William Veeder, "The Women of Frankenstein"

Mary Shelley’s sense of weakness in herself and womanhood made her defensive in frankestein. She makes the argument that women are less weak and men are weaker. 

The weakness of the females characters are not defined by the melodramatic simplifications

At first we think Justine is a weak character, but the court scene minimizes her weakness. At first we don’t see her as a weak, we see her as a victim. But later when she is unable to save herself, she becomes weak. 

Focus shifts away from the nature of true woman and onto that conventional target of Roman clergy. Mary Shelley presents the true woman as debilitatingly weak but as touchingly vulnerable. True woman presented not as “feminine” weakness.