In her paper, Jessica Hale makes a notable argument that women in Shelly’s novel Frankenstein have been objectified to become man’s possession to embody domestic perfection. This is critically reflective of the social structure of the Victorian Era in which ‘both natural and divine law endowed the father with patriarchal authority as ‘head’ of a household’. She goes further to mention that the acquisition of women as means of building the ideal family has made homosocial relationships even more outstanding in the novel as people crave for relationships more profound than that of ‘gendered inequality’

She finds effective evidence of her claims in the novel. By noticing the tragic death of all female characters in the novel, Hale makes the claim that the untimely death of the female characters in actuality represents importance of ensuring the “tranquility of domestic affections” to be as riddled with internal tensions and conflicts as the nineteenth century family itself.

Hale also makes use of secondary sources to further strengthen her argument. By quoting another scholar not only does she convince the audience of the reliability of her claim but also gives depth to her paper by developing upon other’s claims. When she mentioned “As Schoene-Harwood notes, “Alphonse’s fatherly protection effects his wife’s domestic imprisonment within the framework of enduring female indebtedness and gratitude”” and goes further to say “It does this and more.” she is effectively using other’s perspective as the foundation of her thesis.

Racialized sexual fear was one of the terms that baffled me. Frankly I still don’t know the exact definitions but my guess is that it means ostracizing someone as a sexual criminal because of their race.