Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

For many years, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has been regarded as both a Romantic and Gothic piece of literature, as it has elements of both. The novel started off with the story of an adventurer by the name Robert Walton. He had gone on a trip to the Arctic, only to find Doctor Victor Frankenstein. The doctor was a scientist, who sought the ability to create life. He gathered body parts and connected them all together to form a monstrous image of a human. Then, with what he had researched, Doctor Frankenstein used electricity to bring his creation back to life. The scientist was not pleased with what he had made. The creature he had created was ugly. He had made a monster. This monster was the central point of Frankenstein and contributed to …show more content…
For one to understand why the novel was more Romantic, the characteristics of the former style must be explained. Gothic literature was often focused on ruin, decay, death, terror, chaos, sadness, and intense passion over rationality and reason. Similar to the Romantic style, Gothic had eight key elements. Firstly, intense emotions are emphasized in the writing. Often these emotions are darker and have more negative connotations. Anger and despair are some of the prevalent emotions used. The deterioration of mood, place, relationships, and the mind were also apart of this style. Characters, and their surroundings, would slowly begin to degrade over time, whether due to their own actions or the actions of external forces. Characters may also have felt a sense of helpless isolation. This need not always come from society shunning the character. In fact, the separation from society could have been due to a self-imposed isolation. The character could have been shunning themselves from society for deeds he or she committed. Or it could be that he or she shunned society as he or she felt that society could not meet his or her expectations. In the case of Doctor Victor Frankenstein, his isolation was entirely self-imposed, for both reasons previously …show more content…
This is unsurprising as Shelley lived and wrote during the Romantic Era. The book had more of these characteristics present that that of the Gothic style. To determine this, one must know what defined Romanticism in writing. Romanticism was characterized by its emphasis on emotion, individualism, the glorification and celebration of nature and its beauty, intense positive emotions such as happiness and awe, and individuality. A passion for human emotion was often present in novels and plays of this style. The focus was on the positive emotions and thoughts that characters expressed and felt. Writers advocated for these emotions to be felt by their readers as well because of how much focus was put on this element of Romanticism. Oftentimes, if a character needed to seek comfort when he or she was not experiencing these positive emotions, he or she would seek out the healing elements of nature. Unlike Gothicism, nature played a more gentle role in Romantic novels. Nature was comforting and offered protection from the negative state of the world for characters. An opposition to political authority and social convention was also an important characteristic. The protagonists would often have an idea that was often went against what society believed in and society would not accept them or their thoughts. Rather than condemn the characters for this opposing viewpoint, authors and