Lucy Goodfellow The Handmaid’s Tale and Frankenstein Essay Practice

Compare the ways in which writers of your two chosen texts present the role of gender in the
misuse of science.

You must relate your discussion to contextual factors.

Within the pages of Margret Atwood’s dystopian novel ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ (1985) and Mary
Shelly’s Georgian novel ‘Frankenstein’ (1818) both writers presents the misuse of science to be
something that is greatly impacted by the gender of the characters. Characters within the novels
both conform and subvert to gender stereotypes in order in order to dictate their position in the
writer’s story. In Atwood’s novel her male characters are dominating figures that use science as a
tool to supress science and the female characters that they are above in the patriarchy of this
society. Similarly in Shelly’s novel Victor Frankenstein and his “wretch” of a “creature” are
characterised similarly, this can be best seen in the protagonists wish to misuse science to eliminate
women from the reproductive cycle.

Males are intrinsically linked to the misuse of science in both Atwood and Shelly’s novels, the male
characters are the instigating factor of such transgression stemming from the misuse of science and
it’s following moral adversity to the opposite sex and indeed themselves due to their lack of thought.
Both Atwood and Shelly create male characters that misuse science in their novels, the most notable
figure in Shelly’s Frankenstein is the eponymous protagonist himself whom is instigator of this
misuse of science. The characters attempt to “peruse nature to her hiding places” and create a
“new species” that will “bless me as their creator”. Here, the personification of the abstract force of
nature itself as a fleeing female notes also that females were said to be weak and against the
opposite gender but by extension complicit in there passivity to the misuse if science. However, the
creature- coded male after being created with the “prime” parts of the body, and his subsequent
destruction of the Delacy microcosm is not only telling of Shelly’s beliefs surrounding the impact of
other more plausible products of the misuse of science which were becoming a terrifying prospect at
the time but also that males themselves where to be the one that would bring the downfall of
humanity. This would have appealed to audiences of the time who would have feared Shelly’s
protagonist- arguably the primary archetype mad scientist, not only for his greave robbing escapades
(a real threat to a person’s love ones at the time) but also because men like him where feared to
misuse science and have the power to do so due to the patriarchal system the then society
possessed. This is still a worry in the modern world as Atwood presents in her novel The Handmaid’s
Tale, in which the Commander and other men ruling the misogynist theocracy misuse science in such
a way that it is still linked intrinsically to the running of the society with its “walking wombs”
(emphasising the importance of fertility by creating automaton imagery) - and authenticating the
argument that this is indeed like Shelly’s novel a work of science fiction with their unbelievable
bodily imagery. However science is still misused being almost outlawed with what little science still
allowed to enter society being governed by a misogynistic totalitarian theocracy that will “return
things to what’s right” although “what’s right” may not be right “for all” due to its subjectivity.
Therefore both Atwood and Shelly present the male role in the misuse of science to be one
intrinsically linked to the aforementioned.

Female suffering due to the misuse of science and the male ego features prominently in both novels
showing the timeless nature and thus the relatability of this theme. This can be seen best with the
death of Elizabeth in Frankenstein at the hands of the creature- already established as the
personification of then advanced alchemy or “natural philosophy” with his body created with
“pieces” found in “charnel” and “slaughter” houses –implying that the male role in the domination
of sciences is an unnatural and indeed a “monstrous thing”. In dichotomy to the creatures
dominating male-dom Elizabeth’s pacifying characterisation and the characters embodiment of
Lucy Goodfellow The Handmaid’s Tale and Frankenstein Essay Practice

feminine tropes- being “caring” and “The living spirit of love” (to a fault) to all that she meets and
her subsequent destruction at the hands of the male creature. Shelly’s use of “angelic” imagery with
the character of Elizabeth foreshadows her death as it implies that she doesn’t belong in the world
of the living and her lexical choices for the character stand it dichotomy to the ones surrounding
Victor and the creature (as well as other male characters) this again implies that she is not long for
this world as she cannot adapt to survive in the world now dominated by science being a
romanticist. This would entertain modern audiences as it serves to comment of the then current
socioeconomic climate and show that shelly believes that the advancing nature of science and its
possibility for misuse-explored by “supernatural” destructive force of the creature, would
irreparably damage the “innocents” of those “unable to protect themselves”. Similarly Atwood’s
Janine and her metaphorical death due to the misuse of science can be likened to Elizabeth’s
destruction at the hands of the male creature she is living as “agreeably as possible” shows she is
passive in the face of such misuse of science by males as the character is unable break free from the
patriarchal by in place of Gilead’s theocracy it is almost as though she makes the misuse of science
as ultimate damaging to females. This is mimetic of the time in which Atwood wrote her novel as
decline birth rates, infant death and genetic defects. Where common due to the man’s lack of
proper drug testing and preventative measures to avoid STI’s. Therefore readers could relate to
Janine’s struggle against the regime. Here Atwood was also be attempting to educate the readers of
her novel and give it a didactic message. She is telling women not to be passive in the face of
adversity caused by the misuse for science and that there gender should not be the defining force in
their lie that found lead them like the characters in her novel to become “Handmaid” products of
the regime. Similarly Shelly defines the powerlessness of women be a negative with the death of
Justine who will like Atwood’s character of Janine die to her unwillingness to overcome the male
dominated society. However in the portrayal of the characters death as something understandably
negative it can be said that Shelly portrayed this hyperbolically when she “did confess; but I
confessed a lie. … I was condemned, my confessor has besieged me; he threatened and menaced,
until I almost began to think that I was the monster that he said I was…” to show the passivity of
women was not an option due to the astounding oppression and negative things that it led to.
However with Atwood’s novels open ending and the death of the creature and Victor himself and
since Shelly nor Atwood present so the reader with a solution to the male dominated world that
caused and maintains the misuse of science and the female suffering that this caused, it can be said
neither writer knew of a future in which this could be overcome. Yet shelly may have some hope for
the future with the character of Walton who grew under “Your gentle and feminine fosterage” yet
possess the “body of a gentleman” and his decision that he would “would not lead them further
north” into danger and the possibility of further misuse of science, shelly presents a man that may
not adhere to the negative qualities of his gender and instead can change the fate of society.
In conclusion both Shelly and Atwood present the role of gender in the misuse of science as
something that is intrinsically linked to male domination of society. There portal of this negatively
shows that both writers condemned male domination and female submissiveness in the face of the
misuse of science and that the issue must be acted upon in order for it to improve. However the
nihilistic portray of the futures presented in both novels and their lack of an explicit solution implies
that both writers felt that this problem was too current and large for a simple solution to fix.