Political philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau is often attributed to the discussion of the “noble savage,” and the existence of natural man. Throughout numerous works of literature, the theme of the “noble savage” is prevalent and enduring, providing indirect authors’ commentary through the actions and development of various characters. Two such novels are Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther. In both novels, Shelly and Goethe demonstrate strong Romantic ideals, while developing various characters using Rousseau’s myth.
Shelly’s Frankenstein follows a young doctor, Victor Frankenstein, who sets out to engineer a working humanlike being. Throughout the novel, Shelly uses characterization of both Victor, as well as the monster he creates, to demonstrate the novel’s roots of Rousseau’s myth. In the case of Victor Frankenstein, Shelly describes an innocent Swiss boy, living with his parents, who becomes interested in scientific exploration by reading various journals of past scientists. Despite his interest in science, Victor is told that “every instant that you [he] has wasted on those books is utterly and entirely lost,” by M. Krempe, a university professor at Ingolstadt, where Victor goes to college. As a result, Shelly acknowledges Victor’s turning point away from innocence, when he begins his studies of modern science at Ingolstadt. Using his knowledge of anatomy, learned at Ingolstadt, Victor secretly begins to work on a humanoid creature. Following months of labor, Victor’s creation is complete, and shows signs of life. However, the creature’s monster-like appearance frightens Victor, causing him to eventually vacate his house, leaving the Monster alone. Victor’s abandonme...
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...tic, young man to a jealous, suicidal lover are a prime example of Rousseau’s myth. His misinterpretation of Lotte’s behavior, and poor relationship with the aristocracy, brings about his demise. Had Werther’s sublime, natural being not been tainted by these unpleasant experiences, he may have not underwent these alterations, and may have lived.
Through the sophisticated use of characterization throughout their respective novels, Shelly and Goethe create characters that are prime examples of Rousseau’s myth of the noble savage. The changes to each character’s personality and tendencies through both novels are the products of the characters’ environments. By incorporating the Romantic ideals of nature and traditionalism within their books, both authors effectively comment on human society’s structure and evolution, while outwardly demonstrating Rousseau’s myth.
Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein is a thought provoking story to read because the subject matter speaks to me. Dark, supernatural and gothic is exactly the style of reading I would choose in my own reading choices. It was only one step from my Victorian Vampire reading to Frankenstein therefore my choice to read the novel was almost a given to me. Several areas that I as a human can relate to are the human nature of each character, the unrelenting revenge the monster feels, and betrayal in the pursuit of self-preservation Victor bestows on his monster, his family, and mankind. The story speaks of betrayal, a strong an intense emotion that hurt the monster to the core so deeply he commits unspeakable acts. Frankenstein outlines Victor’s betrayal of his son, the monster. Victor literally created a child, a rebirth of flesh in his own design but he felt no love or sense of responsibility for the monsters well-being. This betrayal of the preverbal parent over their “child” is felt greatly by the monster and Frankenstein suffers at his own cost, unwilling and incapable to see he was his own destructor. A notable act of betrayal is when Victor can but does not save Justine from death. His own brother was dead and he was
Mary Shelley and Samuel Taylor Coleridge are two recognized writers of the Romantic era. The influence of Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere is reflected in Shelley’s Frankenstein in terms of narrative structure, literary techniques and themes. For example, bo...
Shelley addresses Victor’s nature, first. He writes being born “a Genevese” with a family that is “one of the most distinguished of that republic” (Shelly) Victor describes his family with very powerful words including, honor and integrity. Shelly writes more about their place in society and the ability to lead. The Frankenstein family had a very rich history background. Victor could not help but become of his nature. Being in a family such as his, he must uphold a certain standard. Victor had much envy for power. However, the power that he received was too much for him to handle. “I had worked…for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body… I had desired it with ardor that far exceeded moderation,”(Shelly) Victor states. Shelley portrays the idea that Victor is overwhelmed by his newly gained power. The creature woke up something in him that was from is influenc...
Frankenstein is a book written by Mary Shelley in 1818, that is revolved around a under privileged scientist named Victor Frankenstein who manages to create a unnatural human-like being. The story was written when Shelley was in her late teen age years, and was published when she was just twenty years old. Frankenstein is filled with several different elements of the Gothic and Romantic Movement of British literature, and is considered to be one of the earliest forms of science fiction. Frankenstein is a very complicated and complex story that challenges different ethics and morals on the apparent theme of dangerous knowledge. With the mysterious experiment that Dr. Victor Frankenstein conducted, Shelly causes her reader to ultimately ask themselves what price is too high to pay to gain knowledge. It is evident that Shelly allows the reader to sort of “wonder” about the reaction they would take when dealing with a situation such as the one implemented throughout the book.
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.
