Raising opposition to common phenomena exclusively can only go so far: talking about a new contrary and usually unwanted opinion. The crucial ingredient to making a significant impact with a foreign idea is to make a statement so inconspicuous that a person with contrary views, perhaps, can alter one's way of thinking, but only if one believes in individual control of this process . arises. Mary Shelley exercises this method in her novel Frankenstein to challenge a basic idea in patriarchal societies. Common patriarchal beliefs assume that women should stay at home where they are safe and that men should venture into the unknown – because, unlike women, they are deemed suited to the unstable and unpredictable external sphere. Shelley thus creates a fictional story of an exaggerated patriarchal society which consequently leads to a terrible end for each character. This is a story in which women simply have no purpose, men behave as if their power is unlimited, and the functions of nature are violated. Anne K. Mellor, in her piece “Possessing Nature: The Female in Frankenstein,” analyzes the intricate ways in which Mary Shelley discreetly condemns Victor Frankenstein for his sexist views and actions. Victor, who represents a patriarchal mind, is an example that Shelley creates of what repercussions will arise without social equality for men and women. While readers may be able to catch hints of this tactic as presented in the novel, Mellor remarkably connects all the dots that Shelley has incorporated and is able to form Shelley's argument cohesively into one essay. By considering both Shelley's novel and Mellor's criticism together, a reader is able to see Frankenstein in a new light. Shelley isn't just preaching feminism; he is creating an allegory for the reader, as a society controlled only by men is naturally doomed due to a man's innate character. Using textual and contextual support, Mellor's critique is quite irrefutable: Frankenstein is a lecture to his readers, a lesson. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In order to fully convey her argument to the reader, Mary Shelley had to make every aspect of the novel, including the setting, the cause of its own demise. To create this manufactured patriarchal environment, Mary Shelley bases Victor Frankenstein's society on a “rigid division of sexual roles: the male inhabits the public sphere, the female is relegated to the private or domestic sphere” (Mellor 356). Males work outside the home, “as civil servants (Alphonse Frankenstein), as scientists (Victor), as traders (Clerval and his father), or as explorers (Walton)” (Mellor 356) while women are confined to the home. In addition to being limited to the private sphere, women were reduced to pets (Elizabeth), caretakers (Caroline, Margaret) or servants (Justine). Victor even goes so far as to compare Elizabeth to his pet when he says that he "loved to take care" of Elizabeth "as I should a favorite animal." (Shelley 30) Victor's foundation in this Genevan society is certainly the essence of male hierarchy, and Shelley used this solution because the only way to have a significant impact on the reader was to create a scenario of the very concept that she denounced: unequal distribution of power between the sexes. Anne K. Mellor begins her essay with this idea, because she believes that Mary Shelley based her novel on a simple “cause and effect” approach. Withoutthis setting/foundation established at the beginning, all the “effects” would be varied and, therefore, the reader would not see the book as a lesson. But, fortunately, Shelley identifies the agent. Even before explaining the major results of such a rigid society, Shelley does more than just identify the source of the impending collapse in the first part of the novel. To remind the reader of what is the instigator of each death that occurs, he drops sub-plots throughout the tale that take the form of microcosms for the entire story's "cause and effect" statement. Mellor's essay draws attention to each of them so that the analysis becomes almost simple for the reader. For example, Caroline Beaufort (Victor's mother), who can easily be overlooked and identified as unimportant, is very crucial to the plot, as Mellor points out. Mellor notes that Caroline was devoted to her father regardless of his financial situation until his death, married her father's best friend (to whom she was equally devoted), and then died while nursing Elizabeth during a smallpox epidemic that " embodies a patriarchal ideal of a self-sacrificing woman” (Mellor 357). Another substantial subplot that Mellor notes is the wrongful execution of Justine Moritz for the murder of William Frankenstein and the fact that Elizabeth's voice is deemed useless when it comes to Justine's defense women outside the family, the “passionate defense that Elizabeth gives to Justine” perhaps could have saved Justine from execution (Mellor 357 events, Mellor rightly attests, remind readers of what a patriarchal society represents . After considering these scattered microcosms, Mellor delves into the main domino theory presented in the novel: fear of female sexuality and abuse of a woman's natural abilities (ideal in a patriarchal society) leads to destruction and punishment. Victor Frankenstein embodies both “causes” and, as stated before, also serves as the embodiment of the values ​​of a patriarchal society. This is why Mellor focused on him primarily as a source of analysis. Victor's disgust for females is “manifested most vividly in Victor's response to the creature's request for a mate” (Mellor 359). Although Victor initially felt sympathy for the creature's bitter efforts and promised to create a female creature like Eve to Adam, after starting the creation of the female, he decides to stop his work. Victor says: "I was about to form another being, whose dispositions I was ignorant of; he might become ten thousand times more malignant than his companion, and take pleasure, for himself, in murder and misery. He had sworn to do so." abandon the neighborhood of men and hide in the deserts; but she doesn't; and she, who in all likelihood would have become a thinking and reasoning animal, could have refused to respect a pact made before her creation... Even if they had. leave Europe and inhabit the deserts of the new world, but one of the first results of those sympathies for which the demon thirsted would be children, and a race of devils would be propagated on earth that could make the very existence of the species of man a precarious and terror-filled condition" (Shelley 163). Most readers might view Victor's thought process as relatively reasonable: why should Victor not expect another creature to have the same desires as his first.