Cultural Background

During Mary Shelley’s time women of her age lacked power and were in the shadow of men. It’s believed that she passed this part of her culture into the novel. The women in the novel were not well rounded and this showed the lack of power women had during that time. The monster itself is also considered to depict the women during her time because it was controlled by the male character in the novel. The Monster was also purposefully depicted as to have very little intelligence, physically independent and free of strict control. Like the monster that had no name, Mary Shelley herself was nameless as the author of this novel because of the culture during that time. Her name appeared five years later in 1823 in the second edition.