Passive Women

Question 1

I hace a pretty present for my victor

Answer 1

Objectification and plosive alteration
Emphasises the passivity of women
Elizabeth’s only purpose is to be victors wife reneforces ideas of men owning women

Question 2

Saintly soul of Elizabeth’s hon like a shrine

Answer 2

Pinnacle of purity and innocence
Sibilance - soft tones suggests he’s worshiping her
No real character tho so objectification

Question 3

Birth of that passion which afterword mud my destiny

Answer 3

Adds to semantic field of birth
Foreshadowing

Question 4

Oh gif I have murdered my darling child

Answer 4

Takes responsibility for something she hasn’t done

Question 5

Safie resolved in her own mind the plan of conduct

Answer 5

Contrast to passivity of women
She’s independent

Question 6

It was a lady on horseback … wearing a suit

Answer 6

Reversal of gender roles
Independence
Confidence
Horseback riding and suits were seen as masculine things
However she also has a ‘veil’ covering her face which suggests that women need to be covered and modest

Question 7

Women are reduced in the novel to objects and are therefore presented as passive. Elizabeth falls victim to the sexualisation of women’s bodies even in death. On her death bead she is said to be “thrown across the bed” with her “pale distorted figures half covered by her hair” Shelley uses suggestive imagery to titilate the reader and to show that women will never really be able to escape the hypersexualisation and objectification of their bodies. This is the case even in early parts of the play when Victor claims his “more than cousin” ( in earlier editions “more than sister” ) is his by repeating the personal possessive pronoun “my” whenever referíng to her. Shelley does this perhaps to bring light to the horrors women have to face on the daily. It is sad to hear but even a modern day reader can relate to this as catcalling and the objectification of women’s bodies still happens today.