Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a profound exploration of creation, responsibility, and the consequences of unchecked ambition. While Victor Frankenstein’s male creation has rightfully garnered significant critical attention, the intended female companion, conceived and then immediately annihilated, offers a crucial, albeit brief, lens through which to understand the novel’s central themes. This aborted Eve, a creature denied existence before she could even begin, functions as a powerful symbol. Her potential existence, and Victor’s frantic destruction of her, reveals not only his fear of procreation and the spread of his monstrous lineage but also his deep-seated patriarchal anxieties about female autonomy and reproductive power. The truncated narrative of the female creature thus deepens our understanding of Victor's profound moral failings and the novel's critique of a society that fears and suppresses what it does not control.
Victor’s initial commission of a female companion arises from a desperate plea by the male Monster. Having endured years of rejection and suffering, the Monster proposes a cessation of violence in exchange for a mate. He argues, "I am malicious because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind? . . . I shall be glad to be alone; but if I am to be alone, I would not be alone with you." This plea highlights the Monster's yearning for companionship and his capacity for reasoned negotiation, demonstrating that his "malice" is a product of his isolation, not inherent evil. Victor, initially swayed by the logic of a negotiated peace, begins the construction of the female creature. He envisions her as a being who could potentially restore his own peace by accompanying the male Monster to the desolate regions of South America, thereby removing them from human society. He muses, "She might refuse to comply with his desires, and thus he would be in my power." This thought reveals a crucial element: Victor sees the female creature not as an individual with her own agency, but as a tool, a potential instrument of control over his original creation.
However, as Victor progresses in his work, his anxieties escalate dramatically. The process of creation, which had previously been driven by scientific curiosity and hubris, becomes fraught with dread. He begins to fear the implications of his second act of creation. What if this female creature possessed the same intelligence and capacity for suffering as the male? More terrifyingly, what if they reproduced? He is gripped by visions of a race of devils populating the earth, a consequence of his scientific meddling. "A race of devils would be propagated," he exclaims, "and were they all to become parents, mankind would be extirpated." This fear of procreation is deeply intertwined with his anxieties about female reproductive power. The female creature, by her very nature as a potential mate, embodies this power. Her existence represents a terrifying loss of control for Victor, a continuation of his mistake that he cannot easily contain or undo.
The decisive moment arrives when Victor, in a fit of revulsion and terror, destroys the female creature. He tears her limb from limb, scattering her remains in his Orkney workshop. This act is not merely the rejection of a scientific project; it is a symbolic castration, a violent suppression of female potential and autonomy. He confesses, "I had resolved in every way to put an end to the proceeds of the crime, and entirely prevent the perpetuation of my species." The destruction is presented as a necessary act to prevent the "perpetuation" of his species—a species he views as monstrous. Yet, this phrasing is loaded. It implies that the female creature's primary purpose, and therefore her greatest threat, lies in her potential to reproduce and continue life, a power inherently tied to her sex. His fear is not just of more monsters, but of a monster lineage brought about by female agency.
The destruction of the female creature is a pivotal moment that underscores Victor’s profound misogyny and his inability to conceive of life, or even monstrous life, as anything other than something to be controlled or eradicated if it deviates from his will. He fails to grant her even the rudimentary existence of his male creation, who, despite his horrifying appearance, possessed consciousness, emotions, and a capacity for learning. The female creature’s annihilation before her "birth" signifies the ultimate erasure of agency. She is denied the chance to experience the world, to form relationships, or even to be a conscious victim of her circumstances. Her story, or rather, her lack of one, serves as a stark indictment of Victor’s moral bankruptcy and the patriarchal structures that silence and destroy female potential, even in the context of a gothic horror novel. The aborted Eve thus represents a haunting absence, a silent scream against the limitations imposed by a creator who fears what he cannot dominate.