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Abstract

Being a pivotal period in Western feminist history, the literary community in the 18th century introduced pioneering feminists, the most famous of which is Mary Wollstonecraft, who called for a feminist revolution with A Vindication of the Rights of Women. Following the publication of A Vindication of the Rights of Women and other subsequent feminist papers, are Mary Shelley's 1818 Frankenstein and Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 The Scarlet Letter, two renowned pieces of Gothic literature. Although the two novels may seem disconnected, both Frankenstein and The Scarlet Letter engage in feminist arguments and critiques of the patriarchy in regard to women's permanent and unacknowledged status as caretakers within their households. Through the lack of female representation from a male point of view, Shelley uses her male characters' relationships with women to criticize the treatment of women as motherly figures. Through a Puritanical society's treatment of a female character, Hawthorne criticizes the idea of separate spheres, arguing that women belong in both the public and domestic spheres. The distinct feminist arguments of Hawthorne and Shelley can be argued to be a result of their biographical aspects. As a White woman living in a patriarchal society and the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, Shelley had a more direct connection to and understanding of the inherent, structural misogyny present in 19th-century England. Although Hawthorne had to bear witness to the misogynistic mistreatment of his mother, Elizabeth Clarke Manning, that was set forth by Puritanical society in the 19th century of the United States, his status as a White man influenced his understanding of feminism and his connection to patriarchal structures. While both novels engage with feminist arguments, Frankenstein is more influential in the feminist realm through its harsher criticisms of the patriarch.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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