Writers of the Romantic Movement often expressed a spontaneous outpouring of feelings through nature-related symbols and imagery. In “Mutability”, Percy Shelley was no exception to other Romantic writers; he used these impulses of powerful feelings to express the inevitable change that everything in the universe undergoes. Ironically, Shelley claims that the only thing that will remain the same forever is mutability itself. While Shelley claims that everything is changing, he focuses on the mutability of the human species and its individuals. To illustrate humans as mutable, Shelley makes use of poetic elements such as imagery and specified diction. Therefore, “Mutability” ironically shows that the universe, specifically mankind, is changing while mutability itself remains the same.
In “Mutability”, Shelley uses imagery such as clouds and lyres to convey that humankind is always changing. In the first stanza, Shelley metaphorically relates humans to clouds in an attempt to express an outflow of powerful feeling about mutability, “We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon; / How restlessly they speed, and gleam, and quiver, / Streaking the darkness radiantly!---yet soon / Night closes round, and they are lost for ever:” (Shelley, 1734). Clouds reflect the lunar light; they also move quickly across and shine with this reflected light taking away the complete darkness. Similarly, the text suggests that humans are ephemeral and all of their actions are eventually forgotten; in comparison, the sun rises and the daytime erases any traces of the darkness and the night clouds. The example of the midnight moon can also be inferred as a cyclically changing entity because the appearance of the moon changes every day. As such, the night...
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... resist change that nothing else can. The text suggests that the poem places mutability and god on a similar level; since Shelley was an atheist, he had not supreme power to observe, but the idea of mutability replaces God in fulfilling such a role. Thus, Shelley’s powerful word choice and his capitalization of such words help express underlying thoughts about mutability and its context to his biography and the Romantic movement.
The natural imagery and specified strong diction present in “Mutability” work in service to express humans and human nature as protean. Shelley uses imagery to metaphorically compare humans to clouds and lyres that undergo change. His intent is to convey the rationale for mutability specifically to humans though. Shelley’s diction in relation to his biography and the Romantic period also illustrate underlying thoughts about mutability.
‘[The] characters and plot of Frankenstein reflect . . . Shelley’s conflicted feelings about the masculine circle which surrounded her.’
Both Percy and Mary Shelley had written a different interpretation of the Prometheus myth; with Percy’s Prometheus Unbound and Mary’s Frankenstein. Both of these works had examples that showed how the characters projected themselves into other beings. It could be interpreted that Mary had the intention to criticize the way a strong feeling of wishing something that is beyond the laws of the natural world to happen is without regard for the consequences that could occur as a result. These outcomes cannot be planned or controlled. Despite the outward appearance or aspect of the emphases on knowledge and creation—traits that are often considered virtues—Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Percy Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound revealed the ways in which humans, in their desire for these virtues, can triumph over the unpredictability of nature. The visually descriptive and figurative language that each author utilized helped to show the advantage of the power of narrative as a means of expressing the characters’ egos which drove them to overreach for the dominance over nature and relate to real people.
The idea of duality permeates the literary world. Certain contradictory commonplace themes exist throughout great works, creation versus destruction, light versus dark, love versus lust, to name a few, and this trend continues in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. The pivotal pair in this text however, is monotony versus individuality. The opposing entities of this pairing greatly contrast against each other in Frankenstein, but individuality proves more dominant of the two in this book.
“I was departed on none and related to none. The path of my department was free, and there was none to lament my annihilation”(Shelley 114). Due to the Creature’s isolation the only influence present was the world around him. Throughout the novel Shelley “illustrates that several factors can impose limits and bounds on one’s nature.” These limits and bonds consist of “Physical appearence and consequent social alienation”. Although the imposed limits do have an effect on one's attitude, Shelly demonstrates that the nature of man consists of “both circumstance and personal choice”. In the novel the question ;“Was man, indeed at once so powerful, so virtuous and magnificent, yet so vicious and base?”(Shelley 80) is posed. Through this Shelley is distinctly referencing a humans ability to possess both good and bad qualities. As the creature must surpass “The unnatural hideousness of [his]person" (Shelley 89) Shelly emphasizes the correlation between how society perceives the creature and how that perception eventually affects the Creatures view of himself.“ It is only upon being rejected because of his appearence that the creature becomes the monster that Frankeinstein sees him as ” The creature is shown to have good qualities such as empathy such as when he states;“wh...
Therefore it’s hard to believe that Shelley, a daughter of one of the leading feminists of the day was responsible for presenting women as the submissive role to their male counterparts. How ironic it is that that she was not subservience to her male counterparts in her own life, because although of her father’s disapproval of her partner Percy Shelley, who was already married and to his pregnant wife. She fled to France with him, and disowned herself from her family.
The idea for the novel of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein came to her one night when she was staying in the company of what has been called ‘her male coterie’, including Lord Byron and her husband, Percy Shelley. Mary Shelley’s whole life seems to have been heavily influenced by men. She idolised her father, William Godwyn, and appears to have spent a good part of her life trying very hard to impress both him and her husband. There seems to have been a distinct lack of female influence, her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, having died weeks after her birth, being replaced by a neglectful step-mother. These aspects of her life are perhaps evident in her novel. The characters and plot of Frankenstein were perhaps influenced by Shelley’s conflicting feelings about the predominately masculine circle which surrounded her, and perhaps the many masculine traits that we see in novel were based upon those of the male figures in Shelley’s own life. In this essay I will attempt to show some of these traits.
