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. Over the course of the novel, Shelley created a man that identified with and was connected …show more content…
to nature. Victor Frankenstein was certainly psychologically tied to nature. Starting early in the novel Shelley used metaphors about nature to deliver messages about the human psyche. When Victor discusses reminiscing’s of his childhood he compares it to a mountain river: “I feel pleasure in dwelling on the recollection of childhood, before misfortune had tainted my mind and changed its bright visions of extensive usefulness into gloomy and narrow reflections upon self… for when I would account to myself for the birth of that passion, which afterword ruled my destiny, I find it arise, like a mountain river, from ignoble and almost forgettable sources; but swelling as it proceeded, it became the torrent in which, in its course, has swept away all my hopes and joys.” (Shelley 21) This early use of natural metaphor marks a theme that will be continued through the rest of the book. Instead of simply letting Victor state what he was feeling, Shelley accompanied this with a more romantic picture of the stream starting out meek but swelling to become more rapid, sweeping away with it human emotion, she uses romantic imagery and language to convey an unpleasant idea. In choosing this metaphorical language, and having Victor reflect on himself though nature, Shelley created a tie between nature and her main character that lasts for the duration of the story. Shelley does not stop with simple ties, however; she goes on to use nature as a much stronger force. Mary Shelley’s use of nature in Frankenstein is deliberate yet metaphorical.
She used nature to symbolize and stand for many other concepts. One of these concepts is nature as a restorative agent. There are several occasions that can be observed in which Victor either attributed his health to or was directly healed by, nothing other than nature. He would seek nature out in times of misfortune, physical or psychological, and truly believed in the profound effect it seemed to have on him. The first instance is when he was just beginning to regain strength after being so incredibly ill he could’ve been on his deathbed. Despite being waited on and taken care of by his dear friend Henry for the entirely of his sickness, and acknowledging the effect of Elizabeth’s letter; “ I wrote, and this exertion greatly fatigued me; but my convalescence had commenced, and proceeded regularly. In another fortnight I was able to leave my chamber”, Victor still contributes much of his improvement to nature and in this case, the air. He states ”We passed a fortnight in these perambulations: my health and spirits had long been restored, and they gained additional strength from the salubrious air I breathed, the natural incidents of our progress.” (Shelley 43) Although he mentioned that the letter from his cousin put into play his recovery, in the end, Victor sees nature as his final restorative agent, going as far as to say that the air was salubrious, literally meaning health-giving. The language used in this excerpt helps show that because Victor is tied so deeply to nature he genuinely believes in the restorative effect of the air. An even more prominent example of Victor’s belief in the restorative effects of nature comes after the death of his brother at the hands of his own creation. He isolated himself from Henry and instead turned to nature to seek comfort and sanity, even outright stating that it restored him; “ I remained two days at Lausanne, in this painful state of mind. I
contemplated the lake; the waters were placid: all around was calm, and the snowy mountains, “The palaces of nature,” were not changed. By degrees the calm and heavenly scene restored me, and I continued my journey to Geneva.” (Shelley 48-49) Even after the deaths of his loved ones nature is still seen as a lone restorative force to Victor, the only thing that allowed him to continue on. Although Victor sees nature as truly restorative, Shelley uses nature is more than this one way. The main character Victor may be connected to and find great solace in nature but Mary Shelley does not only use language and nature as a restorative agent. An underlying theme that does not emerge until the latter end of the novel is nature in a destructive sense. Victor is comforted by nature while all along violating and going against the very force. Shelley shows that going against nature can be destructive in many ways, at first small, such as Victor falling ill when he stops appreciating nature as much and starts spending most of his time in the tower trying to violate nature by creating the monster. While discussing his process in trying to raise the dead he states that; “No one can conceive the variety of feelings which bore me onwards, like a hurricane…the summer months passed while I was thus engaged…in one pursuit. It was a most beautiful season; never did the fields bestow a more plentiful harvest…but my eyes were insensible to the charms of nature” (Shelley 81) First, Shelley compares his drive to that of a hurricane. Although Victor was referring to his determination there is double entendre, Shelley wants to show that his pursuit of the unnatural is a destructive force and uses the metaphor as an opportunity to do so. Secondly, she again uses romantic language and imagery to express an unpleasant idea, in this case, his refusal to obey or even observe the laws of nature. Even though nature had never been so plentiful or providing to him he still ignores it, in the end, Shelley proves that going against nature can lead to destruction. While Victor was contemplating what he had done he said to himself; “Now that I finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror…filled my heart” (Shelley 84) This was Shelley driving home the idea that even though he could defy nature it would only be to his downfall and destruction. Victor Frankenstein, a man that had been deeply connected with nature since childhood, a man who even after his mistakes could only find sanctuary in nature, ended as a man who defied nature and saw all of its destructive powers because of it. Shelley used language and nature throughout the entire story to display these themes and concepts. All in all, Shelley allowed the reader to see nature for everything that it was. Powerful enough to control Victor within its ebb and flow yet gentle enough to keep him afloat. Each time Victor became comfortable with nature, it lashed out at him, warning not to challenge it. Whether out of chance or fate, nature is the single most compelling theme of the novel in reference to Victor’s wellbeing, for the better or perhaps, the worse.
