Frankenstein – the role of Safie in the novel

Written in 1816, when the writer M.Shelley was just nineteen her clean Frankenstein, a Sui Generis dramatized the potential of life begotten upon a laboratory table. M.Shelley merges many forms of writing- the memoir, the journal, the letter novel, the picaresque to produce themes as romantic myth making, the Gothic project, contemprory history and politics and the discourse of gender.In the novel, one also witnesses 2 families working on opposite set of ideologies. On the one hand, where Frankensteins family represents ken pattern of political inequality and injustice, the De Lacey family represents vision of a social congregation based on justice, equality and mutual affection. The structure of De laceys family constitutes M.Shelleys ideal, an ideal derived from her mothers A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Infact, it is the character of Safie, the beloved of Felix De Lacey which best exemplifies to it which shall be discussed in the following paragraphs.Safie, the daughte r of the Turkish merchant is appalled by her vexs treason of Felix and by the Islamic oppression of women he endorses. Therefore, she decides to escape from the clutches of her father and flees from Turkey to Switzerland, seeking Felix. This incidence gives a sense of M.shelleys oblique reservoir of looking at Turkey within the dimensions of the east. Moreover, when the readers are offshoot introduced to Safie ,the description of her as a lady dressed in a dark suit covered with a thick black bury makes one aware of a culture very different from the west. It is for this that tyro Kornisaruk goes to the extent of calling Safie as being oriental. Hence, echoing Edward Saids theory of the orientalism as now one witnesss construction of Safie as the Other.M.shelley at the same time is quick to shift her stance of Turkey-the east, established in readers mind as a place which paganly occupies a inflict place in hierarchy. This is because she now portrays the product of east-Safie in a autocratic light. This is evidenced by frequent parallels of Safie with Eve of Paradise Lost who is chaste,pure. Also, the cause consciously decides to choose the name Safie meaning wisdom which is symbolic in itself. Safies desire to acquaint herself with the language which becomes a mean to break the cultural barrier justifies to her attribute of wisdom. It also reveals her as a person who is fellowship conscience as she wishes to be merged within the upper strata of the society.Moreover, Safie emerges as the only independent well educated, self supported, wisdom imbibed woman in the novel. By doing so, the author not only questions the position of women in the nineteenth century but also brings into focus her rejection of east as a supposedly hierarchically inferior place as discussed earlier. It is because of her alternative determination model identity that well renouned critic Rubinstein decides to call her subtly androgynous combining the standard feminine angelic beauty with a male energy.Yet, the author decides the disappearance of Safie and De Laceys family giving them little involvement in the plot. Thus, establishing that such(prenominal) characters had no or little place in the harsh foundation of 19th century Europe experienced by M.Shelley. Therefore, justifying the novel as a realistic fiction. Finally, one can conclude, it is from her own mother that Safie learns to draw a bead on to higher powers of intellect and an independence of spirit.So, flouting her fathers tyrannical mandate against marrying Felix.Indeed, its for this that critic A.K. Mellor notes Safie as the incarnation of M.Wollstonecraft in the novel.