To what extent does 'Frankenstein' constitute a critique of patriarchal culture? (Including science as part of that culture).

Frankenstein is a novel that emphasises male tyranny and desire for power through science. The result of which leads to not only the downfall for the female characters in the text, but also for the creator of the monster and society in general. The novel also brings together the 'central dualities of a culture in which reason and science were displacing religion as centres of value' (Levine,1979:14). Therefore, in giving life to his creature, Victor …

…birth and creation, the family and the domestic, and scientific developments. However I have reached the conclusion that it is not so much concerned with a womans fear of breeding monsters as it is about masculine mastery and usurpation of the feminine. The novel is said to dramatise Shelley's feelings and supposed aggression towards men and Frankenstein is a work that her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, a vindicator for womens rights, would have been proud of.