Considering how much of a feminist her mother was, it's not surprising that her daughter carried similar ideals. Some of that can be seen in Shelley's novel. Frankenstein was written when Shelley was 20 years old, and carries themes of gender disparity. In the part called 'How to Read Frankenstein', we see that one way of looking at the characters is as portions of Victor Frankenstein's personality. All of the women in the novel make up the 'heart' rather than the head. This could be because this novel is written solely from the perspective of men.

Taking into account the thoughts on women at the time, how ladylike they were supposed to be, how reserved, etc., it makes sense that Shelley would keep that aspect in when writing from the perspective of a male. For example, one of the first women that was mentioned in Frankenstein was the sister of Robert Walton, named Margaret Walton Saville. She doesn't really play a part in the story other than receiving letters from her brother. The next woman that actually is recurring, is Elizabeth, the cousin of Victor Frankenstein. Something that really struck me was Victor's description of Elizabeth. He writes, on page 25, that "no one could submit with more grace..." and that he, Victor, "loved to tend on her as [he] would a favorite animal." The description of women through the eyes of men may be an intention of sarcasm. Mary is playing on the fact that the notion of women is meek and someone to take care of and is showing how even characters in this science-fiction novel hold these preconceived ideas. 

In class, we also discussed how many female roles Elizabeth encompassed. When Victor's mother died, she was the only female in the house and was asked to take on the motherly role, she lived with Victor throughout his whole childhood like a sister, and she was the object of Victor's romantic affection as well. She is described only through his eyes and she is seen as an object fulfilling a purpose rather than being a person with her own thoughts and ideas. 

The Creation is next, while looking into the home of the de Lacy's, he says that he "heard of the difference of sexes" meaning that he also gained his perception of women from a seemingly traditional family. He longs for companionship in the form of a woman, which is very interesting considering the only relationship he had seen was between Felix and Safie. He must have seen the way Felix lit up and attributed happiness to being between a man and a woman. 

Mary's male characters having a reliance on other females is prominent throughout the story. Considering that many of the female characters in the novel aren't very fleshed out or necessarily "interesting", it plays into the idea that for men, women are only there for companionship and not much else.