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The Role Of Mental Health In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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Through Shelleys novel she is bringing to light mental health in the Romantic period. By bringing to light these issues of depression and behavioral disorders she presents how these issues are remedied. As stated in my first paragraph the romantic period used the elements of nature in their works. Nature has a huge role on this time period and Shelley uses nature as a way to reveal Victors and Frankenstein’s mental health. As well Shelley is depicting nature to help remedy these psychological issues. According to Oosthoek, “the romantics, the solution was “back to nature” because nature was seen as pure and a spiritual source of renewal” (Oosthoek 1). Shelley uses this concept that nature can help with mental illness since it a source of renewal …show more content…

Victor is suffering from depression when he is burden with the guilt of creating Frankenstein who killed his brother. He escapes to the mountains when he is overwhelmed by these emotions. Victors comment on his journey thst “their icy and glittering peaks shone in the sunlight over the clouds. My heart, which was before sorrowful, now swelled with something like joy; I exclaimed, ‘Wandering spirits, if indeed ye wander, and do not rest in your narrow beds, allow me this faint happiness, or take me, as your companion, away from the joys of life’ (Shelley 89)”. This quote exemplifies how he was just suffering but when he is in the elements of nature he feels joy. He actually feels happy and better when he is in nature. Shelley is directing the readers to connect happiness with nature. This occurs again in the beginning of the novel when Victor was “ill” after his creation of Frankenstein and is being taken care by a friend. Victor retells his recovering in this quote, “I recovered. I remember the first time I became capable of observing outward objects with any kind of pleasure, I perceived that the fallen leaves had disappeared and that the young buds were shooting forth from the

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Additionally, he acts as if everything affects him so greatly and that there are rarely times of delight and anguish mixed with each other. Perhaps Shelley chose to present him in this way to say that he is an unreliable narrator who frames events according to what he should have been thinking. After realizing that he caused his brother’s death, Victor remarks on the guilt he felt, “No one can conceive the anguish I suffered...” (Shelley 50). Because he believes he feels so strong that no one else would understand, this shows ignorance of other people’s hardships.

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Every day, there are good people that get hurt for actions they never committed, but because they are different they don't get treated the same way which makes them serve a punishment they never did. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird written by Harper Lee, there are a lot of different types of prejudice. Consequently, a lot of people suffer from it like Tom Robinson, who experiences racism and problems in the legal system which ended up in him being killed. During this novel, Tom Robinson is a really nice man who helps everyone and cares about others, but because of racism, he got his life taken away from him even if he is innocent. This is why this makes him the biggest victim of a Mockingbird.

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His family and home is everything to him, especially his love for Elizabeth. However, as the story progresses and Victor begins to realize the magnitude of his mistake in creating the monster, his outlook on life changes drastically and shifts to a darker tone. During his trek through the wilderness in search of himself, Victor finds peace and comfort in the bleak and powerful mountains. Specifically “...while rain poured from the dark sky and added to the melancholy impression I received from the objects around me… My heart, which was before sorrowful, now soared with something like joy” (Shelley 67).

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Everyone knows the story of Frankenstein, and the crazy scientist who created him. This scientist's name is Victor, Victor Frankenstein. You may know the monster as Frankenstein and that is somewhat true, although Victor isn't the actual monster, he feels as if though he is one as he faces many psychological problems in his life. Creating the monster, also creates a monster inside of Victor. One of the many problems Victor faces after creating this monster is a form of major depression.

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But these are not thoughts befitting me; I will endeavour to resign myself cheerfully to death, and will indulge a hope of meeting you in another world”(24). Victor shows the strong love of family in his childhood “No human being could have passed a happier childhood than [me]. My parents were possessed by the very spirit of kindness and indulgence” (Shelley,40), he raised with excellent conditions and with parents who loved their children, but we do not see that Victor gives this love to his creature and ignored him, notwithstanding the fact that the two figures shared many characteristics. As a result of Frankenstein 's darkness and ignorance toward his creature, he refused to accept the monster because of his physical appearance and Frankenstein sees the creature as if he were the monster when the creature

