JF Ptak Science Books Post 2705
Why did Dr. Frankenstein create a male and not a female being? I guess it would be easy to slip into a rolling piece of guesswork as to why the good doctor took on what he referred to as feminine Nature to substitute himself for the job and bring forth yet another male.
It is perhaps a little odd that Mary Shelley took this route, given her proto-feminist-founding mother and anarchist father, but then again her novel was published in 1818 when she was all of 21, which means she probably wrote it in her ‘teens, which means there was only so much time at that point to have given much long thought to the rights of women ideas. Or not—this is purely speculative. In any event, I liked the idea of the question.
Victor Frankenstein did indeed nearly create a female being, and was half-way or so there. He wasn’t a fan of this thinking earlier on in the novel, as we hear him addressing his Monster:
- “Abhorred monster fiend that thou art the tortures of hell are too mild a vengeance for thy crimes. Wretched devil you reproach me with your creation come on then that I may extinguish the spark which I so negligently bestowed…” (By the way, “sparks” is what brought the Frankenstein’s creation to life, this being an early heyday of electricity, though “spark” is mentioned only three other times in the book.)
His creation pleaded with him for companionship, but old Dr. Vic thought better of the idea and destroyed “her”, ripping the new creation literally limb from limb. It is an unpretty story, though the case made to the doctor from his “monster” is excellent, and I include a good selection of the dialog below.