Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein focuses on human nature and on the possibility of
controlling experience in order to shape character and cultural values.
Specifically, it focuses on the influence of education and experience in
effecting behavior. In general, the characters are divided in to three groups by
education and experience: passive rescued women, ambitious bourgeoisie men, and
the self-taught lonesome creature. Through the female character group, Mary
Shelly illustrates how the combination of education and experience shape
attitudes and behaviors of women to be passive objects, which leads to their
demise. Mary Shelly spends the least time describing the education of women,
repeating one version of female upbringing. The lack of time devoted to female
characters in general is not a blatant disregard of women; rather, it is
testimony to the limited role women exercised in public sphere of society.
Caroline Beaufort is the model of virtuous femininity rescued from poverty to
bourgeois passivity. Caroline, the daughter of a proud, failed businessman,
follows her father into self-imposed exile to avoid the humiliation of failure
where he falls into a terrible sickness of humiliation. Completely dedicated to
her father, Caroline “attended him with the greatest tenderness; but she saw
with despair that their little fund was rapidly decreasing” (Shelly 32)
Luckily Caroline “possessed a mind of uncommon mould; and her courage rose to
support her in her adversity... and by various means contrived to earn a
pittance scarcely sufficient to support life” (Shelly 32). She not only cares
for him during his pathetic free fall from life, but she also actively procured
work and single-handedly supported herself and her father. It is obvious that
has Caroline possesses the skills and tenacity to support not only herself, but
her father as well. However, when her fathers falls victim to death she
immediately transforms from a caring, productive women to “an orphan and
beggar” (Shelly 32). There is nothing to note any changes in the attitude or
actions of Caroline to warrant such a change. Rather, the change is a direct
result of the death of her father. Despite the fact that Caroline possessed the
ability to provide for herself, her description and social status remained tied
to her father. Even though women had the ability to act as free agents in
society, their description, status was invariably tied to a male. Luckily, for
Caroline, an associate of her fathers rescued her from her sudden socially
imposed poverty. While mourning her father’s death, Alphonse Frankenstein
“came like a protecting spirit to the poor girl, who committed herself to his
care” (Shelly 32). Caroline translates her gratitude of being saved from a
tough mans world into lifelong subservience. She immediately transfers her
selfless dedication from one man, her father, to another, her new husband
Alpohnse Frankenstein demonstrating the female’s artificial dependence on men.
Saved to the feminine life of passive servitude, Caroline similarly rescues
other girls from poverty and educates them in the virtues of bourgeois
domesticity. Thus, she finds Elizabeth, whose seemingly innate, upper class
feminine virtue makes her shine amid a family of “dark-eyed, hardy little
vagrants” (Shelly 34). Upon being rescued, Caroline “presented Elizabeth to
[Victor] as her promised gift” (Shelly 34). Immediately following her
introduction to bourgeois life, Elizabeth is transformed to possession of a
male. Once in the Frankenstein household, Elizabeth learned to be “the living
spirit of love to soften and attract” (Shelly 38). Once under proper middle
class guidance, Elizabeth becomes the ideal female by providing comfort and
support while becoming dependent on male energy and male provision. Thus, like
her foster mother, she is the perfect domestic woman: daughter, sister, friend,
and wife-to-be. Justine Moritz, a poor girl is also saved from her tyrant,
exploitive mother by Caroline. Once introduced to the bourgeois Frankenstein
family Justine trained to be a servant. Just like Caroline and Elizabeth before
her, Justine quickly learns the female role of serving others. Undoubtedly
thankful for Caroline saving her from her tyrannical mother, Justine idealized
her and considered her to be “the model of all excellence, and endeavored to
imitate her phraseology and manners” (Shelly 65). Evidently, Justine attempted
to emulate Caroline’s middle class virtues making her equally passive and
obedient. Justine, along with Caroline and Elizabeth, are manifestations of how
women fulfill and are fulfilled by their servitude dominated domestic lives.
Women once guided into what Mary Shelly’s mother Mary Wollstonecraft describes
as “[g]entleness, docility, and a spaniel-like affection,” are less agents
then they are objects acted upon (6) . This theme is evident by the early deaths
of Caroline, Justine, and Elizabeth, which Mary Shelly implies are a logical
outgrowth of the bourgeoisie ideal. This is especially evident in the death of
Caroline. Elizabeth was severely ill due to a case of scarlet fever. Although
she initially refrained from helping, Caroline attended Elizabeth who “was
saved, but the consequences of this imprudence were fatal to her preserver”
(Shelly 42). Knowing full well the potential consequences of her actions,
Caroline choose to ignore the advice of others and choose to attend Elizabeth at
her sick bed. Caroline died because of her selfless dedication to others.
Essentially, Mary Shelly is implying that women who selflessly dedicate their
lives to others are in danger of killing themselves. The death of Justine Moritz
is an example not of women selflessly dedicating their lives to others, but
rather, of passive women being acted upon. Justine was wrongfully accused of
killing William Frankenstein due to circumstantial evidence. A family servant,
while washing clothes, found a locket that Elizabeth had given to William
shortly before his death. Once on trial, Justine is unable to effectively argue
her innocence due to a series of odd circumstances and questionable explanations
for those circumstances. Upon this, Justine declares that she “commit[s] [her]
cause to the justices of [her] judges, yet [she] see[s] no room for hope”
(Shelly 54). Fully educated in the female bourgeois ideal of a passive female,
she neither is unable to nor even effectively attempts to prove her innocence.
Rather, she calls on people to testify on her behalf, including Elizabeth.
Elizabeth, like Justine, does not even attempt to effectively uncover the truth
regarding William’s death. Instead, she focuses on how well Justine fulfilled
the role of a bourgeois woman and had no reason to murder anybody. Elizabeth,
like Justine, lacks the ability to effectively argue against Justine being the
murderer. Instead, relying on their perceived goodness effectively making them
passive to the entire ordeal. Both Justine and Elizabeth have learned well the
lessons of submissiveness and devotion that Caroline Beaufort epitomized for
them. Similarly, their model behavoir lowers their resistance to the forces that
kill them. The death of Elizabeth is the final example of the implication of
passivity leading to the death of a female. In this case, Elizabeth is attacked
and killed by the creature due entirely to the actions of Victor. This is
another, though extreme, example of women being completely acted upon. Elizabeth
did nothing at all to warrant this death except follow bourgeois virtues. Those
virtues told her to be dedicated to a man whose actions cause her death. Thus,
she was entirely acted upon and had absolutely no agency or freedom from a man
ever in her life. Mary Shelly uses the female characters of Frankenstein to
demonstrate the ridiculous manner in which women were educated in the bourgeois
ideal. These ideals taught women to be passive and in turn were acted up instead
of being active agents. Thus, Frankenstein is a call for a method of educating
women, one that does not limit and weaken women.