Feminist Discourse in Shelley's 1831 Frankenstein Introduction

Introduction: A Young Girl and a Monstrous Idea

In her 1831 introduction to Frankenstein, Mary Shelley states that the Publishers of Standard Novels specifically requested that she "furnish them with some account of the origin of the story" (16). However, the publishers did not simply want to know how the author had conceived the main premise, plot, and theme of the Frankenstein story; rather, the story — and its female authorship — seemed contrary to prevailing gender norms. According to Shelley, the publishers wondered, "how I, then a young girl, came to think of, and to dilate upon, so very hideous an idea?" (16). If young girls were supposed to be sugar, spice, and everything nice, then a story about a monstrous creation would seem antithetical to the 19th-century feminine ideal.

Not only that, but Shelley intuited the publishers' surprise at her gender, for no sooner does she launch into a carefully crafted response to their query than she does so in a subtly condescending tone — explaining what no male author would ever be expected to do: justify her choice of career. Whereas the publishers might have sought insight into the genesis of the gothic tale, Shelley opts to mock and humor them with an overly detailed explication of how she, just a "girl," came to produce anything so sophisticated as a novel like Frankenstein. In the introduction, Shelley also describes her Romantic longings for otherworldliness, fantasy, and the supernatural through encounters with nature and the darker side of human experience. Therefore, the introduction to the 1831 edition promotes the novel as a whole by prompting the reader to pay attention to its autobiographical symbolism and feminist discourse within a Romantic framework.

The 1831 Introduction as Feminist Resistance

The 1831 introduction shows that Shelley's Frankenstein is a novel that covertly addresses gender identity and explores the pitfalls of patriarchy. The sardonic introduction lambastes the publishers' persistent questions about the origins of the novel, almost as if the publishers had been pestering Shelley because they did not believe she was capable of writing it herself. O'Rourke points out that in the 1831 edition in which the introduction appears, Shelley also amended and edited substantive elements of the story itself, much to the chagrin of critics, who argued that it was "a deliberate attempt on Mary Shelley's part to make a disturbing book more palatable for a conventional readership" (366). If this was the case — with her publishers pressuring her for these changes — a career author made a ruthless yet strategic decision in complying. The introduction justifies those changes, placing Shelley simultaneously in control of her literary legacy while also demonstrating how the publishing industry demands a certain degree of pandering to social codes and conventions.

As O'Rourke also notes, Shelley mentions in the introduction that the publishers had been pestering her for a period of exactly thirteen years, suggesting "both the persistence of the questioners and the relative disinterest, if not active resistance," of Shelley herself (367). Her resistance to their questions and her ironic response are, in fact, feminist strategies for reclaiming ownership of her own intellectual property.

Subverting Gender Roles Through Authorial Self-Presentation

A second reason why the 1831 introduction is Shelley's attempt to highlight the feminist underpinnings of the novel is that she states outright how the story calls into question male and female gender roles. Women play supportive roles at best in the novel, as if deliberately drawing attention to their lack of political power or status. Shelley herself states of her origins as a writer, "I was not confined to my own identity" (16). By this, Shelley means that she refused to conform to gender codes and stereotypes, partly because she had long been part of progressive literary circles and regarded herself — outright affirmed herself — as an equal of Percy Shelley and Lord Byron in the introduction.

The introduction to the 1831 edition can in fact be read as "an obsequious concession to the social codes that distinguish the proper lady from the woman writer," who is, essentially, a subversive figure (O'Rourke 365). Shelley coyly remarks that she was a "devout but nearly silent listener" — and yet not only did she share her tale of horror and the grotesque, but hers was the only tale to emerge from the chalet as a published success (Shelley 17). Shelley's story about how she, her husband Percy, and Lord Byron were exchanging ghost stories in a Swiss mountain cabin situates the author among two of the most prominent male figures in British literature, making her a self-affirmed equal and deflecting the derisive, misogynistic questions posed by the Publishers of Standard Novels.

Conclusion: Rebranding the Novel Against Patriarchy

Shelley's Frankenstein veils feminist discourse and autobiographical fact without deviating from the tropes of the grotesque, the absurd, and the phantasmagoric elements of Romantic literature. Whereas the original edition had to stand alone, the 1831 release included Shelley's introduction, which she claims was instigated by the publishers. Their demand for an explanation was an alarmingly sexist and insulting question, leading to her ironic and sarcastic account of how a "girl" could have conceived such grandiose and horrific themes rather than simply writing about conventionally feminine concerns like mothering.

Given Shelley's recent and devastating grief from losing an infant child, as well as her deep embeddedness in progressive literary circles, it makes sense that she would need to spell out — for a patriarchal public — the feminist undercurrents running through the novel. The 1831 introduction, far from being a simple preface, functions as a strategic, self-aware act of literary self-defense and feminist rebranding.

Works Cited

Johnson, Barbara. "My Monster/My Self." Diacritics, Vol. 12, No. 2, 1982, pp. 2–10.

Knoepflmacher, U.C. "Thoughts on the Aggression of Daughters." In Levine and Knoepflmacher (Eds.), The Endurance of Frankenstein. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 49–76.

O'Rourke, James. "The 1831 Introduction and Revisions to Frankenstein: Mary Shelley Dictates Her Legacy." Studies in Romanticism, Vol. 38, No. 3, Fall 1999, pp. 365–385.

Rieger, James. "Dr. Polidori and the Genesis of Frankenstein." Studies in English Literature, Vol. 3, No. 4, 1963, pp. 461–472.

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Zorba Press Digital Edition. Retrieved from http://tcpl.org/community-read/Frankenstein/mary1831.pdf