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Mary Shelley’s mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, was a pioneering feminist, so it’s not surprising that Frankenstein has quite a bit to say about women and society. But you won’t hear Shelley’s feminist message from the women in Frankenstein. No, you’ll find it in the monster himself.

Video Transcription:

Frankenstein’s monster is a character in this story … and it’s also a symbol. At least, that’s what some people say. We’ll check out the meaning of the monster—so stay with me.

So one thing you may have noticed about this story is that its women are pretty passive.

And this comes as sort of a surprise, since Mary Shelley’s mother was a feminist. For someone raised in a household where the rights of women where so important, why didn’t Shelley write better female characters?

Here’s the subversive thing. Shelley actually made a pretty important statement about women. But she did it through the monster, not through her female characters.

Frankenstein’s monster is rejected and abused because he dares to try to be human—to be equal to a man

That’s why some critics have argued that Frankenstein’s monster is a symbol of the fate of women who don’t live up to society’s expectations of them. And the result is that they are treated like “creatures,” instead of human beings. In other words, the monster is a symbol of the woman’s struggle in Shelley’s time.

Actually, that was pretty smart of Shelley. Strong female characters may not have gotten people’s attention. But a monster? Now there’s a feminist statement that’s hard to ignore.