The prospect of considering the connections between genre criticism, psychoanalytic criticism and feminist criticism is a difficult puzzle to solve because, among other things, they illustrate not only the progression of criticism literary, but also the progression of gender studies and queer studies. So, while all three of these critical philosophies strive to explain the behavior and nature of literary characters, as well as their authors, each criticism approaches this task from a different perspective, focusing on different ideas than the other two. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The ideas on which psychoanalytic criticism is based are the oldest of the three (which makes sense since it is the oldest of the three criticisms), Freudian theory. And therefore being human, according to psychoanalytic criticism, means behaving within the boundaries of what Freudian theory considers human behavior. In Frankenstein, for example, Victor fails to complete the Oedipal drama because instead of replacing his mother as the object of his sexual desires with Elizabeth, a woman identical in many ways to Victor's mother, Victor settles into a distorted maternal role while giving his monstrous life. Thus, once Victor abandons his role in the Oedipal drama, he fails to behave as humans behave according to Freudian theory and, as a result, his humanity is lost and Victor becomes a monster. The most obvious differences between this criticism and its two counterparts lie in its conception of men and women. Freudian theory often defines women in terms of men, for example it defines female genitalia not as something with particular substance or quality, but instead as the lack of male genitalia. Feminist criticism, on the other hand, does not define women in relation to men, but rather as an idea separate from men. And so the feminist critique of Victor's failure to complete the Oedipal drama and instead create life himself does not result in Victor losing his humanity and becoming a monster, but instead enters into a new kind of sexual existence, in which embodies the feminine instead of the masculine. For this reason, the novel can instead be seen as a look at the very nature of the complex relationship between society and the feminine. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay The differences that particularly stand out between feminist criticism and gender criticism lie in the definition of what it means to be feminine. Gender criticism creates a distinction not found in feminist criticism, a distinction between sex and gender. Sex is defined as the sexual characteristics assigned at birth, while gender, which is not natural but constructed by society, is defined as the characteristics with which one identifies most in the context in which one operates in society. And so Victor's creation of the monster can be thought of not as a change in the essence of the feminine, but rather as an action indicative of a gender shift within Victor. The rest of the novel can therefore be considered a look at how society interacts with the gender of its members and how society punishes what it considers discrepancies..