Topic: The Reflection of the Romantic age in Frankenstein.
Name:
Baraiya Sonal Rameshbhai.
Class:
M.A.Sem-2.
Subject: The
Romantic Literature.
Guidence:
Heenabe Zala.
Submitted
To: Smt. S. B. Gardi
Department of English.
M.K.Bhavnagar University.
The
Reflection of the Romantic age in Frankenstein.
Introduction of the writer:
Mary Wollstonecraft
Shelley:
Born: 30
August 1797.
Died: 1
February 1851.
She was an English novelist, short story
writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her
Gothic novel Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus (1818). She also edited and
promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy
Bysshe Shelley. Her father was the political philosopher William Godwin, and
her mother was the philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft.
In 1816, the couple famously spent a summer
with Lord Byron, John William Polidori, and Claire Clairmont near Geneva,
Switzerland, where Mary conceived the idea for her novel Frankenstein. The last
decade of her life was dogged by illness, probably caused by the brain tumour that
was to kill her at the age of 53.
Until the 1970s, Mary Shelley was known
mainly for her efforts to publish P. B. Shelley’s works and for her novel
Frankenstein, which remains widely read and has inspired many theatrical and
film adaptations. Recent scholarship has yielded a more comprehensive view of
Mary Shelley’s achievements. Scholars have shown increasing interest in her
literary output, particularly in her novels, which include the historical
novels Valperga (1823) and Perkin Warbeck (1830), the apocalyptic novel The
Last Man (1826), and her final two novels, Lodor 1835 and Falkner (1837).
Studies of her lesser known works such as the travel book Rambles in Germany
and Italy (1844) and the biographical articles for Dionysius Lardner’s Cabinet
Cyclopaedia (1829 – 46) support the growing view that Mary Shelley remained a
political radical throughout her life. Mary shelley’s works often argue that
cooperation and sympathy, particularly as practiced by women in the family,
were the ways to reform civil society. This view was a direct challenge to the
individualistic Romantic ethos promoted by P. B. Shelley and the Enlightenment
political theories articulated by her father, William Godwin. Here many of the
main ideas behind the literary movement of Romanticism can be seen in
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Mary Shelley was deeply influenced by the
romantics, and the reader of Frankenstein can certainly identify a number of
characteristics of romanticism in this novel.
Introduction of the Romantic Age:
The Romantic Age is believed to have started
as a movement, which began in 1798 with publication of Lyrical Ballads. However
it was not a sudden outburst but the result of long and gradual growth and
development.
Definition
of Romanticism:
Romanticism it is process which is
endless.
It is an 18th and 19th
century movement that is frequently
characterized by the following:
A depiction of emotion and
imagination.
A depiction of the beauties of
nature.
Settings that are in exotic or remote
locations. Old castles or mansions frequently play a big role.
A hero or heroine who rebels against
the social norms of his or her society.
An intense in nature and its beauty
and/or fierceness.
An interest in the irrational realms
of dreams, folk superstitions, legends, and ghosts.
Language and characters that are
frequently marked by emotional intensity.
Other
characteristics of Romantic Era are:
(1)
All Romantic Literature is subjective:
It is an expression of the feelings of the soul of the artist.
The poet and writer do not care about the rules and regulations but gives free
expressions to his or her emotions. Emphasis was given to inspiration and the
intuition rather than on the observance of set rules. As the poet and writer is
free to write on any theme and any form he or she likes and as a result we have
a wide variety of romantic literature as the poets and writers is driven by
powerful passions and imaginations, he does not care for the perfection of
form.
Here Frankenstein is also
subjective novel because here Mary Shelly art monster, it is her expression of
the feelings that she art like that. Because what happen that in the romantic
era that women have no rights to write. Because patriarchal society they have.
So, her strong feeling rather her rebel against the patriarchal society and may
be that is why she portrays the characters like that. In that era writer is
free to write on any theme and any form he or she likes. Therefore she
described the gender difference.
(2)
Mysticism and the beauty of universe:
The poets and writers were
always interested in the mystery, beauty and unsigned power of nature. For them
the imaginative world was more real than the real world.
