Objectification Of Women In Frankenstein

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How the female deaths in Perfume and Frankenstein contribute to objectification Defined by Evangelia Papadaki, Objectification is “seeing and/or treating a person, usually a woman, as an object.” Many times in literature, writers create female character and are used as objects rather than actual characters, and often times these “objects” are used to further the male characters and discarded when there purpose in the text have been fulfilled. Two examples of this is Perfume: The Story of a Murder written by Patrick Süskind and the famous Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley. These texts are both guilty of using the female characters as nothing more than a plot device. According to Martha Nussbaum, a philosopher, there are seven features of…show more content…
Elizabeth is not introduced as a person but rather a gift, something to be owned. Victor uses possessive vocabulary to describe their relationship “She was to be mine only” (29). Victor also viewed Elizabeth as not her own individual but as an extension of himself. This is apart of the stigma that women is not a full person but rather an extension of male. In Beauvoir’s most famous work, The Second Sex, she states “Humanity is male, and male defines women, not in herself, but in relation to himself.” When Victor states, “All praises bestowed on her I received as made to a possession of my own.” he saying he does not see her as her own individual worthy of her own praise but rather, he owns her praise, and this is because he owns…show more content…
This role carries with her until her very death. Her death was nothing more than the destruction of Frankenstein’s property. Elizabeth becomes a victim of the creature, when the creature decides to use him to get revenge on Victor for destroying what was suppose to be his wife. Her death was only a tool that the creature used to hurt Victor in the worst way possible. So not only was her character was a victim of instrumentality, but denial of subjectivity. Unlike the creatures other murders Elizabeth personally has never hurt the monster, her using her death just shows her lack of personhood, and furthers proves her objectification, by not being treated as her own individual.
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