• Identify what you think is the main theme of Frankenstein and explain why you think so.

For example at each crisis episode , these women are unable to react promptly and properly . At the death of William Elizabeth , the most elaborated female character of the novel "fainted and was restored with extreme difficulty (Shelley 70 . Justine behaves in the similar fashion "[T]he morning on which the murder of poor William had been discovered , Justine had been taken ill , and confined to her bed for several days (Shelley 76 . Their existence is overshadowed by male characters . They behave passively and try to comply with needs of their males . After the

deaths of William and Justine , Elizabeth tells Victor "These events have affected me , God knows how deeply but I am not so wretched as you are . Have we lost the power of rendering you happy (Shelley 90

Professor Smith 's second major argument is related to the domestic span of the social life represented in Frankenstein . She is of the view that states Shelley has created a complete disparity in the domestic life of the two genders and separation of their spheres of activities . She asserts that Frankenstein family has a "bookkeeping mentality " about them (Smith 279 . She further states that this bookkeeping mentality can be discerned from the inappropriate and exaggerated thankfulness and gratitude shown by the each member of Frankenstein family

So above mentioned arguments and textual evidence suggest that feminism remaina main concern for Shelley and she portrays it successfully through various thematic manifestions in the novel .References

Goulding , Christopher . The real doctor Frankenstein ? Journal of the Royal Society of

Medicine . 2002 . Volume 95 . 257-259

Mellor , Anne K . Mary Shelley : Her Life , Her Fiction , Her Monsters . New York : Metheun

1988

Shelley , Mary . Frankenstein . Ed . J . Paul Hunter . A Norton Critical Edition . New York

W . W . Norton Company , 1996

Smith , Johanna M "Cooped Up : Feminine Domesticity...