In the Frankenstein Mary Shelly portrayed some mysterical
elements, love of the beauty of the nature and unsigned power of the nature.
For example – We noticed in these below quotations love of the beauty of the
nature.
‘‘I may there discover the wondrous power
which attracts the needle; and may regulate a thousand celestial observations
that require only this voyage to render their seeming eccentricities constant
forever.’’ (pg – 10)
‘‘I have often attributed my attachment to, my
passionate enthusiasm for, the dangerous mysteries of the ocean, to that
production of the most imaginative of modern poets.’’(pg – 15)
It is Mary Shelly’s imaginative world and for her it is more
real than the real. Because she gave the shape of the male as they are in
reality.
(3)
The Pessimistic in Tone:
The Romantic poet and writer his fisted individual the
poet and writer may be dissatisfied with the circumstances of his own life,
with this age with literary conventions and with the tradition of the day or
with the general faith of humanity. There for Romantic literature is often
pessimistic in tone. The Romantics revolted against the exciting condition and
tried to escape into an imaginative world of their own. Therefore in Romantic
literature we find the remote, the distant and the unknown delight.
Mary Shelly looked pessimistic side of the humanity and may
be because of that she became pessimistic by nature and as a result may be she
wrote this work. It is her imaginative world because she inspired by her dream
and then she wrote this novel. And dreams allow something to speak which is not
normally present in the patriarchal course of things. In that era one of the
pessimistic sides was that woman could not write and Mary Shelly dissatisfied
with the circumstances. We also find in Frankenstein, desire to explore the
unknown through such quotations like,
‘‘This breeze, which has
traveled from the regions towards which I am advancing, gives me a foretaste of
those icy climes. Inspirited by this wind of promise, my day dreams become more
fervent and vivid.’’ (Pg
– 9)
(4)
Individualism:
Another characteristic of the
Romantic Era is Individualism. People were believed in individualism. In this
period Rousseau confesses that
‘‘I am not made like
anyone I have seen; I sdare believe that I am not made like anyone in
existence. If I am not superior, at least I am different.’’
We seemed in the Frankenstein they belief in the power of the
individual. For example –
‘‘Six years
have passed since I resolved on my present undertaking. I can, even now,
remember the hour from which I dedicated myself to this great enterprise.’’(Pg
– 10)
‘‘…I feel my heart glow with an enthusiasm which elevated me to heaven;
for nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady
purpose…’’(Pg – 10)
(5)
Treatment of the
Nature:
If for
the moment we take the restricted meaning of the word, and understand by
‘nature’ the commonphenomena of earth, air, and sea, we find the poetic
attitude to nature altering profoundly. In the work of Cowper, Crabbe, and Gray
the treatment is principally the simple chronicle and sympathetic observation
of nature features. In the new race of poets the observation becomes more
mature and intimate. Notably in the case of Wordsworth, the feeling for nature
rises to a passionate veneration that is love and religion too. To Wordsworth
nature is not only a procession of seasons and seasonal fruition: it is the eye
of all things, natural and supernatural, into which the observant soul can peer
and behold the spirit that inhabits all things. Nature is thus amplified and
glorified; it is to be sought, not only in the flowers and the fields, but also
in
‘‘The light of sitting sun,
And the round ocean
and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of
man.’’
This stanza talked about not
only the out of the nature but inner nature of the man is also described.
Romantic literature not only deals with outer nature but it is also deals with
the nature that is in the mind of man. Nature plays an important role in
Frankenstein, although to the reader familiar with romantic poetry, it may seem
that nature is somewhat less important or less central than the role it plays,
for example, in the poetry of Percy Shelley, or in the romanticism examples of
poetry of Wordsworth, and Coleridge. Nonetheless, from the novel’s opening, the
importance of the reader getting a sense of physical place is established by
situating the text within a particular environment, the qualities of which will
both mirror and contradict the inner states of the main characters. Victor
notes that the landscape of the Orkneys and that of his native country are
quite distinct. His description of the Orkneys is cold, barren, gray, and
rough. In contrast, he recalls Switzerland as colorful and lively. He describes
the Swiss hills in true Romanticism form as covered with verdant vines and the
landscape as teeming with blue lakes that reflect the brilliant blue sky. The
final comparison that he draws is between the winds of each place. In
Switzerland, the winds are ‘‘but…the play of a lively infant’’ (pg – 42), not
the tormented sea squalls that batter the rock face of the Orkneys. It is
symbolic, of course, that Victor has chosen such a barren place to create the
companion for the creature. The contrast between two places is as stark and
distinct as the difference between Frankenstein’s Creature and the human world.
