Frankenstein – the role of Safie in the novel

Written in 1816, when the writer M.Shelley was just nineteen her raw Frankenstein, a Sui Generis dramatized the potential of life begotten upon a laboratory table. M.Shelley merges numerous forms of writing- the memoir, the journal, the letter novel, the picaresque to produce themes as romantic myth making, the knightly project, contemprory history and politics and the discourse of gender.In the novel, one also witnesses both families working on opposite set of ideologies. On the one hand, where Frankensteins family represents mental imagery pattern of political inequality and injustice, the De Lacey family represents vision of a social separate 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.Saf ie, the daughter of the Turkish merchant is appalled by her fusss traitorousness 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 name of looking at Turkey within the dimensions of the east. Moreover, when the readers are stolon introduced to Safie ,the description of her as a lady dressed in a dark suit covered with a thick black inter 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 opening 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 heathenly occupies a depress place in hierarchy. This is because she now portrays the p roduct of east-Safie in a compulsive light. This is evidenced by frequent parallels of Safie with Eve of Paradise Lost who is chaste,pure. Also, the reason 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 figure 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 voice model identity that well renouned novice Rubinstein decides to call her subtly androgynous combining the standard feminine angelic beauty with a virile energy.Yet, the author decides the disappearance of Safie and De Laceys family giving them little involvement in the plot. Thus, establishing that much(prenominal) characters had no or little place in the harsh manhood 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 get 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.