It is undeniable that Mary Shelley was a progressive young woman for her time – she was a writer in the early 19th century, when the vast majority of the population thought that women should be seen and not heard, limited to raising children and possibly running the household – and yet she portrays women in her novel as passive, incapable of actively running their own lives and instead submissive. In the face of death, both Catherine and Justine accept this as the fate they have been given and make no visible attempt at fighting for their survival; once death seems inevitable, they both seem to give up any will to live. Elizabeth, the main woman in the novel, is even passive to the point of tying her emotions to a man – when Frankenstein suffers, she suffers; she cannot be happy unless her beloved is happy. Even a female character that never becomes animated is passive and controlled by men, as the female monster has any chance of creation snubbed by Dr. Frankenstein.
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Women in "Frankenstein": are points of rest,anchors in the infernal toil of ambition. Except for Walton's sister, each is systematically destroyed. Platonic love with a touch of eros is never so well expressed as between Walton and his fateful passenger, Frankenstein.
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