The creature occupies a world that is bleak, that is attacked on all sides by
an unforgiving set of conditions. Victor, his family, and the De Lacys occupy a
world that has beauty, even though each has had to deal with occasional harsh
realities. These appropriate pairings of characters with their environments
will be re-emphasized throughout the novel, and the physical qualities of the
environments will provoke contemplative thought for most of the main
characters, especially Victor and the creature.
On a more symbolic level, Frankenstein is
clearly a novel about romantic striving against the customary boundaries or
limitations placed on our existence. First, there is the obvious example of
Victor Frankenstein pushing against his limitations as a human being by
striving to play a God-like role by making the creature. For Victor, it is not
satisfying enough to simply study philosophy and science and proceed on to a
respectable profession. He must perfect the role of the scientist by attempting
to accomplish the impossible, a process which is inevitably frustrated, as it
must be, by the fact that overstepping human boundaries has significant
consequences. Shelley’s Frankenstein is not a mad scientist, as his character
has been reduced to over the years, but a scientist who is passionate about the
primary questions and preoccupations of his time.
In his Romantic quest for a scientific ideal-the perfect
human-he creates a monster, which then must be held in check by other systems
and institutions that humans have also created. While these institutions are
more concrete and based in reality than the creation of the monster, they are
equally imperfect. This novel helps the reader understand that there is no such
state as perfection. Furthermore, there is no social experiment, whether based
in reality or in fantasy that will result in an ideal solution. Rather, human
beings will always create imperfect institutions and inventions, and given
this, must be prepared to accept responsibility and anticipate the potential
consequences.
Victor Frankenstein is not the only character to strive
against and challenge traditional boundaries, however. The creature the Victor
makes is engage in his own struggle to experience sublime connection with his
environment and with other living beings. The creature makes multiple attempts
to connect with other beings, especially before he realizes that he is
different from them. Almost all of his efforts are in vain, however. The
creature lacks speech and obvious physical characteristics that would make him more
recognizable to human beings. The pain of his multiple rejections leads him to
believe that, as explained in one of the important quotes from Frankenstein by
Mary Shelley, ‘‘The human senses are insurmountable barriers to our union…If I
cannot inspire love, I will cause fear…’’(Pg – 173). This decision signals the
decline of all of the major characters, and foreshadows the novel’s terrible
denouement. In a twist on the typical romantic text, which, if it does end
happily, ends on a thoughtful, meditative note, this novel ends with the
characters having effect no significant resolution amongst themselves. They
have all realized the impossibility of striving against the roles to which they
have been assigned in life, and they do not seem to be able to identify any
other options for themselves.
But here Mary Shelley treat nature in
different way, she treat Nature v/s nature. Here Frankenstein wants to create
Monster and it is against of the rule of the nature. And maybe that is why at
the end of the novel he got nothing accepts tragic fact because too much
exaggeration is always destroying.
Conclusion:
Mary Shelley’s novel
‘‘Frankenstein’’ examines many social issues present during the Romantic
Period. An analysis of its context reveals just how much it draws upon the
Romantic dogma of the 1800’s and how Shelley attempts to warns us of the
consequences of our fixation with omnipotence and our ventures into
unrestrained scientific progress. Similarly Ridley Scott’s film ‘‘Blade Runner’’
presents a somber view of the earth’s future. It explores humanity’s
dislocation from the nature world as a consequence of consumerism, greed and
scientific progress.
Well described and good points. It would have been good if you had inserted some images.
ReplyDeleteIn This Assignment u put the things about Romantic Age and what are the elements that find in Frankenstein.
ReplyDeletehi..sonal your Assignment was good and well put of many references with the connect of Frankenstein noivel on Romantic age.
ReplyDelete