Representations of Women through Absences in
Frankenstein 1
By Mina Zare Karizi , Islamic Azad University and Payam-e-Noor University
On the face of it , Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley ’ s Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus ( 1818 ) reduces or completely excludes the feminine element . However , in line with the theory of écriture féminine , I believe that the feminine in Frankenstein is to be located “ in the gaps , the absences , the unsayable or unrepresantable of discourse and representation ” ( O ’ Neill 290 ). Écriture féminine is a space in the textual production that can be entitled “ feminine ” and is located under the surface of the masculine discourse and only occasionally appears above the stage in the form of distractions of masculine language . In her Frankenstein , Shelly shows signs that spring from those distractions through which feminine figures try to obliquely express themselves .
The stories of Victor , the Being , Henry , Robert Walton , and to some extent Alphonse Frankenstein are apparently categorized as the “ dominant ” ones in Frankenstein whereas the life stories of Caroline , Elizabeth , Justine and 1
This article is based on the writer ’ s M . A . thesis , Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley ’ s Frankenstein in Light of Feminism , September 2005 .
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