Possessing Nature: The Female in Frankenstein

• Victor's underlying desire to create a society for men is indirectly revealed in his construction of the creature. By becoming a "father," he renders the ultimate purpose of the female being null and void. He then proceeds to create a male being in his pseudo-fatherhood and later, refuses to create a female. 
• Masculine power and feminine affection being further divided by males being public figures (doctors, scientists, explorers) and women only being private, domestic figures (housewives, servants, care-takers) serves to show that women cannot function effectively in the public realm (example- Elizabeth is unable to save Justine). The monster reads selected works and learns of the viciousness of man/suggestion that separation of female affection from the public realm has yielded to much of the cruelty that ensued.
• Shelley uses the De Lacey family to embody the virtues, as well as Mary Wollstonecraft. The symbolic names of the characters are that Felix means happiness, Agatha means goodness, and Safie means wisdom. Safie, like Wollstonecraft, traveled alone through Europe and Scandinavia, and had a mother that instructed her to seek independence and wisdom, and advocated women participating in the public realm.
• Frankenstein is driven by a great internal fear of female sexuality. To rationalize the destruction of his female creature, he uses fear of her: asserting her own existence, being unattractive, finding herself drawn to human mates, and reproducing. These fears defy the norm that women should be small and delicate, or acquiesce to demands. 
• Nature is personified as a female throughout the novel because Frankenstein robbed Mother Nature of her purpose of creating life. After Victor creates the monster, his encounters with nature and the creature are generally dangerous. Example: In the Alps (also described as female) heavy rains pour as he meets with the creature (one of Victor's punishments for transgressing nature's boundaries).