摘 要
瑪莉雪萊的「科學怪人」乃是全世界讀者皆耳熟能詳的小說．但是一般讀者對此小說的認知大多是關於一個人造怪物嗜殺的可怕情節．然而，真正閱讀其原著後，讀者大多會為這個外貌醜陋駭人，可是本性卻是善良無辜，有血有淚的生物，附予無限的同情，並對其所受不公平待遇叫屈．
如此與原著迥然不同的認識，大多來自電影誇張的拍攝手法．為了滿足觀眾的視覺效果與製造懸疑氣氛，幾乎所有改編自「科學怪人」電影，都只著墨於怪物如何殘酷，對於其復仇的前因後果皆加以刪除．這個人造的生物，便往往與吸血鬼和狼人劃上等號．從影片取名為Frankenstein meets Wolfman和The Ghost of Frankenstein，可見端倪．
近幾十年來，由於女性主義的興起，很多女性作家的作品都重新被檢視．瑪莉雪萊的「科學怪人」己成為現今研究１９世紀女性主義的重要文本．其實，若讀者了解當時社會中女性作家的困境與瑪莉個人的成長歷程後，就不難發現為何小說中所有的女性角色，一律皆是刻板之“女性”形象與孤兒的身分．另外，怪物在森林中所遭遇的事件和具備了知識後的痛苦，讀者也往往會體認瑪莉身為女性作家／母親／妻子三種角色的內心衝突．
身有女性主義先驅Mary Wollstonecraft 之女，瑪莉也承襲了母親的聰慧與勇敢，不畏世俗，追求理想．然而也和母親一樣，最終仍傾向保有傳統女性的特質，如順從與依賴男性，以做一個好母親與好妻子為目標．最主要的原因應是歸諸於社長久來對女性形象的認定，使得女性每每內化了這種男女二元對立的觀念．所 以一位女性作家，也常是在內心憤怒與不安時，才會從事寫作．賢妻良母是女性天職，發展自己的興趣，在當時並不被允許．而一位“有教養”的女性，在不能渲洩情緒的情況下，寫作卻也是唯一可以轉化的媒介．
吳爾芙曾說：「女性需在沒有憤怒的情緒中，才能寫出好作品」．這句話對於瑪莉和其時代的女性作家也許就不適用了．現今距離瑪莉的時代近二百年了，但女性肩負的角色和責任仍比男性沈重，因為面對新舊價值觀的衝擊，女性更得努力在家庭與事業中求得平衡．或許當有一天性別二元對立真正瓦解，女性的作品所表現會是身為女性的快樂與驕傲，而非歧視與壓抑了！

Abstract
“The woman writes as if the Devil was in her; and that is the only condition under which a woman ever writes anything worth reading.”
Hawthorne’s comment on Fanny Fern sounds chauvinistic, however it perhaps best reveals the pressures and conditions of 19th century women writers, and even though Virginia Woolf also argues that a woman writer ”will never get her genius expressed whole and entire” when she writes “in a rage where she should write calmly” (Virginia 72). Hawthorne’s words may be closer to the mark as regards Mary Shelley’s work Frankenstein. It is, in fact, her anger, disappointment, and frustration in life that produces the inner devil, from which springs her primal power of writing.
Like most 19th century women writers, Mary Shelley faced numerous conflicts in her roles as a writer and as a wife and mother. It was an age when writing by women was still considered an offense against the conventionalities. Women should rather devote themselves to their families. Women writers as a result felt the fetters of the injustice of a patriarchal society. Many of them refused or avoided marriage and wifely duties such as bearing children and maintaining a house. Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters are examples.
Mary Shelley is a woman who struggles to develop and maintain the ideal of an egalitarian family in which man and woman share companionship. It is the ideal of a family where women are able to express their personal and individual talents and simultaneously fulfill their wifely duties. The work Frankenstein demonstrates the impossibility of her idealization.
This thesis will examine Mary Shelley’s efforts and struggles in the light of recent feminist interpretations of female writers in their historical conditions. It will look first at how the work Frankenstein is prone to misinterpretation by Hollywood and film makers. Then it will examine the plight of early 19th century women followed by that of Mary Shelley in particular. Finally it will interpret the work Frankenstein from the feminist perspective on the conflicts and dilemmas faced by women and women writers in the early 19th century.
Mary Shelley is a talented and ferocious writer. The painful address of the deformed monster to its creator in Frankenstein symbolizes the cries of women to men in the 19th century patriarchal society. It also depicts the dramatic conflicts of Mary Shelley as she struggles to balance her individual development and family loyalty. She indeed suffers the conflict which modern women still have to confront. How Mary Shelley confronts this can help us understand the dilemma women face and can inspire us to examine and find out solutions for ourselves.

Table of Contents
Chapter I Introduction ..………………………………1
Chapter II The Misinterpretations and Fascination …..17
with the Horror of Frankenstein
Chapter III The Plight of Woman Writers in …………..34
Mary Shelley’s Time
Chapter IV Mary Shelley’s Personal Difficulties…….. ..53
Chapter V The Conflicts and Contradictions in………..73
Frankenstein Reflect the Dilemma of
Mary Shelley and the 19th Century Women Writers
Chapter VI Conclusion .. ………………………………….94
Bibliography .......................................104

Works Cited
Aldiss, Brain W. Billion Year Sphere: The True History of Science Fiction. New York: The Garden City, 1973. 24-25.
Aldrich, Marcia & Isomaki, Richard. “The Woman Writer as Frankenstein.” Behrentdt and Mellor, Approaches to Teaching Frankenstein. New York: The Modern Language Association, 1990. 121-126.
Amstrong, Nancy. “The Rise of Female Authority in the Novel.” Desire and Domestic Fiction. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987. 59-97.
Baldick, Chris. In Frankenstein’s Shadow: Myth, Monstrosity, and Nineteenth-century Writing. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987.
Ballaster, Rose ed. ”Women and Fiction.” Collected Essays, London, 1967. 142.
Behrentdt, Stephen C. and Mellor, Anne K. ed. Introduction. Approaches to Teaching Frankenstein 1-10.
Behrendt, Stephen C. “Language and Style in Frankenstein.” Behrentdt and Mellor, Approaches to Teaching Frankenstein 78-84.
Bennett, Betty T. & Robinson, Charles E. ed. The Mary Shelley Reader. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
Bloom, Clive. Gothic Horror: A Reader’s Guide from Poe to King and Beyond. London: Macmillan Press Ltd., 1988. 1-23.
Bloom, Harold ed. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. New York: Chelsea House, 1996.
Bolhs, A. Elizabeth. “Aesthetics, Gender and Empire in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.” Women Travel Writers and the Language of Aesthetics 1716-1818. London: Cambridge University Press, 1995. 230-240.
Botting, Fred ed. Introduction. Frankenstein: Mary Shelley. Hampshire: Macmillan, 1995. 1-20.