Rethinking Elizabeth Lavenza

Rationale for Role:

Although in Frankenstein, Mary Shelley says little about the character of Elizabeth, the few scenes that we see her in are quite revealing. Much of Victor’s initial depiction constructs Elizabeth as a stereotypical pinnacle of femininity: “Her figure was light and airy; and . . . she appeared the most fragile creature in the world” (20). Further on, though, Victor establishes that Elizabeth has a powerful imagination she uses to re-imagine the world. Unlike Victor to whom the world was “a secret, which [he] desired to discover,” he states that Elizabeth “sought to people [the world] with imaginations of her own” (20). In relaying Elizabeth’s tortured reaction to Justine Moritz’s unfair trial, moreover, Victor reveals Elizabeth’s dissatisfaction with the current juridical system. She questions a system that responds to murder with its own violent punishment as she explains, “when one creature is murdered, another is immediately deprived of life in a slow torturing manner; then the executioners, their hands yet reeking with the blood of innocence, believe that they have done a great deed?” (62). The injustice of this “retribution” is heightened by Justine’s innocence, which Elizabeth proclaims to the court during Justine’s trial (63). Through the representation of Elizabeth’s character and words, Shelley depicts Elizabeth as intelligent, courageous and principled, which subtly contests the narrow view of womanhood Victor intially conveys in his portrayal of his cousin.

Rationale for Move 2:

Rationale for Move 3:

Works Cited

Shelley, Mary.  Frankenstein.  New York:  Pearson/Longman, 2007.  Print.