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Victor falls ill with anxiety, and as a result of Victor’s neglect the monster begins to destroy his life. Even when the monster confronts Frankenstein, threatening that he “will glut the maw of death, until it be satiated with the blood of [Frankenstein’s] remaining friends, 102" Victor does not acknowledge the problem he has caused, the literal embodiment of his anxiety. He does not attempt to confront the monster head on or alleviate his loneliness, both a form of acknowledgement and thus a healthy way to respond to his fears. Instead, he once again pretends the monster doesn’t exist which only further enrages and empowers him. Once again, this mirrors the fact that when fears and anxiety go undealt with they will only grow and confirms that the monster is the embodiment of this

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Victor felt sad during this time because “I thought of Elizabeth, of my father, and of Clerval. ”(Shelley 162). Victor was long away from his “sister”, his dad and his friend, he just wanted to see his family and friend. Bipolar ran through Victor because different things were happening to him at different

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After being subjected to a terribly cold and harsh winter, the Frankenstein monster heaves a sigh of relief at the advent of spring season. When Victor dumps the monster, he feels awfully depressed and confused. He feels a new surge, a "sensation of pleasure" (71) when he sees the bright moon and its gentle light. Abandoned by his creator, the monster too finds refuge in the lap of Nature. Temporary or transient, succor and peace come to Victor Frankenstein only in the lap of Nature.

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In the novel Frankenstein, the author Mary Shelley shows the everlasting power of nature by limiting the knowledge man can learn about it. Throughout the book there are many times when Victor yearns for nature in order to heal him from the misery and violence in his life. This misery and violence are caused by his determination to learn more about the natural world. The monster Victor creates, due to his loneliness, defies the unwritten rules of nature and exemplifies the supernatural aspect of the novel. Victor’s mood completely shifts when he is around nature and he instantly feels calmer when near it.

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Their perspectives of nature, however, are vastly different due to their circumstances regarding companionship and affection from companions. Victor Frankenstein describes nature as calming and it brings him great happiness when he is surrounded by nature because he himself is happy and adored by friends who surround him. Frankenstein has friends whom he holds strong bonds with where “harmony was the soul of [their] companionship, and the diversity and contrast that subsided [their] characters drew [them] nearer together” (29, Chapter 2). He is surrounded by companions that give him plenty of love and affection that in turn, bring him happiness and a favoring outlook on nature. Victor takes pleasure in wandering through various scenes of nature, feeling accepted by it, therefore, he can portray it as full of life and “awful and majestic” (82, Chapter 10).

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Throughout the book the death of Victor's family has taken a toll on his mental state and he starts showing signs of mental illness. Much like Mary Shelley had mental illness because of the horrors that happened in her life. The illnesses that Victor starts showing signs of depression, paranoid schizophrenia, and anxiety. Depression is something that

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The scientist struggles constantly with sickness throughout the narrative and, while not specifically emphasized, he retreats into nature frequently after regaining consciousness to increase his mental and physical recovery. Textual evidence of nature’s effect on Victor includes when he states, “I remember... it was a divine spring, and the season contributed greatly to my convalescence. I also felt sentiments of joy and affection revive in my bosom; my gloom disappeared, and in a short time I became as cheerful as before I was attacked by the fatal passion” (Shelley 51). Victor acknowledges how the spring season, which includes the regrowth and renewal of the natural world, greatly increases his overall health to where he feels comparable to his self before he created the monster.

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In Mary Shelley’s iconic gothic novel, Frankenstein, Romantic themes are strongly represented in order to propagandize Romanticism over the elements of knowledge and the Enlightenment. In her novel, Shelley uses gothic nature settings to foreshadow dark events that are about to happen in the novel. She also uses nature to intensify the effect that is brought during significant scenes, a strong example being, when Victor Frankenstein’s monster approaches him after a long period of time. Nature and its use to influence mood is one of the most paramount themes of both Frankenstein and Romanticism.

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In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the idea of the natural world is recurring and helps relate many characters with nature. Victor Frankenstein, the protagonist in the novel, has a very close and unique relationship with the natural world. In Victor’s life, the idea of the sublime or the natural world comes up in emotional and significant moments. Nature changes Victor’s mood, forms his character, and shows his growth through poetic devices. In Frankenstein, nature directly affects what Victor sees and feels.

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He hopes that this trip can repair his broken soul from the death of Justine and William. For Victor to cope with his feelings and heal from the deaths, he must: Victor goes into solitude so he can relax and focus on nature and forget about his worries. He isolates himself from society and the flaws that are apart of the world. In fact, the use of nature throughout the novel Frankenstein and Nature change the mood drastically.

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