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The Oppression Of Women Exposed In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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Mary Shelley’s horror story, Frankenstein, is about the entanglement between a young and talented scientist, Victor Frankenstein and his creature. Victor Frankenstein rebuilds a human body and uses thunder to activate it. He is worried because of the creature’s ugly face that he abandons him. As soon as the creature realizes he is rejected by the society, he starts to revenge. Mary Shelly used Victor Frankenstein and his creation to reveal the monstrous spirit of human, including sexism, incest and abandonment.
The creature tolerates all unfair treatments at first. He chooses to surrender until his fury reforms his personality. He says, “All men hate the wretched; how, then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things” (Mary …show more content…
In that time, women could hardly gain their rights. They were supposed to depend on their husbands. It was impossible for a female author to publish her book to criticize the society. Thus, Mary Shelley used the creature to symbolize the class of women. He confronted intense pressure from hegemony class represented by Victor Frankenstein and unfriendly people in the novel. The creature is a new generation who refuses to endure the abnormal system but fight against the hegemonism violently. “Do your duty towards me, and I will do mine towards you and the rest of mankind.” (Mary Shelley, 68) The creature is not an inborn killer; killing people is not his purpose. On the contrary, he yearns for a calmato life and a harmonious social …show more content…
Theoretically, Victor Frankenstein is the creature’s father who is responsible to breed him and educate him. Nevertheless Victor Frankenstein determines to get rid of his responsibility. Before Victor Frankenstein gives birth to the creature, he believes his creature must be perfect and dreams that “No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs” (Mary Shelley, 32). Thus he feels so despondent and scared when he finds his creature has an unpleasant appearance that he abandoned him. His cruel action breaks the creature’s heart. The creature was once virtuous. The brutal social environment transforms him to be a sanguinary monster. People should not blame him because his obnoxious behavior is the product of an unharmonious family

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