Why is Frankenstein Not a Woman?

Hey, I'm late again. Very. But that's okay because I don't really post like a lot of other people do; that is, my posts aren't usually directly related to that day's reading. Unless they are. In any event, here goes nothing.

In this post, I want to talk about the author of this novel, Mary Shelley (nee Godwin). As we learned in class her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, was one of the earliest writers to write about women's liberation issues. We see her and her husband's influence on the young Shelley's life in a lot of places. Wollstonecraft was one of the few advocates for the education of women during that period, and the writing of Shelley clearly exemplifies her quality of learning.

Having established all of that, why didn't Shelley write any of her most important characters as women? She must have known who her mother was and what she stood for, so why not attempt to further that cause? can think of a couple of reasons. Maybe she didn't agree with her mother's sentiment toward women's status in society. While it is an option, I consider that very unlikely. Rather, I think she understood a couple of things about the tragic male figure

Commonly, the male protagonist is a highly talented individual with great ambition, and such it is with Victor Frankenstein. Of course, this being a tragedy, Frankenstein's strengths can also be regarded as flaws. Bearing that in mind, I think Shelley used traits traditionally in the man's demesne to illustrate the ultimate fragility and potential for failure that is inherent in everyone. She deconstructs the idea of the "strong man" by making Frankenstein weak, pale, and scared of his own shadow by the end of the tale. Even if this was unintentional, by creating Frankenstein and making it okay for such a milquetoast protagonist to exist, Shelley helped even the playing field in her society.