. In fact, many people view it as degrading that an older person has to perform work from such a low status job. Ehrenreich faced several struggles throughout the many jobs she worked for. Age is a major factor when calculating job competition. Many young single women are the majority of workers for low wage jobs that Ehrenreich was competing for. Many of these women have children or become pregnant and have to work a job. Some of these women are young and cannot get a high paying job because of age discrimination. It is struggles like these in Nickel and Dimed that many workers face every day in their lives.
Age discrimination in the workplace has been an ongoing issue throughout America’s history. In the 1960’s older people were almost removed from the workplace because of the legality of age discrimination. After the Age Discrimination of Age in Employment Act of 1967, the cases of age discrimination narrowed throughout time. However, in today’s age it still goes on in society today where many workers face discrimination and adverse remarks made from bosses and other co-workers. “Age has been, and continues to be an important cultural dimension of status in our society” (Byron 313). Fortunately, agencies such as the EEOC protect and help find liberty to those who have been treated unequally. These are advantages that did not exist during the past where cases of job discrimination went roaring through the streets. Age discrimination in the work place will continue to become an issue in America as long as age continues to be a primary role at establishing status to the American people.
Through my research I believe that discrimination by age is grotesquely wrong after researching several reliable sources in scholarly articles and government web sites. After my research I know that age discrimination is prevalent in America today! I strongly believe that the older workers are the more reliable and dependable workers and feel that it is wrong not to hire a person solely because of age. I feel that many reliable older workers are denied jobs despite that they are the most capable for performing that job. Older people are the targeted age group for verbal insults and put downs. I have found research that proves that the majority of senior citizens in the United States have recently been negatively harassed or degraded because of their age or weakness. Many Americans do not treat their Elders with respect and many times insult them in inappropriate ways. It is my opinion that America should show higher respect to senior citizens and show a higher level of tolerance towards them. My research has informed me that acts and agencies that help resolve cases of age discrimination and in many cases return justice to those who have been aggrieved from any type of age discrimination. Although many cases of age discrimination persist, I believe that justice will be served to them.
I believe the sources that I chose for my paper were reliable and dependable because the majority of them came from famous journals or scholarly articles. I purposely chose sources from databases because I know that they were monitored and placed on the database because of their overall quality. Two of my articles came from journals that specialized in social issues or age discrimination issues. These sources were highly dependable and I strongly believe that they incorporated Ethos in my paper. I used a government web site for one of my sources because I know that the writer of the web page was not someone of the general public and had experience of what he was talking about. One article that came from the general public seemed to prove very interesting points, although I do not know how reliable his research is. I chose one source from the general public in order to see an outside view of age discrimination of people from various educational backgrounds. I incorporated Ehrenreich’s quotes from her novel Nickel and Dimed because it helped reinforce my outside research with a book that we read during class. I enjoyed connecting the two together because it helped reinforce my previously stated ideas in my research paper. The sources helped me enhance my knowledge and further my understanding about the current and past incidences of age discrimination in the workplace. It is my opinion that blending various sources in a research paper makes the paper strong and leaves the researcher filled with knowledge of various perspectives.











Works Cited
“Age Discrimination.” The US Equal Opportunity Commission. N.p., 15 July 2009. Web. 21 Oct. 2009. .
Blank, Chris. “What Is Age Discrimination in the Workplace?” EHow. N.p., 2009. Web. 23 Oct. 2009. .
Byron, Reginald, et al. “Age Discrimination, Social Closure and Employment.” Social Forces 86.1 (2007): 313-34. Project MUSE. Web. 25 Oct. 2009. .
Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed. New York: Holt, 2008. Print.
Kaye, David. “Statistical Evidence of Discrimination.” Journal of the American Statistical Association 77.380 (1982): 773-83. JSTOR. Web. 21 Oct. 2009.
Lee, Gilbert C, Eliza K Pavalko, and J Scott Long. “Age, Cohort and Perceived Age Discrimination: Using the Life Course to Assess Self-reported Age Discrimination.” Social Forces 86.1 (2007): 265-90. Project MUSE. Web. 21 Oct. 2009.

The Brick Wall

The bloodied brick wall
Dingy battered grotesque
Like the wounds of a fallen soldier at war
Shadow of putrid burgundy
The stomach content of a paunchy spider
Jail cell

A prisoner of this wall
Forced to stare at its violent hue
Taking me as its captive
Enveloping me Gagging me
Vehemently staring back at me
Jail Cell

The blood of past college students
The sweat of previous inmates
Have all become lost to this wall
Depressing red becomes my eye's target
And when classes end I rush right back
To stare endlessly at that red brick wall
And take in its luring nightmarish elements