Feminism in Frankenstein Introduction Essay

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Frankenstein, Mary Shelley claims that the Publishers of Standard Novels specifically requested that she "furnish them with some account of the origin of the story," (16). However, the Publishers of Standard Novels did not simply want to know how the author had considered the main premise, plot, and theme of the Frankenstein story but that the story -- and its female authorship -- seemed contrary to prevailing gender norms. According to Shelley, the publishers wondered, "how I, then a young girl, came to think of, and to dilate upon, so very hideous an idea?" (16). If young girls were supposed to be sugar, spice, and everything nice, then a story about a monstrous creation would seem antithetical to the 19th century feminine ideal. Not only that, Mary Shelley intuited the publishers' surprise with the author's gender, for no sooner does Shelley launch into a carefully crafted response to their query, she does so in a subtly condescending tone that explains what no male author would deign to do: justify her choice of career. Whereas the publishers might have sought input into the genesis of the gothic tale, Shelley opts to mock and humor them with an overly detailed explication of how she, just a "girl," came to birth anything so sophisticated as a novel like Frankenstein. Also in the introduction to Frankenstein, Shelley does eventually describe her romantic longings for otherworldliness, fantasy, and the supernatural through encounters with nature and the darker side of human nature too. Therefore, the introduction to the 1831 edition of the novel Frankenstein promotes the novel as a whole by prompting the reader to pay attention to its autobiographical symbolism and feminist discourse within a Romantic framework.



The 1831 introduction shows that Shelley's Frankenstein is a novel that covertly addresses gender identity and explores the pitfalls of patriarchy. For one, the sardonic introduction lambastes the publishers' persistent questions about the origins of the novel, almost as if the publishers had been pestering Shelley because they did not believe that she was capable of writing the story herself.

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O'Rourke points out that in the 1831 edition in which the introduction appears, Shelley also amended and edited substantive elements of story itself, much to the chagrin of critics, who said that it was "a deliberate attempt on Mary Shelley's part to make a disturbing book more palatable for a conventional readership," (366). If this was the case, it was indeed her publishers pressuring Shelley for these changes, a career author made a ruthless yet strategic decision in so doing. The introduction justifies those changes, placing Shelley simultaneously in control of her literary legacy while also showing how the publishing industry demands a certain amount of pandering to social codes and conventions. As O'Rourke also notices, Shelley does mention in the introduction that the publishers had been pestering her for a period of exactly thirteen years, suggesting "both the persistence of the questioners and the relative disinterest, if not active resistance," of Shelley herself (367). Her resistance to their questions and her ironic response are in fact feminist approaches to taking back ownership of her own intellectual property.



A second reason why the 1831 introduction to Frankenstein is Shelley's attempt to highlight the feminist underpinnings of the novel is that she states outright how the story calls into question male and female gender roles. Women play supportive roles at best in the novel, as if deliberately drawing attention to their lack of political power or status. Shelley herself states of her origins as a writer, "I was not confined to my own identity," (16). By this, Shelley means that she refused to conform to gender codes and stereotypes, partly because she had long been a part of progressive literary circles and views herself -- outright affirms herself -- as an equal….....

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Works Cited

Johnson, Barbara. "My Monster/My Self." Diacritics, Vol. 12, No. 2, 1982, pp. 2-10.

Knoepflmacher, U.C. "Thoughts on the Aggression of Daughters." In Levine and Knoepflmacher (Eds). The Endurance of Frankenstein, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 49-76.

O'Rourke, James. "The 1831 Introduction and Revisions to Frankenstein: Mary Shelley Dictates Her Legacy." Studies in Romanticism, Vol. 38, No.3, Fall 1999, p. 365-385.

Rieger, James. "Dr. Polidori and the Genesis of Frankenstein." Studies in English Literature, Vol. 3, No. 4, 1963, pp. 461-472.

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Zorba Press Digital Edition. Retrieved online: http://tcpl.org/community-read/Frankenstein/mary1831.pdf

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