Literature: Brides of Frankenstein

The brides of Frankenstein were raised in this separate sphere philosophy. Of them only one, Safie the Arabian, left home in any real sense. Caroline Beaufort's life is a parody of the Cinderella tale. Alphonse a much older, rich, ex-politician, married her when she was left destitute by her father. Mary Shelley describes the way that this relationship was understood:

He came like a protecting spirit to the poor girl, who committed herself to his care...Everything was made to yield to her wishes and her convenience. He strove to shelter her, as a fair exotic is sheltered by the gardener, from every rough wind, and to surround her with all that could tend to excite pleasurable emotion in her soft and benevolent mind.

On first glance it appears that the affectionate Alphonse was being kind to Caroline but, when looked at from a deeper perspective, it is more likely that the only way he could contain her strength was to make her into an infant. Caroline was strong and when put to the test actually supported her sick father and later carried on an effective service to the poor. One wonders if she would not have made an equally effective council-person in the Swiss canton as Alphonse.

Locked out of the outer male world she expressed her power within the home. The way in which she did this was through child rearing. Her children were her means of expressing power. In fact, Caroline adopted the power of a Roman patriarch when she presented her son with the gift of a sister.

On the evening previous to her being brought to my home, my mother had said playfully, "I have a pretty present for my Victor - tomorrow he shall have it." And when on the morrow, she presented Elizabeth to me as her promised gift, I, with childish seriousness, interpreted her words literally and looked upon Elizabeth as mine - mine to protect, love and cherish.

Caroline made a gift of Elizabeth, a second time, when she arranged the marriage of Victor and Elizabeth for the purpose of consoling Alphonse in his grief and providing for a successor to her motherly role.

She joined the hands of Elizabeth and myself: "My children," she said, "my firmest hope of future happiness were placed on the prospect of your union. This expectation will now be the consolation of your father. Elizabeth, my love, you must supply my place to my younger children."

Caroline's actions display a sort of domestic mandarinism which was calculating and far from the fragile exotic in need of protection. She was insuring that her influence on the domestic domain would continue and that she was fulfilling her duty and obligation as a mother and wife.

Throughout Frankenstein, physical appearance operates as a kind of cipher for spiritual disposition. Mary Shelley uses attraction and beauty to establish sympathetic responses in her characters all the while criticizing this practice by having the ugliest character, the Monster, display the most humane emotions and thoughts. There is something far more spiritually beautiful about the Monster than any man or woman in the novel. The most physically beautiful person in the novel is undoubtedly Elizabeth. At an early age she was set apart by beauty:

Her hair was the brightest living gold, and despite the poverty of her clothing, seemed to set a crown of distinction on her head. Her brow was clear and ample, her blue eyes cloudless, and her lips and the moulding of her face so expressive of sensibility and sweetness that none could behold her without looking on her as of a distinct species, a being heaven-sent, and bearing a celestial stamp in all her features.

Just as she was an object of loveliness to others, she concerned herself with things of aesthetical beauty. "She busied herself with following the aerial creations of the poets; and in the majestic and wondrous scenes which surrounded our Swiss home." This appreciation of appearance can be contrasted with Victor who strove to get at the deep roots of things and the principles behind them. Given the separate sphere setting, it was much easier for her to passively observe and be observed than actively engage in outward life. Conversely, Victor seems to lack an aesthetic value when he creates a functionally superior though hideous monster. It would have done him well to reflect on the overall impression that an eight foot tall collage of human body parts would make on an observer. Working in partnership on the project may have ameliorated much suffering. While they were complementary in character, partnership was not in the destiny of Elizabeth and Victor.

Elizabeth shares the same sense of domestic restriction and duty as Caroline. She lost her grief in caring for Caroline's surviving family. Elizabeth becomes a surrogate mother and wife to Alphonse Frankenstein. Along with this role came a penchant for jealousy and protectiveness which is revealed by the fact that while fond of Justine she never ceases to distinguish between the superiority of her role in the family and Justine's. Elizabeth's ambivalence is evident even when pleading for Justine's life during the court scene. She unnecessarily says,

She nursed Madame Frankenstein, my aunt, in her last illness with the greatest affection and care and afterwards attended her own mother during a tedious illness...she was beloved by all the family.

In these few words, Elizabeth is intent on displaying Caroline Frankenstein as her aunt, a distinction she doesn't want shared with the servant Justine. A more effective, and perhaps, more accurate defence of Justine would have been that she was virtually "one of the family"; not merely, "beloved by the family". Elizabeth fashioned herself the mother of William, "my darling William... my little infant", even though Justine had more direct contact and responsibility for him. In the court case, arguing for Justine's life, it would have been less self serving and effective to have said that the servant had the bonds of a mother to William. In the domestic sphere with power at a premium it is not unlikely for women to see other women as competitors for the role of matriarch. While subtle, I think that this idea lies beneath the Elizabeth Justine relationship.

1 [ 2 ] 3 Next