Romantic Elements in Frankenstein and the Fall of the House of Usher
Romantic elements in Frankenstein and
The Fall of the House of Usher
Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, and Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, The Fall of the House of Usher, although published in different periods, on different continents, have in common many of the main ideas that stood behind the literary movement of Romanticism (the sublime, the Romantic hero, imagination, isolation), combined with elements of the Gothic (the mysterious and remote setting dominated by a gloomy atmosphere, death, sin, pain, exotic elements, supernatural).
One of the main elements that is integrated into the Romantic movement is the sublime. In his A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful , Edmund Burke defined the sublime as “Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling.” In Burke’s view, the typical qualities that characterize a sublime landscape are vastness of dimensions (especially in contrast with the limitations of the human body and mind), obscurity (that blurs the definition of boundaries), deep darkness or intense light. Through the impact that magnificent landscapes and violent storms produce, and in the midst of the terrors that nature creates, the characters experience the sublime, are overflown with dread, fear and a sense of astonishment, which eventually allows them to sense the divine.
In Frankenstein, nature is a very powerful entity that can soothe and punish; this duality is especially obvious in the connection between Victor and nature that Shelly cultivates throughout the novel. More often than not, Victor takes sustenance from nature, which provides him with what could be described as personal therapy when he is subjected to
The Fall of the House of Usher
Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, and Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, The Fall of the House of Usher, although published in different periods, on different continents, have in common many of the main ideas that stood behind the literary movement of Romanticism (the sublime, the Romantic hero, imagination, isolation), combined with elements of the Gothic (the mysterious and remote setting dominated by a gloomy atmosphere, death, sin, pain, exotic elements, supernatural).
One of the main elements that is integrated into the Romantic movement is the sublime. In his A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful , Edmund Burke defined the sublime as “Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling.” In Burke’s view, the typical qualities that characterize a sublime landscape are vastness of dimensions (especially in contrast with the limitations of the human body and mind), obscurity (that blurs the definition of boundaries), deep darkness or intense light. Through the impact that magnificent landscapes and violent storms produce, and in the midst of the terrors that nature creates, the characters experience the sublime, are overflown with dread, fear and a sense of astonishment, which eventually allows them to sense the divine.
In Frankenstein, nature is a very powerful entity that can soothe and punish; this duality is especially obvious in the connection between Victor and nature that Shelly cultivates throughout the novel. More often than not, Victor takes sustenance from nature, which provides him with what could be described as personal therapy when he is subjected to