The Female Voice In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a layered narrative structure that gives three distinct (male) voices; that of Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein and his creature. Shelley’s use of these three voices—three perspectives—creates the story within a story feel of the tale being told. But because all the voices were male, she often received criticism about the lack of a female voice in her writing. To some, this lack came out of her role as the wife to Percy Shelly, and his possible influence on her writing. However, while Shelley stated that her husband wrote the preface (Shelley 25), it was her dream of the "pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together" (24) that she fleshed out into the novel. Many critics—past
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