Devian Poteet
2 December, 2014
British Literature
Frankenstein: Mary Shelley 's Use of Romanticism Throughout Mary Shelley 's novel "Frankenstein," first published in 1818, an educated reader can see the great influence that the literary movement of romanticism had on her writing in this particular novel. It can be said that Mary Shelley was heavily inspired by romantic writers, such as Percy Shelley and Lord Byron (Duncan). Shelley also incorporated some Gothic styled themes into her novel, which seemed to first contradict what would have been considered as romanticism. Many gothic writers incorporated themes of horror and supernatural, while the romantic writers focused on nature and what is natural. That being said, an argument can be
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Shelley challenges the reader to consider what is natural and unnatural. Throughout the entire text, romanticism is highlighted through the distinct emphasis on the difference between what is considered science (man playing God), and what is nature (a happening that comes as natural as birth). The monster, very distinctly, represents the concept of what is unnatural and scientific. When Victor Frankenstein creates the monster, Shelley describes what becomes an imbalance and uneasiness in what is known as the natural course of life. This imbalance of nature, ultimately results in Victor 's losses, such as the loss of his own sanity, his family, and loved one. It causes the reader to question whether or not Victor, or the monster is the antagonist. What 's so clever about Shelley setting up the story in somewhat of a "frame" storyline, is that Victor 's story of losing the battle between what is natural and what is unnatural acts as a setup for the end of the novel. "You seek for knowledge and wisdom , as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been" (Shelley). Victor warns Walton, the man who has saved him from the cold, as Walton creeps closely to trying to reveal nature 's …show more content…
Rather than pinpointing a problem and solution, she allows the reader to make up their own mind about the novels significance. She does not give the book a happy ending, nor does she state a common theme in the last sentence. Rather, she lets the reader ponder over the death of Frankenstein and the unknown disappearance of the monster. The man dies and the monster lives; the possibilities of what this might mean are many. Shelley incorporated themes and qualities that one might find in most romantic writing, but she uses them in such a way that it challenges the original use of them. By combining themes and ideas used in romantic writing with elements that are highly daring and gothic, she creates endless new opportunities for both the
Frankenstein in a Historical Sense Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was published in 1818 during the Romantic 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 as the lower class during the early 19th century.
By attempting to create life and messing with the natural order of the world, Victor loses his connection to the earth and eventually ends up as a shell of what he once was. No matter how hard he tried to redeem himself, he could no longer be one with nature. The creature that Victor creates by using the malicious techniques of science actually starts out to nature than Victor himself. The Creature recognizes the wonders of nature and finds temporary happiness in his closeness to the world. 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 to highlight the strife that her society was 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. Even now, people are constantly enraptured by the possibilities that science and technology offer, while neglecting their duties towards nature and the
Mary Shelley’s text, Frankenstein is a text, which is highly regarded in today’s society for its outstanding literary worth. However, the text as it was seen during the time of Shelley and its appearance and appeal today, most certainly differ. The most significant difference is that over a hundred years ago, the text was seen as a popular text, our modern day Simpsons, if you like. Conversely, today it appeals to the cannon of high culture. Its gradual change over time has been based on a number of deciding factors.
Shelley’s writing was heavily influenced by the artistic movement that emerged in the 19th century in England. One of her most popular novels, Frankenstein, features one of the key aspects of romanticism: the romantic hero. In the excerpt from this novel in Fiero’s The Humanistic Tradition, Dr. Frankenstein is shown to possess the qualities of said hero. The plot of Shelly’s Frankenstein highlights the unmanageable quest of Dr. Frankenstein’s attempt to overcome the decaying effects of death.
To conclude, in Frankenstein, the theme of creation and destruction is portrayed and shapes both Victor and the monster. Due to Victor’s and humanity’s hatred and abandonment of the being, the creation strangles Victor’s brother, best friend, and wife. Overall, Shelley’s message is that inhuman creation generates destruction in the novel where the creation of the monster leads to the destruction of Victor internally, the murder of his best friend, and the assassination of his beloved family
We are shown that this ‘monster’ is a ‘creature’ and more of a human than we think. It is in the complex structure of the novel that Mary Shelley creates sympathy. We shift from Robert Walton to Victor Frankenstein to the monster and finally back to Walton. With each shift of perspective, the reader gains new information about both the facts of the story and the reliability of the narrator. Each perspective adds pieces of information that only they knows: Walton explains the circumstances of Victor’s last days, Victor explains his creation of the monster, the monster explains his turn to evil.
