Romantic Values Of Romanticism

1190 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Nature as a literary theme in Frankenstein

The Romantic Movement was a time of huge changes in the values of many humans. It was a movement during the late 1700's-early mid 1800's that had totally opposite values to the values of the enlightenment and industrial revolution. The Romanticism Movement started as a reaction to the age of enlightenment and industrial revolution. The age of enlightenment was all about science, logic, and progressing technology which led to the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution took on the values of the age of enlightenment, making huge progresses in technology, however that being done in the exchange of destroying nature. On the other hand, romantics went totally against these values. Romantics believed in individual freedom, nature, art, and feelings and emotions. The contrasting values of the Romantic Movement and the age of enlightenment are shown through the characteristics that are in Romantic Literature. For example, in romantic literature, there is value of nature while the industrial revolution only destroyed nature. There is also value of human feelings, emotions and behaviour in romantic novels-the enlightenment valued logic and science, being totally opposite from each other. Imagination and individual freedom are other concept shown in romantic novels while the enlightenment valued science and a place in society. Using these characteristics, Mary Shelly makes Frankenstein a piece of Romantic literature.Specifically, she uses the ideals of nature, emotions and feelings and knowledge being harmful to express the values of the romanticism in this novel, Frankenstein.
One of the values of romanticism she uses to contribute to Frankenstein, is nature. Nature is constantly referred to throughout the novel as it was shown...

... middle of paper ...

...is quest to find out about unknown land, he did not know how to choose right from wrong. In his letter he had written to his sister, he wrote, "One man's life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement which I had sought, for the dominion I should aquire and transmit over the elemental foes of our race (period)?"(20) At this point, Waldon was so obsessed with finding out about this unknown land that he was willing to risk the lives of the sailors that were on the ship with him. mary shelly is trying to show what science and logic can do to you was a However, after hearing what Victor had to say about his experiences with science, it made Waldon come to his senses made him come to his senses rethink about the decisions he was making in his pursuit for knowledge. .With all these con mary shelly is trying to show what science and logic can do to you

Show More
Related

  • Passion And Responsibility In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1142 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley highlights on the experiences her characters undergo through the internal war of passion and responsibility. Victor Frankenstein lets his eagerness of knowledge and creating life get so out of hand that he fails to realize what the outcome of such a creature would affect humankind. Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, highlights on how Frankenstein’s passion of knowledge is what ultimately causes the decline of his health and the death of him and his loved ones.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Romanticism In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1270 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was published in 1818 during the Romanticism era. Romanticism describes the period of time from the late 18th century to the mid 19th century. This period was seen as a response to the Enlightenment; overall there was an increase in the desire to understand the world in an objective matter (lecture). Though Romanticism is commonly viewed as a literary and artistic movement, Mary Shelley gives evidence on the development of Europe in a historical sense through her novel, Frankenstein. Through the motifs and personal experiences of her characters, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein gives insight on scientific development, emerging roles of women, and how the individual is viewed the

    Read More

  • Frankenstein Romanticism Essay

    1864 Words  | 4 Pages

    He turns away the peace given to him by nature just to satisfy his desire for revenge, and becomes a broken being. Mary Shelley demonstrates in Frankenstein what happens if someone strays too far from nature. Shelley purposely shows the destructive nature of science in her novel, highlighting the strife that her society is going through. Her society, disillusioned by war and the devastation that new technologies caused, wanted to go back to their roots in nature, and her novel pushes at that idea. Shelley’s example of Victor’s and the Creature’s downfall warns us of the dangers and temptations of science.

    Read More

  • Comparing Reactions to Industrialism in Frankenstein and The Communist Manifesto

    1115 Words  | 3 Pages

    Frankenstein, like other English Romantics, placed great emphasis on the power of nature. The Arve Ravine, and the Valley of Chamounix exemplify the harmony and beautiful serenity of nature, and add to the romantic quality of the novel while sharply contrasting with the chaos of Victor's troubled mind. The Romantic movement can be seen as a protest against the rapid industrialization that was occurring in England at the time of Frankenstein's publication. While many interpretations are plausible, the novel depicts the fear that technology (and the human obsession with technology) would ultimately prove disastrous. The characters of Walton and Frankenstein are shaped by Romantic idealism, as manifested in their ...

    Read More

  • Analysis of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1717 Words  | 4 Pages

    The human heart is simply forgiving and caring, except in the most extreme circumstances. Romanticism was a time of becoming "in tune with one's self as well as nature." (Rajan 3) They view simplistic happiness as the foundation of a happy life and Mary Shelley makes the reader feel as if the creature has been robbed of a chance of the experience while Victor has had it stripped away from him. This is the other subtle example of Romanticism in Frankenstein.

