The Volcanic Eruption Of Mount Tambora

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was published in 1818, and is now famous as one of the pioneering science fiction novels. Mary Shelley herself is sometimes even referred to as the mother of science fiction. While her work has been scrutinized numerous times by feminists and moral critics, in recent times ecologists have also been examining her novel. Ecocriticism, while still a relatively new field of criticism, is highly interested in how weather and natural events effected both the writing and plot of the novel. Ecocriticism of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein focuses on the weather in the novel itself, the eruption of the Tambora Volcano in 1815, and the monster as symbolism for weather in the early 1800s.

Mary Shelley was a writer, novelist, and biographer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein. She had already written many stories and short novels, and even edited and promoted the works of her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley . But Frankenstein; the Modern Prometheus was her first work to achieve popularity and great success, despite the initial bad reviews, claiming the novel to be ''a tissue of horrible and disgusting absurdity''. Frankenstein recalls the events of the fictional Victor Frankenstein and of his becoming an unholy creator of life. When the novel was written, science was highly debated; and Frankenstein was the first novel to give the impression that one day, science will destroy mankind. The subtle mixture of the

Mary Shelley’s story of internal turmoil, the cruelty of altering the laws of nature, and the consequences of redefining the laws of nature is a harrowing one, known widely by many audiences, yet it is never the nature of the characters that is discussed, only the outcome. Shelley’s deliberate use of different character foils portrays the deeper connections and themes in her 1818 novel, Frankenstein. The creation and presence of Frankenstein’s monster directly foils the character of Victor Frankenstein himself, illustrating overarching themes of self inflicted isolation and internal conflict, exposing the dangers and consequences of complete and total narcissism, and revealing a truth many still refuse to accept: we, as humans, are capable

In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, man tries to tamper with nature. This is an enormous mistake, because his experiences prove that man should respect the omnipotent power of nature so man can be happy. Man should respect nature because if man goes beyond his limits, then nature lets man creates all types of consequences for himself which proves Shelley’s point to respect nature’s powers.When people look at nature, they are automatically healed just by its looks. This is a much more powerful force than anything man is capable of doing, thus nature is all powerful. Nature is constant, unlike man who is constantly changing, which shows that nature is always in control.

In 1818 Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelley. In Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein brings a creature to life. The creature kills William, Henry Clerval, and Elizabeth. Victor had promised to make a female creature for the creature, but he did not fulfill his promise. This makes the creature enraged. The creature runs away and Victor follows him. Victor gets on a boat with Walton. Victor dies and the creature comes and is very sad that his creator has died. The creature says that he must end his suffering and he jumps into the ocean. In the novel Frankenstein, Shelley uses the theme of nature to show how it is like the characters of the story and how it affects the characters.

Shelley’s uses of romantic and gothic elements also enhance the negative portrayal of science and its potential destruction. Her writing conveys gloomy settings of Frankenstein as well as the appreciation of nature. Dark ambiance is evident in the description of Frankenstein’s laboratory: “In a solitary chamber, or rather cell, at the top of my house, and separated from all the other apartments by a gallery and staircase, I kept my workshop of filthy creation...the dissecting room and the slaughterhouse furnished many of my materials”. This description invokes a repulsive reaction in the reader and therefore a tainted opinion of science. One of the important scenes that reflected Mary Shelley’s attitudes towards science is the portrayal of Frankenstein’s awe when he sees the lightening strike the tree, showing his curiosity towards science-“As I stood at the door, on a sudden I beheld a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak...and no soon as the sizzling light vanished, the oak disappeared, and nothing was left but a blasted stump”. In this quote the power and beauty of nature is apparent and

The theme of sublime nature is perpetuated by Shelley’s incorporation of violence in locations with beautiful lake and mountain views. As Frankenstein takes a tour of a mountain and glacier he sees sublime nature in the form of “the pallid lightning that played above Mont Blanc,” showing that terrors such as lightning already exist within the domain of the beautiful mountainside (Shelley 167). Shelley uses this ominous mood to foreshadow Frankenstein’s future encounter with another herald of terror, the monster. Not long after Frankenstein sees an object in the distance and suddenly, “A flash of lightning illuminated the object,” the

Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein cannot merely be read as a literary work of the early 19th century. It represents the workings of young Shelley's mind. Further, it represents the vast scientific discoveries of the time, combined with Mary Shelley's intuitive perception of science. She views science as a powerful entity, but also recognizes the dangers if uncontrolled. Shelley demonstrates this fear in the book as science drives Victor Frankenstein to create his monster. In the end, it is also his use of science that inevitably becomes his demise.

Frankenstein is a story full of questions and excitement. What is interesting about Shelley’s novel is the absence of God and multiple female characters. She ignores the proper way of conception and birth. Due to this, the science of what Victor accomplished had gone awry. His goal while creating the monster was a perfect race in which they would help mankind, “even though the dream of the new race is...exploded” in the end (Levine 12). Victor Frankenstein

Mount Tambora is known as one of the most dangerous volcanoes in history. It is recognized to have one of the most hazardous eruptions, the 1816 eruption, with the death toll of 72,000 and more people.

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD was a pyroclastic event discussed in greater detail over the course of this essay.

Sometimes considered one of the first science fiction novels of supernatural terror, Frankenstein proved itself an instant success when released anonymously in 1818. The mad scientist Victor Frankenstein and his creation provoke readers with the fear of the unknown and the power of natures forces. A deeper look into the character of Victor Frankenstein, the role of scientific experimentation and the intricate settings of nature in which the story evolves, prove Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein , a worthy example of both Romantic and Gothic representation in nineteenth century British Literature.

“Here we find nature to be the circumstance which[…] judges like a god all men that come to her.” is one of the first statements by Ralph Waldo Emerson in his essay “Nature”, referring to nature’s role in romanticism. Nature, as well as science, are one of the main topics depicted in writings of the romantic period. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein can be attached to these writings. Her novel implies many natural and scientific characteristics that approach throughout the novel and finally clash by Victor Frankenstein’s creation of the monster. The following essay states the importance of nature and science in Frankenstein and argues that Frankenstein’s monster is a personalization of the danger involved in connecting both nature and science.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley explores the fight between man and nature through the story of eager scientist Victor Frankenstein, who artificially creates life from the body parts of the deceased with disastrous consequences. By highlighting the intense power of nature, Shelley comments on the folly of attempting to subjugate nature to bend to one’s will.

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