Research paper
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a masterpiece of Gothic literature that explores the danger of excessive ambition and the consequences of isolation. This novel uses romanticism to dive into the human psyche and challenge our notions of morality, what science is, and overall humanity. I will examine how Mary Shelley uses romanticism what it teaches us about the society of the time and why exactly it should be a required text in this class next year.
To start off we can look at the context of when Frankenstein was published. This novel explores gender roles and how women were limited to the roles that were placed upon them at the time. Female characters are often put into domestic roles and their dreams and aspirations are suppressed.
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Firstly is the depiction of the character of Victor Frankenstein. Victor is an overly ambitious man who uses his out-of-world imagination in order to create something not possible in the realm of possibility for humans. Victor’s ambition leads to tragic consequences as Viktor casually plays God and explores the danger of individualism and ethics due to his scientific experiment. In the real life the industrial revolution was in full motion, and with that comes a lot of changes, “Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.”(Mary Shelley, Frankenstein) This quote is perfect for both the time period and the novel, as this can be interpreted as Mary Shelley stating an opinion about the world around her. Along with that, the use of romanticism is evident through Shelley’s imagery of the setting. The setting is described and personified as a place of tranquility and beauty one very important aspect of romanticism. A lot of scholars have examined Frankenstein and how it addresses the anxieties that 19th-century society had towards the industrial revolution. Paul O’flinn states that Frankenstein’s romanticism is the concept of the sublime, extraordinary, and transcendent (O’Flinn