Nature Of The Human Condition In Mutability, By Percy Shelley

Holding true to the romantic style, Shelley’s characters display strong emotions when experiencing or confronting the sublimity of an untamed nature and its picturesque qualities. This theme is complexly utilized in blurring the differences between human and monster. The demonstrated emotional

“But where were my friends and relations? No father had watched my infant days, no mother had blessed me with smiles and caresses; or if they had, all my past life was now a blot, a blind vacancy in which I distinguished nothing. From my earliest remembrance I had been as I then was in height and proportion. I had never yet seen a being resembling me or who claimed any intercourse with me.” (Shelley

The nature around them is symbolic of their emotions and mental states. For example, the weather turned stormy when Victor’s mood worsened (ch. 10). Victor also feels that nature, “gives wings to the soul and allows it to soar from the obscure world to light and joy.” (ch.10) Nature has a calming and peaceful effect on both of them when they are not in good mental health; using nature to clear their minds. It is not surprising that Mary Shelley wrote this during the period of transcendentalism. In this time period, books like Walden by Henry David Thoreau highlighted the importance of nature. These similarities in how they interact with nature show their deeper similarities in mentality.

In the novel "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley, the relationship of external apperence and internal feelings are directly related. The creature is created and he is innocent, though he is seaverly deformed. His nature is to be good and kind, but society only views his external appereance which is grotesque. Human nature is to judge by external apperence. He is automatically ostracized and labeled as a monster because of his external apperence. He finnaly realized that no matter how elequintly he speaks and how kind he is, people will never be able to see past his external deformities. Children are fearful of him, Adults think he is dangerous, and his own creator abandons him in disgust.

The poem begins with the word “We”, which is the only line in the poem that begins in this such manor, although the word “we” is repeated six more times throughout the poem. The “we” that I believe is represented at the beginning is the

Shelley used imagery and a very impressive ironical way to write this poem. Basically, the poem is divided into two parts; the first eight lines are describing an ancient decayed sculpture seen by a traveler. The last six lines however talk about the words on the pedestal and the desolate surroundings; he contrasts the great sculpture with the surrounding emptiness, which gave a stronger feeling about the poem. In Shelley’s work, it described the visage "sneer of cold command"(Line, 5).

In the poem there is also an idea of man verses nature, this relates to the survival of the fittest. John Foulcher shows this through the use of first person point of view. For example in the second stanza “Then above me the sound drops” this again possesses sensory imagery creating a deeper human aura throughout the poem. Foulcher further uses a human aura to build a sense of natural imagery for example in the last stanza : “I pick up these twigs and leave them” adding closure

In Mary Shelley’s novel, nature plays a vital role in the development of the plot. Nature is considered a female part because Mother Nature is the collective personification of life. Nature is life-bearing and nurturing, as females are to their offspring. In spite of nature being feminine, Victor

Shelley’s presentation of specific and powerful diction helps illuminate his strong thoughts about the mutability of humans. Shelley’s use of the two words “poison” and “pollutes” in the third stanza of the poem alludes to his thoughts about the human mind mentioned in his biography, “We rest.---A dream has power to poison sleep; / We rise.---One wandering thought pollutes the day; / We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep; / Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away:” (Shelley, 1734). Shelley was frequently bullied as a child and was expelled from school for being an alleged atheist; thus, he had notions before writing the poem about man’s corruption and “man’s general

In the second stanza Shelley describes the frailty of human existence. In lines five through nine humans are describes as "forgotten lyres, whose dissonant strings/ Give various response to each varying blast,/ To whose frail frame no second motion brings/ One mood or modulation like the last.” Shelley uses this as a metaphor that expands on the concept of human morality. In this stanza humans are compared to “forgotten lyres” saying that we will be forgotten when we are dead and gone. The different moods of the stanza are created by the different sounds of the lyre. Humans are being compared to instruments with beautifully melodies have been forgotten. Shelley is saying that once

       The poem gives a wonderful amount of images so a mental picture can be drawn. Just in these six lines Shelley introduces another character, tells all about this sculptor, gives information that is important to the mood of the poem, and lets the image of an upset artist appear in the picture. 

Furthermore, the last two stanzas are more personal in the sense of how the narrator speaks. The word “we” is used many times in these last two stanzas, more than the first three. In all five of the stanzas, the word “we” was used as the authors way of

The poem begins with two lines which are repeated throughout the poem which convey what the narrator is thinking, they represent the voice in

On of the most influential romantic English poets of the 19th century was Percy Bysshe Shelley. He was born August 4th 1792 to Sir Timothy and Elizabeth Pilford Shelley in Field Place, Horsham, Sussex, England. (Crook) Shelley was the oldest of six children. He had one brother, John and four sisters, Mary, Elizabeth, Hellen, and Margaret. His family lived a very comfortable lifestyle, especially his dad’s father, Bysshe Shelley whom owned quite a few estates. Shelley’s father was also a member of parliament.

Shelley in his poem ‘Ode to the West Wind’ has used similes in his poem. He states that, “the leaves dead are driven like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing.” He also states that, “the winged seeds where they lie cold and low each like a corpse within its grave.” As observed from these examples, the poets will use these techniques to assist in easier interpretation of the poem.