Individualism And Romanticism In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was published during the 1800’s when the Romantic period was flourishing. It was a time of imagination, experimentation, and love for beauty. In literature, the romantics, such as Shelley, wrote about supernatural occurrences, individuality, and freedom from rules. The romantic period emphasized new ideas and unreasonable thinking. The 18th and 19th centuries were also a time of great scientific discoveries. One of which was the discovery of Galvanism: a device that sends electrical currents through the body and causes nerve impulses (Baigrie 50). Sir Humphrey Davy as well as many other scientists including Luigi Galvani experimented with Galvanism by applying electrical currents to animal tissue (Bailgrie 50). Galvani hoped to understand how muscle movement and electrical currents were linked together (Bailgrie 50). Davy’s lectures interested Shelley, and later inspired her to write Frankenstein (Holmes Online). New discoveries in chemistry, biology, and mechanics caused people to question their religion, and debates arose between ethics in science and religion. The Romantic period was very influential to Shelley, since she explored the ethics of science and used romantic characterization in Frankenstein.
In the beginning of Frankenstein, Shelley portrayed Victor Frankenstein as an innocent boy interested in science, and had the opportunity to explore the world around him. His first encounter with science as a young boy occurred when he discovered Cornelius Agrippa’s book about natural science. As soon as he opened the book he learned new ideas about this subject matter and wanted to learn more. Frankenstein reflected on his finding of Agrippa’s book and said:
Natural philosophy is the genius that...

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...old in Frankenstein’s behavior during the inner turmoil to create a second monster. First, after deciding not to make the second monster he became obsessed with destroying the first monster and dragged his family and friends into it. Almost at the end of the novel Frankenstein encountered his monster who wanted him to create a companion for him. Frankenstein had to make an ethical decision of whether or not to make another monster. This was a major turning point for Frankenstein because he could either make more monsters and become more powerful or stop what he was doing. While in his lab he reminisced and said “three years before I was engaged in the same manner, and had created a fiend whose unparalleled barbarity had desolated my heart, and filled it forever with the bitterest remorse. I was now about to form another being of whose dispositions I was alike ignoran

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