Rousseau initiates his discourse with the introduction of the savage man and his seemingly preferable lifestyle. He sees man as “satisfying his hunger under an oak, quenching his thirst at the first stream, finding his bed under the same tree which provided his meal; and, behold, his needs are furnished” (P.81). Whatsoever be man’s desires, confined to those pertaining to self-preservation, he may easily and effortlessly acquire them. Being an undeniably smooth and simplistic way of life, Rousseau idealizes savage living as one that surpasses civilized living for its greater happi...
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a very complex book riddled with underlying messages. From the characteristics of each individual to the main storyline Shelley depicts a world of opposites. Victor Frankenstein, a privileged young man, defies nature when his obsession with life and death has him attempting to bring someone/something to life. He succeeds and quickly goes from obsessed over its creation to disgust with its form. He then rejects his creation, which sets the stage for the terrifying events to come. This is the embodiment of a modern novel as it contains alienation, disillusionment, and a critique of science.
Rousseau’s depiction of the noble savage in Discourse on the Origin of Inequality separates man from society in order to argue that modernity has come with a cost to man’s natural state. Rousseau explores the uncivilized state of nature to form “conjectures…concerning what the human race could have become, if it had been left to itself” (Rousseau 17). Through his conjectures, Rousseau’s posits that the progress of man is detrimental to his well-being. Nevertheless, the formations of civil and, later, political societies were responsible for “perfect[ing] human reason while deteriorating the species” (Rousseau 43). He finds that the acquisition of knowledge is dangerous, and man is better off naïve about the true extent of the world (Rousseau 31). Aside from an instinct for self-preservation, the noble savage comes equipped with pity. In his natural state, this pity exists as amour de soi, or simply, good intentions. Without this pity, “men w...
Mary Shelley’s world renowned book, “Frankenstein”, is a narrative of how Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant chemist, succeeds in creating a living being. Although Frankenstein’s creation is benevolent to begin with, he soon turns murderous after being mistreated by humans. His anger turns towards Frankenstein, as he was the one who brought him into the world that shuns him. The Monster then spends the rest of the story trying to make his creator’s life as miserable as his own. This novel is an excellent example of the Gothic Romantic style of literature, as it features some core Gothic Romantic elements such as remote and desolate settings, a metonymy of gloom and horror, and women in distress.
Rousseau contemplates many of the problems in society. He draws reflection to the past of humans and tries to find an understanding of how the time of savages was much more tranquil. He reminisces to the time where there was acute awareness of, and regard for, oneself in relation to others, being before humanity. He compares savages to the present human society. Using contrasting ideas about the methods of survival, in the past, to human’s desires of the present, he emphasizes how life was much more simple and peaceful during the time of the savage. Rousseau focusses his views on reason, enlightenment, and natural laws in order to show how hostility has grown since the growth of civilization. He uses these views to provide an explanation of how he feels why we must revert back to nature to solve current problems of our existence.
Harold Bloom, a well-known American critic explores Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to find true meaning. Throughout his essay, he gives answers to the lingering question of who the real monster is. He also paints a clear picture of a major theme in the novel, the Romantic mythology of the self. Through reading his essay, it opens up new light to Mary Shelley's novel. It gives new meaning to the monster and his creator.
...r than its basic needs. In addition, modern man is characterized by self-love or amour-propre. This love for his self and personal property turns man into an individual who thinks of himself in comparison with others. Arguably, therefore, modern man essentially forgot who he is as a human being. Further, humans have moved from aidez-moi, where we begin to look for man's help or subsistence, to aimez-moi, take me or help. Rousseau explores how because natural man has no moral relationships or obligations or social inequality, natural man's situation is better not only for him but society as compared to modern man. For that reason, we can return to the natural, more content state by simply lowering the bar of society in terms of expectations and morality.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a gothic science fiction novel written in the romantic era that focuses on the elements of life. The romantic era was sparked by the changing social environment, including the industrial revolution. It was a form of revolt against the scientific revolutions of the era by developing a form of literature that romanticize nature and giving nature godliness. This element of romanticized nature is a recurrent element in Frankenstein and is used to reflect emotions, as a place for relaxation and as foreshadowing. Frankenstein also includes various other elements of romanticism including strong emotions and interest in the common people.
This last step determines the heavily communitarian perspective that Rousseau adopts. If we can only be fully human under the auspices of the social contract, then that contract is more important than the individuals that agree to it. After all,...
Man in his original state is inherently good, but is corrupted by the “progress” of society. For Rousseau, the societal ascent of our species is paralleled by our moral descent. Through the development of civilization, our individual and autonomous will becomes entangled with the wills of all others, until we ultimately lose our freedom since we are dependent on the will of others. Rousseau’s formulization of the social contract sought to reconcile individual autonomy with political society. The “general will” is the vehicle by which freedom and political authority can be synthesized. Consequently, “amore propre”, the idea of self-love which is at the root of human vice come be replaced with “amore-de-soi” which would free one’s individual will from its entanglement with others and achieve true