    Read More

  • Comparing Voltaire's Candide And Mary Shelley

    1175 Words  | 3 Pages

    Her parents were two of its pioneers, and her husband was one of its well-respected contributors. Frankenstein remains her best known contribution to the body of Romantic literature, and it, too, was well-rooted in the movement. Embedded in it are classic elements of the Romantics - an all-to-human monster that quests for love, journeys to exotic places, and a plot that twists and turns on the events of human interactions. It uses these elements to suggest an answer to the Romantic question, how devastating can the effects of science and reason be on the human condition if they are allow to progress

    Read More

  • Comparing Frankenstein 'And A Cottage In Grasmere Vale'

    1691 Words  | 4 Pages

    Nature is a dominant theme throughout the romanticism period, which was at its peak between the 1800s and 1850. The novel Frankenstein, which was written by Mary Shelly was written in 1818, and the poem A Cottage in Grasmere Vale written by Dorothy Wordsworth was written in 1805, both the novel and the poem were written during the peak of the romanticism era, which would enlighten the clear evidence of nature throughout both pieces. Dorothy was William Wordsworth’s sister, who was always close with her brother. Nature is described as ‘the phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations’ In this essay I will discuss the key elements of nature and the natural world in Frankenstein and A Cottage in Grasmere Vale. Dorothy lived in Grasmere in the

    Read More

  • How Does Mary Shelley Use Nature As A Restorative Agent In Frankenstein

    1251 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout the ages, many different techniques have been used to express ideas and concepts in literature. Often times nature and the language chosen to describe it are used to convey imagery, the human condition, or a number of other elements. This is present in Mary Shelley’s romantic novel Frankenstein. Shelley uses language and nature to represent larger concepts, make characters relatable, and help present themes to the reader. Shelley uses nature as both a restorative agent and a destructive one and as a tool to create character development. From start to finish, her novel is full of examples of nature being used to express other concepts and ideas.

    Read More

  • Mary Shelley Challenges Society in Frankenstein

    1219 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Ecocriticism and Frankenstein

    1210 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... may result in the imbalance of that which sustains us and our subsequent destruction. While Victor can control nature and bend it to his will in unnatural ways, once confronted with the natural elements, none of his science and ingenuity can save him. Throughout the novel Victor goes to nature for solace, expecting nothing but return, and expects the same throughout the novel, right to his own demise. This lesson is not only applicable to when Frankenstein was written, at an explosively progressive period during the Industrial Revolution, but also to all generations and their relationship with human progression and nature preservation.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Cultural Analysis Frankenstein

    818 Words  | 2 Pages

    Romanticism was a direct response to industrialization during the nineteenth century, because many people were wary about or felt threatened by the Industrialization of their society. Romanticism was the opposite of the Industrial Revolution, Romanticism valued emotion over logic, imagination over reason and intuition over science. During the film the “Bride of Frankenstein”, Frankenstein’s monster displays vast and deep emotions, even though he wasn’t a real human and was brought to live by artificial means. Frankenstein’s monster demonstrated feelings of abandonment, loneliness and a longing for a partner. The creature was also conscious and aware of his instincts when he felt threatened. By the way, Frankenstein’s monster was created it was to be expected that the monster who act like a robot without feels, but instead it is presented as a monster with strong

    Read More

  • Romanticism in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    2058 Words  | 5 Pages

    Mary Shelley, with her brilliant tale of mankind's obsession with two opposing forces: creation and science, continues to draw readers with Frankenstein's many meanings and effect on society. Frankenstein has had a major influence across literature and pop culture and was one of the major contributors to a completely new genre of horror. Frankenstein is most famous for being arguably considered the first fully-realized science fiction novel. In Frankenstein, some of the main concepts behind the literary movement of Romanticism can be found. Mary Shelley was a colleague of many Romantic poets such as her husband Percy Shelley, and their friends William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge, even though the themes within Frankenstein are darker than their brighter subjects and poems. Still, she was very influenced by Romantics and the Romantic Period, and readers can find many examples of Romanticism in this book. Some people actually argue that Frankenstein “initiates a rethinking of romantic rhetoric”1, or is a more cultured novel than the writings of other Romantics. Shelley questions and interacts with the classic Romantic tropes, causing this rethink of a novel that goes deeper into societal history than it appears. For example, the introduction of Gothic ideas to Frankenstein challenges the typical stereotyped assumptions of Romanticism, giving new meaning and context to the novel. Mary Shelley challenges Romanticism by highlighting certain aspects of the movement while questioning and interacting with the Romantic movement through her writing.

    Read More

  • The Many Romantic Elements of Frankenstein

    637 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein exhibits many gothic elements, but most would argue that it is more of a Romantic novel considering its idea of true inspiration. Victor Frankenstein takes only his love for knowledge and science, and creates life. Although it ends up disappointing him and becomes the ruin of Victor, this monster came from much creativity. To create something from absolutely nothing is a most inspiring thing, classifying it as a romantic. Frankenstein is composed of many elements of romanticism, such as supernatural being, emotions produced by the characters of the story, and the effect of nature.

    Read More

  • Romanticism and Nature in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

    770 Words  | 2 Pages

    The elements of romanticism and nature in Frankenstein, these elements lend suspense and literary merit to the novel. Nature is used as a godlike figure that controls and enhances the emotions of Victor and the creature. It is used differently for each character, creating a contrast between the two of them throughout the novel. The romantic elements lend literary merit and cultural identity to the novel that sets it apart for other novels of the time, while lending it to the creation of the genre on science fiction.

    Read More

  • Romanticism

    431 Words  | 1 Pages

    Roughly from 1815 to 1910, this period of time is called the romantic period. At this period, all arts are transforming from classic arts by having greater emphasis on the qualities of remoteness and strangeness in essence. The influence of romanticism in music particularly, has shown that romantic composers value the freedom of expression, movement, passion, and endless pursuit of the unattainable fantasy and imagination. The composers of the romantic period are in search of new subject matters, more emotional and are more expressive of their feelings as they are not bounded by structural rules in classical music where order, equilibrium, control and perfection are deemed important (Dorak, 2000).

    Read More

More about Romantic Values Of Romanticism

Open Document