Mary Shelley's Frankenstein-A Romantic Criticism

Frankenstein: A Romantic Criticism Beginning in the late eighteenth century, the Romantic movement began to infiltrate European intellectual society, rejecting the Enlightenment ideals of rationality, objectivity, and mortal superiority (Drake). Instead, Romanticism stressed that true knowledge came from emotion and placed an emphasis on nature, where God manifested himself. Reminiscence was also a core tenet of Romanticism, with central concepts like Rousseau’s noble savage and an opposition to technological and industrial development reflecting a desire to return to simpler, more idealistic times (Britannica). Growing up in a household where men of intellectual society, like Wordsworth and Coleridge, could often be found, Mary Shelley was
Victor Frankenstein, tragic hero or perhaps true monster, epitomizes everything Shelley scorns Enlightenment thought, but most importantly he attempts to overstep his place in nature, something that must punish in order to establish her criticism. Victor’s attempts to assume the role of nature or even to outdo nature reflect the Enlightenment attitude that man can become master of nature by discovering natural law, something that Shelley refutes both by depicting negative effects of such actions and demonstrating some recognition by Victor’s character. First, the title The Modern Prometheus seems to reflect that Victor wrongfully overstepped his boundaries as it alludes to Prometheus who tried to trick Zeus and was punished heartily for such. In the novel, when Victor was in the process of constructing his creature he expressed his desire to create a superior species that would “bless [him] as its creator” (Norton - 33). Although Victor had grand visions for his creation, selecting it with “perfect features” for example, he ultimately failed miserably, creating a hideous wretch clearly inferior to the imperfect perfection of nature’s creations (35). Revealing how
bound up with the wild energies of the time”, according to Jane Goodall in her discussion of the perceived connection between electricity and revolution many Europeans held in the early nineteenth century when Frankenstein was written (491). This would seem to indicate that perhaps Victor could be a symbol of Romantic revolution, and thus Shelley’s novel would be a tragedy rather than a horror story. After all, Victor does reflect Romantic ideals in that he is a unhindered “creative spirit” who acts based on his passions. However, in truth Victor’s is a horror story which instead humors the Romantic fascination with “exotic, the remote, the mysterious, the weird, the occult, the monstrous, the diseased, and even the satanic” (Britannica). Victor’s actions are condemned, not celebrated, demonstrated both by the creature’s torture of Victor and by the physical deterioration Victor endured while creating the creature, which was meant to act as a kind of warning sign (33). Instead, Frankenstein is a Romantic novel reflecting tragedy, the triumph of emotion and nature, and “a preoccupation with the genius ... and a focus on his passions and inner struggles”