by Larry Lounsbury

Created on: September 16, 2010

In Mary Shelly's Frankenstein you see the changes that society was going through in the egality of women as well as human rights in general. This essay analyzes how giving rights to the opposite sex created questions in the real and fictional world of author Mary Shelly.

     In the beginning God created Man, then woman was formed from Adam’s rib. Eve’s temptation in tasting the fruit from the Tree of knowledge set mankind on an epic journey across the seas of time to a place where female author Mary Shelley, in her novel “Frankenstein” poses a premise,  All Mankind’s fate and freewill are tied to body, soul, and spirit?  

     Mary Shelly aptly calls her novel “Frankenstein or, The Modern Prometheus” in three volumes.   In a type of reenactment of Prometheus, her main character Victor Frankenstein becomes Prometheus archetype by rejecting the tradition, custom and Mores of his forefathers.  Just as Prometheus had rejected giving Zeus his sacrificial due, the natural death and decay of the body are rejected by Victor as well. “Under the guidance of my new preceptors, I entered with the greatest diligence into the search for the philosophers stone and the elixir of life ; but the later soon obtained my undivided attention,”(Mary Shelley,47).

      In the ancient story of Prometheus, Zeus punishes Prometheus by ordering the creation of Pandora, the first woman; whom would deliver misfortune into the house of man. Similarly in the Bible, a Prophetic truth is included that states, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.(KJV. Genesis 3:15). Likewise, in Shelley’s novel; Victor faces the dilemma of allowing the chance of a new race of beings to compete with mankind. He ultimately destroys his female creation, but in so doing seals the fate of his new wife Elizabeth; and his father as well.  “If I were engaged in a high undertaking or design, front with extensive utility to my fellow creatures, then could I live to fulfill it. But such is not my destiny; I must pursue and destroy the being whom I gave existence; then my lot on earth will be fulfilled, and I may die.”(Shelley,181).

     If there is a psychoanalytic criticism of the novel “ Frankenstein”, it must

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