Introduction to Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

ROMANTICISM

Frankenstein is NOT what you think it is.

FRANKENSTEIN

TOPICS IN FRANKENSTEIN

Topics:

• The dangers of Science and Technology

• Man vs. Nature• Beauty of Nature vs. The

Corruptive City• Original Sin and Depravity• Nature vs. Nurture• The Pursuit of Truth• The Role of Guilt• The Perversion of Good• Danger of the Unnatural

ROMANTICISM (1800-1840)

Romanticism:From the Merriam-Webster Dictionary

“a literary, artistic, and philosophical movement originating in the 18th century, characterized chiefly by a reaction against neoclassicism and an emphasis on the imagination and emotions, and marked especially in English literature by sensibility and the use of autobiographical material, an exaltation of the primitive and the common man, an appreciation of external nature, an interest in the remote, a predilection for melancholy, and the use in poetry of older verse forms…”

The Romantic Period was a REACTION against the ideas of the following movements:

• The Age of Enlightenment• The Industrial Revolution• Rationalism

Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein during the Romantic Period (1816) and incorporated elements of Romanticism in the novel.

ROMANTICISM (CONT’D)

THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT

The Age of Enlightenment: A movement that tried to reform society through using reason and scientific knowledge.

Characteristics of the Enlightenment:• Focus on Classical influences• Emphasis on Rationalism

• Truth can be obtained not through the senses (experience), but through the mind (intellectual/deductive)

• Science rather than Religion can explain the Natural World.

KEY ENLIGHTENMENT IDEAS

Renee Descartes: • Rationalist• Cogito Ero Sum (“I think, therefore, I

am”)

John Locke: • The Social Contract (Government)

Jean Jacques Rousseau:• “Man is born free, but everywhere he

is in chains.”

Sir Isaac Newton: • Founder of Calculus and the Laws of

Gravity

Thomas Jefferson: • Declaration of Independence

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

The Industrial Revolution: A period marked by rapid advancements in agriculture, mining, transportation and technology which created a profound shift in society

Key Features:

• Innovations in transportation • Rise of Cities• Creation of Factories• Belief in human potential

TRAITS OF ROMANTICISM

Romanticism was a BACKLASH against the ideas of the Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution

Key Features:

• Emphasis on strong emotions and experience rather than reason

• Return to Nature• Rejection of Rationalism • Rejection of the tenants of

Industrialism• Glorification of Nature over the

City• Isolation of the Narrator• Focus on Women and Children

NATURE IN ROMANTICISM

Sentimentalism: Emphasis on feelings over reason and rationality.

Emotional experiences achieved through viewing or experiencing Nature.

Aesthetic: Having a sense of the beautiful; characterized by a love of beauty. Pertaining to, involving, or concerned with pure emotion and sensation as opposed to pure intellectuality.

THE SUBLIME

The Sublime: A feeling of intense emotion causing the reader to reach a state of experience and heightened awareness. Often, this is achieved through witnessing the beauty and majesty of nature. Part of the sublime is a feeling both of wonder and terror simultaneously

Edmund BurkeA Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful

"Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain and danger... Whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror.“

ClassicalJohann Sebastian Bach (Baroque)

Brandenburg Concerto

Mozart (Classical)

Eine kleine Nachtmusik (Allegro)

RomanticismLudwig van Beethoven (Early Romantic)

Piano Sonata No 32 in C minor, Op 111

Frédéric Chopin (Romantic)

Chopin Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2

CLASSICISM VS. ROMANTICISM:MUSIC

Art: Romanticism

CLASSICISM VS. ROMANTICISM:ART

The Birth of Venus for the Medici by Botticelli. (1486)

Art: Classical

Art: Romanticism

CLASSICISM VS. ROMANTICISM:ART

Romantic Landscape with Ruined Tower(1832–36)

Art: Romanticism

CLASSICISM VS. ROMANTICISM:ARCHITECTURE

The Glyptothek in Munich, designed by Leo von Klenze (1816–30)

Architecture: Classical

CLASSICISM VS. ROMANTICISM:ARCHITECTURE

Architecture:Romanticism(Gothic)

CLASSICISM VS. ROMANTICISM:ARCHITECTURE

Architecture:Romanticism(Gothic)

THE GOTHIC NOVEL

Gothic Novels: An offshoot of Romanticism which combined horror with romance. They strove for the aesthetic through powerful emotions; namely terror. By experiencing terror, the reader approaches the Romantic ideal of becoming engulfed by emotion.

Traits of Gothic Novels• Glorification of Medievalism

(rather than Classical or Roman influence)

• Distant, exotic, far off settings• Existence of dark, uncontrollable

forces opposing the protagonist• Often includes a virtuous, female

protagonist• Contains fantastic exploits or

deeds

GOTHIC

Henry Fuseli“The Nightmare”

Gothic Elements?

NATURE VS. NURTURE

Nature Argument

Original Sin: The belief that all evil in mankind descends from the first sin committed by the first humans Adam and Eve in Genesis. Mankind, according to this belief, inherits the state of sin of its first ancestor.

Depravity: Based on the idea of original sin, the idea that humans are born into sin by nature, and that given their own devices, humanity will fall into evil out of necessity.

NATURE VS. NURTURE

Nurture

Tabula Rasa: The belief that the mind begins as a blank slate that becomes filled through our experiences. According to this belief, everything that we are is a result of what we have experienced.

Anti-Hero (Byronic Hero): A protagonist who doesn’t possess the traits normally associated with a hero, instead having traits typically associated with villains.

Satan from Milton’s Paradise Lost is an example.

PARADISE LOST: SATAN

Is this the Region, this the Soil, the Clime,Said then the lost Arch-Angel, this the seatThat we must change for Heav'n, this mournful gloomFor that celestial light? Be it so, since he [ 245 ]Who now is Sovereign can dispose and bidWhat shall be right: farthest from him is bestWhom reason hath equal’d, force hath made supremeAbove his equals. Farewell happy FieldsWhere Joy for ever dwells: Hail horrors, hail [ 250 ]Infernal world, and thou profoundest HellReceive thy new Possessor: One who bringsA mind not to be chang'd by Place or Time.The mind is its own place, and in itselfCan make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n. [ 255 ]What matter where, if I be still the same,And what I should be, all but less then heWhom Thunder hath made greater? Here at leastWe shall be free; th' Almighty hath not builtHere for his envy, will not drive us hence: [ 260 ]Here we may reign secure, and in my choiceTo reign is worth ambition though in Hell:Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav'n.