Feminism and Education in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

In her most famous work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft commented that "the education which women now receive scarcely deserves the name" (109). Less than thirty years later, her daughter, Mary Shelley, would write a novel that tells the story of a monster and his creator, which appears to contradict her mother's work with its variety of weak female characters. However, on closer inspection, Frankenstein has a more intriguing story to tell. Abandoned by his creator, the monster must depend upon his own resources in order to educate himself; likewise, women of the time often found their education abandoned by society, and were forced to take matters in their own hands. Keeping this parallel in mind, the disgustingly weak Frankenstein women represent what was socially expected of women at the time, while the monster represents the only alternative available: self education. That the monster murders all of the Frankenstein women is symbolic of the efforts of educated women to undermine the severely limiting expectations traditionally placed upon them.�

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, an eighteenth century philosopher and an important contemporary of Mary Wollstonecraft, states in his book, Emile:�

In the union of the sexes, each alike contributes to the common end though in different ways… One should be strong and active, the other weak and passive; one must necessarily have both the power and the will, it is sufficient for the other to offer little resistance. (Jean-Jacques)