Romanticism In Frankenstein Research Paper

Words: 1015
Pages: 5

The Romantic era, with its promotion of the experience of nature over man-made during the Industrial Age, represents a rejection of the science-obsessed era of the Enlightenment. Mary Shelley used this unique conflict of philosophy to intertwine her beliefs on the events in her time with the events in her novel Frankenstein. She wrote her novel during the clash of the aristocracy and the lower classes in the age of revolution, crying out for equality for all. She surprisingly wrote against the scientific revolution, favoring the romantic era over the age of enlightenment through writing about nature defeating science. Finally, she showed some light upon the inefficiencies of government, especially the justice system. Therefore, looking …show more content…
The conflict is introduced with Frankenstein isolating himself and being consumed by his work on the creature describing it as a “study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections” (Shelley 58). This indicates that the science which Frankenstein attempted to play as God ironically was making him less than human, foreshadowing the cause of the forthcoming conflict. After being mentally shaken by the trouble that his scientific brought about, Frankenstein was able to recover and recuperate by being in the “solemn silence of the glorious presence-chamber of imperial nature” (Shelley 90). This shows that nature is the comforting force that can be relied upon unlike science, which was one of the romantic era’s most valuable ideals. The final hint Shelley uses against the Age of Enlightenment was on how she made the creature hideous as “science and technology are the very reason that the monster is created” (Umana 3). Therefore it was through the use of nature as a sanctuary and the use of science as a means of trouble that Shelley was able to hint the readers in favor of man with nature rather than enlightened idea of man with