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Frankenstein : Underlying Tones Of Romanticism

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Frankenstein: Underlying Tones of Romanticism
By Nishaat Rupani

Unlike the ideas from the period of Enlightenment, which were comparatively more scientific and rational in nature, the ideas from the period of Romanticism aimed to elevate the role of emotion, instinct, spirit and soul. Although a number of critics argue that Frankenstein does not conform to the brighter themes and subjects of the works of Mary Shelley’s contemporaries, many critics argue that Victor Frankenstein’s story “initiates a rethinking of romantic rhetoric” (Guyer 76). Several central themes and characteristics from the Romantic era are highlighted in the text. Romantic poets always seemed to capture the sublime moment and experience, comparing the beautiful to …show more content…

For example, Victor Frankenstein notes that Switzerland was cheerful and lively, while the Orkneys is cold and barren. He describes the Swiss landscape, whose hills are covered with verdant vines and whose blue lakes reflect the blue sky, as well as the winds of Switzerland, which are like the play of an infant. On the other hand, the Orkneys is rather gray and rough, while its winds remind him of tormented sea squalls (Shelley 42). His description of the landscape shows readers that the location he chose to create a companion for the Creature is symbolic due to the stark contrast between the two places. The comparison between the beautiful and the grotesque is also depicted through the differences between Victor Frankenstein’s world and the Creature’s world. Victor lives in a world which is comparatively beautiful and colorful, while the Creature is forced to live in a world that is comparatively bleak and dreary. These examples also showed readers how the meaning of sublimity greatly varied between the period of Enlightenment and the period of Romanticism. As illustrated by Harold Bloom and Lionel Trilling: “This sublimity is not a Sublime of great conceptions, before which the self feels small, but rather of a hoped-for potential, in which the private self turns upon infinitude, and so is found by its own greatness" (Bloom and Trilling

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