“I have a pretty present for my Victor, tomorrow he shall have it.”
Here Elizabeth is being referred to as a present, not a human being, thus putting her lower down in the social status. If Victor were to be adopted then he would most probably be treated completely different to Elizabeth and Elizabeth would still be referred to as a present, like a welcoming present. Again, later, he speaks of Elizabeth as his possession, not a real human:
“…Mine to Protect, love and Cherish”
Showing that Victor took his mother’s words seriously and so he talks about her like his property, protecting her, loving her and cherishing her. This also shows that the men are there to protect the women and that most of the women are the men’s most prized possessions, as nowhere else in the book does it say this, although the women would give up their life to save the men, yet probably still not vice versa, as the males still see themselves as the higher class. Another quote that could display this is where Victor’s father met Caroline Beaufort and he
“He came like a protecting spirit to the poor girl, who committed herself to his care”
When Caroline had just become “an orphan and a beggar” after the recent death of her father, Victor’s father came as the man to save her, almost like the knight in shining armour:
“He strove to shelter her, as a fair exotic is sheltered by the gardener, from every rougher wind…”
This was only performed by the men to the more beautiful, or at least more talented, of the beggars, that were once good friends or rich:
“Caroline Beaufort possessed a mind of an uncommon mould; and her courage rose to support her in her adversity”
And her father was once a good friend of the Frankenstein’s, until he passed away.
During the eighteenth century, another social ideal is that the men are supposed to hold to their opinions, about what they do, the religion they believe in etc., although the women are supposed to follow what the man of the house (the husband or father) does. A good example of this in ‘Frankenstein’ is where Victor reads a book and his father replies to what he is reading:
“Ah, Cornelius Agrippa! My dear Victor, do not waste your time upon this; it is sad trash.”
Normally, a woman would be expected to stop reading this, but a man would have the decision to carry on reading, or to stop. In this case Victor acknowledged his father although continued to read:
“And I continued to read with greatest avidity”
Thus showing that the men can decide what they want but if this was changed around then Victor’s father would tell Elizabeth to stop reading the book, not just ask, showing the men to have more freedom than the women. A second point showing that the men have more freedom than the women is that in ‘Frankenstein’, Victor is asked if he wants to go to study at a university in Ingolstadt to fulfil his “thirst for knowledge” whereas Elizabeth is asked nothing of the kind and is left to busy herself with the home left behind by Victor, after Caroline’s death from Scarlet Fever. Here we can see that Victor is much more entitled to an education so that he could have a well respected position in society later on in life. But on the other hand, Elizabeth does not have the choice to go away and study for a better education but is left at the house to look after it and the rest of the family giving the men more freedom and less responsibility. This basically brings us onto another point is that the occupation’s of the men to the women change. This is based upon earlier life where the men had the better education than the women so the women stay at home with the men going out and earning the family’s main source of money.
The men at this time where considered much more important than the women. This is displayed in the text by as little as who narrates the play. Although this is a minor idea, it is also fairly important. During the play there are three narrators, Victor Frankenstein, the Monster, and Henry Clerval. All the female characters in the play are talking either indirectly through one of these three narrators or through a letter. This shows that the women do not have the main authority over men and are supposedly considered ‘dumb’, after not going to further education, or just in the minority and would not be listened to by the masculine sex.
In life, when something bad happens to someone, the females are normally the ones to cry more than the males. The eighteenth century people believed strongly about this and thought that the women were weaker than the females. This is also displayed in the play, for example, when William was strangled by the monster, and the family found out of his death it was only the female characters that began to cry, while the males stood strong. This idea of the masculine characters being strong is also shown in their physical appearance and intelligence. Where, with the physical appearance the men are the stronger with the female the weaker, again bringing us to the point that the men are the ones that need protect the women. In the terms of intelligence, the men go off to university, while the women staying at home, giving the whole idea that the men are more capable mentally than the women, either knowing more at that time or just through learning and studying more, of course as well as physically and emotionally. This goes against the women, again, showing that they are weaker and worse than their opposite sex. One point that goes against this is that it was William that was killed by the monster, not Justine, who was killed indirectly through the monster’s action of giving her the locket. This could show that the women may be harder to kill, although it is probably that the monster had more feelings for the opposite sex, despite the males being stronger.
In conclusion, it is quite obvious that there were strong constraints upon the women, that is, that they were weaker, bringing around the restraints like the men should be the ones to earn the money, while the women are the ones to stay at home with the house, also other factors like the men have freedom, not so much the women. With further people taking this more seriously, the men become the ones who later feel it is their job to protect the women and the like. It is clear that these ideas were shown in the book ‘Frankenstein’, most probably to help her make the book seem more realistic. The characters split into two groups: males and females, act as nearly complete opposites and like how I first mentioned in the introduction, i.e. the men go out to work while the women stay at home. Probably the best comparison of these is Victor and Elizabeth, the two main characters of their sex in the book, who display all that I have said in this essay, almost in a copied manner.