Shelley’s allusions display the creatures anguish of being alone in the world and how it causes him to feel: “ Like Adam, I was apparently united by no link to any other being in existence… I was wretched, helpless, and alone.” (93-94), this allusion is crucial because it shows the reader just how awful the influences of solitude are on the creature and how his circumstances have caused him to become grieved and destitute. Another illusion similar to before take place when the monster compares himself to Satan: “Many times I considered Satan as the fitter emblem of my condition; for often, like him, when I viewed the bliss of my protectors, the bitter gall of envy rose within me.” (94), the monster now resents the people of the cottage because they are able to converse and associate with others while the creature is forced to stay secluded from all contact. Allusions such as these enforce Shelley 's purpose of depicting the calamitous effects of solitude on the mind. By now the reader should understand that men need to be around others like themselves because all creatures desire to have a group into which they
Authors have written horror novels with old props of haunted castles and moonlit dagger scenes for ages. However, there is one author deserving of significant commemorations for her horrific novel, Frankenstein. Mary Shelley, author of the most notable gothic novel of all times, inspires authors who read her work.
Mary Shelley’s husband had a “fascination with the power of science to give life”. As her husband, Percy Shelley’s views obviously were ...
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or; The Modern Prometheus, published in 1818, is a product of its time. Written in a world of social, political, scientific and economic upheaval it highlights human desire to uncover the scientific secrets of our universe, yet also confirms the importance of emotions and individual relationships that define us as human, in contrast to the monstrous. Here we question what is meant by the terms ‘human’ and ‘monstrous’ as defined by the novel. Yet to fully understand how Frankenstein defines these terms we must look to the etymology of them. The novel however, defines the terms through its main characters, through the themes of language, nature versus nurture, forbidden knowledge, and the doppelganger motif. Shelley also shows us, in Frankenstein, that although juxtaposing terms, the monstrous being everything human is not, they are also intertwined, in that you can not have one without the other. There is also an overwhelming desire to know the monstrous, if only temporarily and this calls into question the influence the monstrous has on the human definition.
Clouds are an archetypal symbol for mystery as they can obfuscate and hide things within their shadows. Similarly, in Frankenstein, clouds are characterized for their ability to conceal. As Victor tries to discard of the chunks and members of the torn apart female creation, “Clouds hid the moon, everything was obscure” (210). The moon can serve as a symbol of light in the midst of darkness; light is intrinsically tied with the illuminating qualities of truth. By extension, the ability of a character to see through clouds is a measure of the character’s ability to see past physical constructs that hampers one’s ability to see truth that is shrouded in mystery. Victor has a strange fixation with the eagle that is capable of, “[soaring] amidst the clouds” (110). The creature’s fascination with eagles is linked to their ability to soar among clouds. Shelley uses the juxtaposition of positive and negative diction to emphasize an eagle’s ability to break through the physical. While soar indicates ascension, clouds denote mystery and confusion, two opposite forces: a one-way movement (ascension) and a multitude of directions (mystery). Yet, the eagle is able to break through the confusion and fly upwards, toward the sun - toward truth and knowledge. Mary Shelley’s description of clouds and
In Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, she exercises this movement by painting artistic and literary illustrations of how Victor, as well as the Monster lives through seasonal and surrounding areas. Shelley shows the complex emotional state found in Victor and the Monster.
...here are similar aspects to each writer's experience. Engaging the imagination, Ramond, Wordsworth and Shelley have experienced a kind of unity; conscious of the self as the soul they are simultaneously aware of 'freedoms of other men'. I suggested in the introduction that the imagination is a transition place wherein words often fail but the experience is intensified, even understood by the traveler. For all three writers the nature of the imagination has, amazingly, been communicable. Ramond and Wordsworth are able to come to an articulate conclusion about the effects imagination has on their perceptions of nature. Shelley, however, remains skeptical about the power of the imaginative process. Nonetheless, Shelley's experience is as real, as intense as that of Ramond and Wordsworth.
Romantic writer Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein does indeed do a lot more than simply tell story, and in this case, horrify and frighten the reader. Through her careful and deliberate construction of characters as representations of certain dominant beliefs, Shelley supports a value system and way of life that challenges those that prevailed in the late eighteenth century during the ‘Age of Reason’. Thus the novel can be said to be challenging prevailant ideologies, of which the dominant society was constructed, and endorsing many of the alternative views and thoughts of the society. Shelley can be said to be influenced by her mothers early feminist views, her father’s radical challenges to society’s structure and her own, and indeed her husband’s views as Romantics. By considering these vital influences on the text, we can see that in Shelley’s construction of the meaning in Frankenstein she encourages a life led as a challenge to dominant views.
Bloom, Harold and Golding, William. Modern Critical Views on Mary Shelley. Edited with an introduction by Harold Bloom. Chelsea House Publishers, New York, 1985.