Introduction to Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

FRANKENSTEIN
Frankenstein is NOT what you think it is.

TOPICS IN FRANKENSTEIN
Topics:
• The dangers of Science and Technology
• Man vs. Nature
• Beauty of Nature vs. The Corruptive City
• Original Sin and Depravity
• Nature vs. Nurture
• The Pursuit of Truth
• The Role of Guilt
• The Perversion of Good
• Danger of the Unnatural

ROMANTICISM (1800-1840)
Romanticism:
From the Merriam-Webster Dictionary
“a literary, artistic, and philosophical movement originating in the 18th century, characterized chiefly by a reaction against neoclassicism and an emphasis on the imagination and emotions, and marked especially in English literature by sensibility and the use of autobiographical material, an exaltation of the primitive and the common man, an appreciation of external nature, an interest in the remote, a predilection for melancholy, and the use in poetry of older verse forms…”

ROMANTICISM (CONT’D)
The Romantic Period was a REACTION against the ideas of the following movements:
• The Age of Enlightenment
• The Industrial Revolution
• Rationalism
Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein during the Romantic Period (1816) and incorporated elements of Romanticism in the novel.

THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT
The Age of Enlightenment : A movement that tried to reform society through using reason and scientific knowledge.
Characteristics of the Enlightenment:
• Focus on Classical influences
• Emphasis on Rationalism
• Truth can be obtained not through the senses (experience), but through the mind
(intellectual/deductive)
• Science rather than Religion can explain the Natural World.

KEY ENLIGHTENMENT IDEAS
Renee Descartes:
• Rationalist
• Cogito Ero Sum (“I think, therefore, I am”)
John Locke:
• The Social Contract (Government)
Jean Jacques Rousseau:
• “Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains.”
Sir Isaac Newton:
• Founder of Calculus and the Laws of Gravity
Thomas Jefferson:
• Declaration of Independence

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
The Industrial Revolution : A period marked by rapid advancements in agriculture, mining, transportation and technology which created a profound shift in society
Key Features:
• Innovations in transportation
• Rise of Cities
• Creation of Factories
• Belief in human potential

TRAITS OF ROMANTICISM
Romanticism was a BACKLASH against the ideas of the Enlightenment and Industrial
Revolution
Key Features:
• Emphasis on strong emotions and experience rather than reason
• Return to Nature
• Rejection of Rationalism
• Rejection of the tenants of Industrialism
• Glorification of Nature over the City
• Isolation of the Narrator
• Focus on Women and Children

NATURE IN ROMANTICISM
Sentimentalism :
Emphasis on feelings over reason and rationality.
Emotional experiences achieved through viewing or experiencing Nature.
Aesthetic:
Having a sense of the beautiful; characterize d by a love of beauty. Pertaining to, involving, or concerned with pure emotion and sensation as opposed to pure intellectuality.

THE SUBLIME
The Sublime : A feeling of intense emotion causing the reader to reach a state of experience and heightened awareness. Often, this is achieved through witnessing the beauty and majesty of nature. Part of the sublime is a feeling both of wonder and terror simultaneously
Edmund Burke
A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful
"Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain and danger... Whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror.“

CLASSICISM VS. ROMANTICISM:
MUSIC
Johann Sebastian Bach (Baroque)
Brandenburg Concerto
Mozart (Classical)
Eine kleine Nachtmusik (Allegro)
Ludwig van Beethoven (Early Romantic)
Piano Sonata No 32 in C minor, Op 111
Frédéric Chopin (Romantic)
Chopin Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2

CLASSICISM VS. ROMANTICISM:
ART
Art
:
Art:
Classical
The Birth of Venus for the Medici by
Botticelli. (1486)

CLASSICISM VS. ROMANTICISM:
ART
Art
:
Art:
Romanticism
Romantic Landscape with
Ruined Tower(1832–36)

CLASSICISM VS. ROMANTICISM:
ARCHITECTURE
Architecture:
Classical
The Glyptothek in Munich, designed by Leo von
Klenze (1816–30)

CLASSICISM VS. ROMANTICISM:
ARCHITECTURE
Architecture:
Romanticism
(Gothic)

CLASSICISM VS. ROMANTICISM:
ARCHITECTURE
Architecture:
Romanticism
(Gothic)

THE GOTHIC NOVEL
Gothic Novels: An offshoot of Romanticism which combined horror with romance. They strove for the aesthetic through powerful emotions; namely terror. By experiencing terror, the reader approaches the Romantic ideal of becoming engulfed by emotion.
Traits of Gothic Novels
• Glorification of Medievalism (rather than
Classical or Roman influence)
• Distant, exotic, far off settings
• Existence of dark, uncontrollable forces opposing the protagonist
• Often includes a virtuous, female protagonist
• Contains fantastic exploits or deeds

GOTHIC
Henry Fuseli
“The Nightmare”
Gothic Elements?

NATURE VS. NURTURE
Original Sin : The belief that all evil in mankind descends from the first sin committed by the first humans Adam and Eve in Genesis. Mankind, according to this belief, inherits the state of sin of its first ancestor.
Depravity : Based on the idea of original sin, the idea that humans are born into sin by nature, and that given their own devices, humanity will fall into evil out of necessity.

NATURE VS. NURTURE
Nurture
Tabula Rasa : The belief that the mind begins as a blank slate that becomes filled through our experiences. According to this belief, everything that we are is a result of what we have experienced.
Anti-Hero (Byronic Hero) : A protagonist who doesn’t possess the traits normally associated with a hero, instead having traits typically associated with villains.
Satan from Milton’s Paradise Lost is an example.

PARADISE LOST: SATAN
Is this the Region, this the Soil, the Clime,
Said then the lost Arch-Angel, this the seat
That we must change for Heav'n, this mournful gloom
For that celestial light? Be it so, since he [ 245 ]
Who now is Sovereign can dispose and bid
What shall be right: farthest from him is best
Whom reason hath equal’d, force hath made supreme
Above his equals. Farewell happy Fields
Where Joy for ever dwells: Hail horrors, hail [ 250 ]
Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell
Receive thy new Possessor: One who brings
A mind not to be chang'd by Place or Time.
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n. [ 255 ]
What matter where, if I be still the same,
And what I should be, all but less then he
Whom Thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: [ 260 ]
Here we may reign secure, and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav'n.