In these aspirations, whereas the Romantic poets value the permanence of nature in contrast to that of manmade creations, Frankenstein connects his Romantic sentiments with icy climates which shift and fade. The drastic change in tone from his speech to Walton’s crew to his final speech to Walton is an echo of the ice that melts a few days after his speech to Walton’s crew. Frankenstein’s sublime experience on the icy heights of Mont Blanc (Shelley 66) and his praise of the Arctic’s sublimity (Shelley 155) are also notable in that they both take place in the typically warmer months of August (Shelley 64) and September (Shelley 154). While such alienation from reality is typical of the Romantic poet, Frankenstein’s two experiences in these icy landscapes lead to his greatest failures: the Creature’s request for a wife (Shelley 101), which when Frankenstein refuses (Shelley 120), results in the “destruction” of his friends, family, and himself (Shelley 157). Frankenstein’s praise of the isolating sublime is characteristic of the Romantic poet, but the mutability of his icy landscapes leads to his demise rather than to the prosperous legacies the Romantic poets hoped
First, Before the monster is created Victor says that he hopes this creation would bless him as his creator, and that the creature would be excellent nature and would be beautiful. After the creature is created Shelley creates sympathy for him by Victor’s description of him in a unique yet horrific way, “he’s ‘gigantic,” “deformed,” “yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath” this makes the creature abhorrent to typical humans. When thinking of the descriptions together, Shelley has created a vivid, unnatural image of the monster in the mind’s eyes. The language Shelley uses is powerful and emotive “shall I create another like yourself, whose joints wickedness
The idea of duality permeates the literary world. Certain contradictory commonplace themes exist throughout great works, creation versus destruction, light versus dark, love versus lust, to name a few, and this trend continues in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. The pivotal pair in this text however, is monotony versus individuality. The opposing entities of this pairing greatly contrast against each other in Frankenstein, but individuality proves more dominant of the two in this book.
Mary Shelley’s world renowned book, “Frankenstein”, is a narrative of how Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant chemist, succeeds in creating a living being. Although Frankenstein’s creation is benevolent to begin with, he soon turns murderous after being mistreated by humans. His anger turns towards Frankenstein, as he was the one who brought him into the world that shuns him. The Monster then spends the rest of the story trying to make his creator’s life as miserable as his own. This novel is an excellent example of the Gothic Romantic style of literature, as it features some core Gothic Romantic elements such as remote and desolate settings, a metonymy of gloom and horror, and women in distress.
“My imagination, unbidden, possessed and guided me, gifting the successive images that arose in my mind with vividness far beyond the usual bounds of reverie,” Mary Shelley described in the forward to one of the most deeply philosophical works of her time, her novel, Frankenstein. According to Shelley in this introduction, she conceived the idea of her horror novel in a jolt of inspiration one night before bed. While some of the plot may indeed have come to her in such a spectacular fashion, a close examination of her text in comparison to her personal history reveals that many of the qualities embodied by her characters were not spontaneously conjured, but rather were derived from her own personality and sentiment. In crafting the novel that
Romanticism deals a lot with elements and how they affect human beings. In the very beginning of the story, Captain Walton finds Victor nearly dead after his ship is stuck in a sea of ice, where he says, "...and we beheld, stretched out in every direction, vast and irregular plains of ice, which seemed to have no end." (12). Ice symbolizes death and pain or illness in Romantic novels. This shows there is no coincidence in Victor's state of being and the environment they are in at the time. This is also one of those subtle nods towards former works Shelley had read. For anyone who has read "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (another Romantic work), his ship
Peter Brooks' essay "What Is a Monster" tackles many complex ideas within Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and the main concept that is the title of the essay itself. What is the definition of a monster, or to be monstrous? Is a monster the classic representation we know, green skin, neck bolts, grunting and groaning? A cartoon wishing to deliver sugary cereal? or someone we dislike so greatly their qualities invade our language and affect our interpretation of their image and physical being? Brooks' essay approaches this question by using Shelley's narrative structure to examine how language, not nature, is mainly accountable for creating the idea of the monstrous body.