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein explores the downfall of certain human characteristics, set to the backdrop of creation, destruction, and preservation. The subtitle denoted by Shelly herself supports this idea, by relating the fact that the title can be viewed as either Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus. One scholar, Marilyn Butler, also maintains this by noting, "It can be a late version of the Faust Myth"(302). Shelly uses the story of the main character, Victor Frankenstein, to produce the concept of a dooming human characteristic of which Frankenstein states, "I have . . . been blasted in these hopes"(Shelley, 152). The reader finds, as a result of his thirst for knowledge and infatuation with science, Victor creates a living being by whom he has "suffered great and unparalleled misfortunes"(Shelley, 17). Eventually, Victor realizes this self-destructive trait, but he is not able to save himself stating, "I have lost everything, and cannot begin life anew"(Shelley, 16). Although everything in his life that is dear has been lost, Victor is able to convince one in his same position--Robert Walton--to not "lead [his crew] unwillingly to danger"(Shelley, 151). While addressing the concept of characteristic and self-discovery, it is possible to realize that the monster also possesses the characteristics held by both Victor and Walton; except in his learning, the monster is driven to continue to cause destruction. Most important about the thirst for knowledge is that, as a form of human characteristic or downfall, it leads to large, critical pieces of self-discovery. In obtaining these critical pieces, Frankenstein finds satisfaction in j...
After learning about the life of Mary Shelley, I have grown to appreciate the novel, Frankenstein, even more since the first time I read it. She led a life nearly, as tragic as the monster she created through her writing. Mary seems to pull some of her own life experiences in Victor’s background, as in both mothers died during or after childbirth. Learning about Mary’s personal losses, I have gained a better appreciation of her as an author and a woman of the 17th century. She had association with some the most influential minds of that
Mary Shelleys Frankenstein ( 1818 ) is considered by many literary critics to be the quintessential gothic novel despite the fact that most of the more conventions of the genre are either absent or employed sparingly. As many of the literary techniques and themes of Mary Shelleys Frankenstein adhere to the conventions of the gothic genre it can be considered, primarily, a gothic novel with important links to the Romantic movement.
Explore the ways Mary Shelley presents the character of the monster in Frankenstein We are prepared for the arrival of the monster in many different ways, before he is created we know the monster is going to be a repulsive figure of a human being, but the reader is still intrigued into reading further, and because of Shelley's descriptive language we already feel disgust towards victors creation, and in doing so, we our-selves become just as callous as those people in the book that neglect Frankenstein's monster. Also because the monster was created by Victor using parts dug up from graves and morgues, and we associate graveyards with horror and death, there is immediately something sinister about the monster and to a point, Victor. The reader can already see the problems with creating artificial life in this way, and in the beginning of the novel, the reader is almost willing victor not to pursue his quest for knowledge, but victor is blinded by his own arrogance to stop and think carefully about what he is about to do. This is when Victor the man becomes separated from Frankenstein the scientist. "I saw how the fine form of man was degraded and wasted" Victor despises death, and his mind is occupied incessantly with it, and after the demise of his mother, victor cannot escape it, and subconsciously he dedicates his life towards combating the process.
The literary elements of remote and desolate settings, a metonymy of gloom and horror, and women in distress, clearly show “Frankenstein” to be a Gothic Romantic work. Mary Shelley used this writing style to effectively allow the reader to feel Victor Frankenstein’s regret and wretchedness. In writing “Frankenstein” Mary Shelley wrote one the most popular Gothic Romantic novels of all time.
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.
As a young writer, at just the age of 18 years old, Mary Shelley was able to become a gothic novel specialist. She was able to create a story that has an unbelievable amount of depth behind all of the events that happen between the characters. Her writing stays relevant in today’s society due to her focus on the creation of artificial life. Many of the characters in the novel Frankenstein have a deep love and desire for new discoveries. The characters like Walton, the Creature and Victor have the desire for ambition which they all become overly consumed in their works and end up in destructive situations. In the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley is able to develop multiple characters whose ambitions lead to destruction;
Frankenstein itself consists of many supernatural occurrences that relate back to romanticism. What Victor created was not considered human, although it had some human characteristics, it was handmade and resembled that of a monster. Though he had good intentions, this creature was rejected from society and mankind, based on his hideous looks, making him a Romantic hero to many. He was never really a monster until society made him one by corrupting and despising him, causing him to turn towards murder. Most would classify Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as a horror story because of all of the innocent people in which the “daemon” had killed. These people, and even a pure child, had done nothing to disturb the creature; selfishly, the creature murdered them out of pure revenge for his creator just because of his own misery. However, Victor Frankenstein achieved his goal of "bestowing animation upon lifeless matter" (p. 48), representing Mary Shelley’s belief that even the impossible could be accomplished.
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.