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.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was the ultimate outcome of her unconventional life, up to the summer of 1816. At that time, she was just eighteen. When she started penning down Frankenstein, she was in the company of some unusual people, and even the weather conditions were strangely unusual. One evening in Villa Diodati, when there was lightning outside the villa, and darkness inside it, with just a candle for some light, Lord Byron suggested to all those gathered there that they should engage themselves in the writing of ghost stories. This setting and the suggestion from Lord Byron resulted in Shelley’s Frankenshtein- a story that transgresses all scientific explanations and boundaries. It is obvious that without the setting of the lightning outside, the darkness inside the villa, Shelley’s unusual companions, and the climatic conditions of 1816, Frankenstein would not have been born. We have twice referred to the unusual weather conditions of 1816 having contributed to the birth of Shelley’s classic. The weather was an important factor because of what the word gothic means to us, and the way its author was affected by various factors to finally pen down this classic. In 1816, the summer was unusually damp and saddening, temperatures dropped, heavy rains occurred, and crops failed across North America, Europe
Victor Frankenstein and his creation are alike in several ways, one of them being their appreciation of nature. Victor embraces the nature for the quick moment that he escapes the creature as it “filled me with a sublime ecstasy that gave wings to the soul and allowed it to soar from the obscure world to light and joy” (Shelley 84). Vict...
Given the deep ties to nature that Mary Shelley explores within Frankenstein, the principles and methodology of ecocriticism can be applied in many different ways. The interaction of humanity and nature is a concept explored throughout the novel, relating directly to a core tenet of ecocriticism, "directly relat[ing] who we are as human beings to the environment" (Bressler 231). Being as there is no "single, dominant methodology" (235) within ecocriticism, the extent to which we can use ecocriticism to interact with Frankenstein contains considerable depth. However, I will look to a few main methodologies of ecocriticism to look at Frankenstein in detail to uncover how the novel deals with the changing attitudes of humanity and nature in early 19th century England.
Nature is a key element in romanticism as the early romantics stressed the divine beauty they saw in nature. Mary Shelley uses the elements of nature to further the emotions of her characters and create a safe place for them to think. She also goes into the aspects of science and nature, "[Scientists] penetrate into the recesses of nature and show how she works in her hiding-places” (Shelley 33). In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley creates a novel based around science overreaching to boundaries. Many scientific experiments of the early 1800s make an excellent base in history for Frankenstein. Trials such as biomedical trials that began during along with the continuing studies into human anatomy and the natural world. Weather is an important element of nature which is commonly used to reflect and supplement human emotions. After William’s death, whilst Victor is returning to Geneva to talk to his father “the heavens were clouded, and [soon] the rain was coming slowly in large drops” (Shelley 62). Therefore, the storm reflects Victor’s mournful attitude and as the storm p...
Frankenstein has been interested in natural science since childhood and has described himself to “always have been imbued with a fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature”(Shelley 25), which foreshadows his future aspiration to create life, and
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has undoubtedly withstood the test of time. Frankenstein’s direct association with fundamental Gothic literature is extremely renowned. However, the novel’s originality is derived from the foundational thematic values found within the relationship (or lack there of) between Victor Frankenstein and the monster he had created, in combination with a fascinatingly captivating plot. Understandably, Frankenstein can often be associated with a multitude of concepts; however, in this particular instance, the circumstances in the book seemed remarkably coherent with Shelley’s Romantic beliefs in preserving the natural world, and one’s natural existence. These values present themselves as metaphorical symbols that represented Shelley’s Romantic beliefs. The allusions suggesting that pushing the boundaries of knowledge leading to consequential repercussions is extremely fundamental for the comprehension of this essay, especially when it contrasts cohesively with Shelley’s lucid references to “the sublime.” Over-reliance on scientific information and progression, eventually leads to environmental diminishment. During the period of time when Shelley was writing this piece, she would’ve been exposed to the consequential factors of the Industrial Revolution in England. Modernization was resulting in the destruction of the natural world the Romantics favoured so heavily. These allusions suggesting the environmental destruction in Shelley’s Frankenstein is represented most thoroughly using: the thematic importance of stretching science’s boundaries, the passionate representations of the sublime, and the direct association with the beliefs of the Victorian Romantics, of whom Shelley was at the forefront of.
In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Katherine Mansfield's "Miss Brill", and Percey Shelley's "To Jane: The Recollection", the authors depict nature's great influence on the individual through the use of various expressions of vivid imagery throughout the works. This is used in order to emphasize nature's keen ability to make the individual feel overwhelming sadness, its power to isolate, and its role as a healer to the individual.