The modern world has absolved itself from most association with morality, God and cautionary messages

from tales such as Frankenstein- which is respectful of the mentioned entities. Such an anarchist, atheistic stance could have its roots associated with the fervent French and industrial revolution in the 19th century, where the immortal cries of the romantics vying for free love and the extensive power of the individual mind were the most desperately prospering. Mary Shelleys Frankenstein, a gothic horrific tale as a testament to its tumultuous, radical and ever-changing time, was like a prelude to the 21st century, where values like mans stance in comparison in to God, the role of science and technology, and ambition and ego are as represented by Victor- blown out of proportion, violating Shelleys romantic belief that man must be harmonious with nature and appreciate it without rationalising, accepting an inferiority to God in nature to be content. The novel Frankenstein was an inevitable masterpiece simmering at the tips of Shelleys fingers before she had even started contemplating an idea for a horror tale; the character Victor Frankensteins ambition and overwhelming curiousity associated with science was a direct representation of the romantic prospect of individualism applied to a neoclassical, mechanical way of thought. This could be interpreted as the representation of the direness of Shelleys time, where neoclassical ideologies were being wiped out by the romantic, but still lingering to cause bloodshed i.e. suffering inflicted to the lower class instigating the French revolution. Like in the case of the revolution, romantic thought had prospered in Victor Frankenstein so his individualism and imagination had dominated over all rational thought, prompting him to create an abhorrent monster without any thought for the consequences. From the 21st century, looking through a knowing lens formed by the immense advancements of science since the time of Shelley and the implications of men of mad scientific curiousity responsible for this, it is clear why surrounded by zealous romantic thinkers in Byrons villa, an epiphany of hers entailed a man of natural philosophy who applied deeply imaginative and individualistic thought to rational, scientific knowledge, to make him a mad, irrational outcast out of harmony with personal relationships and nature. Shelleys awareness and steadfastness to this concept was demonstrated through foreshadowing. Natural philosophy is the genius that has regulated my fate. The foreshadowing allowed Shelley to directly communicate her idealistic notions that celebrating nature was essential, rather than analysing and attempting to emulate it. This could also be a direct reference to the galvanists of her time, who opposed the idealistic notion of romanticism which entails this concept. Furthermore, this point was stressed by Shelley through Victor in the novel Frankenstein who conveyed through the tone of the text, an inferiority to science, and the men of science, implying a respect for them greater than God. here were men who had penetrated deeper and knew more. I took their word for all they averred, and I became their disciple. It is apparent now, since exponential increase in technology has occurred since Shelleys time as an evidence of scientific knowledge and applications dominance, and the evident decrease in spiritual thought as evidence of Shellys cautions legitimacy against the detrimental influence of radical, rationalistic scientific thinking. Frankenstein has become such an important reference in the modern world, because the image of a man with such knowledge, ambition and naivety as to believe he could like God has created is the most palpable transgression against nature- a romantic thought Shelley was intent to communicate. With such an occupation as creating life, a most unnatural feat at her time in the culture of galvanists which Mary Shelley was abhorrent against, Frankensteins occupation was represented, through its physical effects on him, like he was committing a murder. The effect of this is amplified in the intertextual reference employed by Mary Shelly to the Rime of the ancient Mariner. And turns no more his head/ because he knows a frightful fiend/ doth close behind him tread. In a time of emerging romantic thought, Mary Shelly employed great imagination to cultivate a scenario where nature was to seek justice for any wrongdoing done against it, in this case, having its boundaries

transgressed by the assumption of divinity in a human. Mary Shellys romantic idealistic outlook onin particular-the galvanists of her time displayed them as exhibiting such an assumed divinity, and the tale of Victor Frankenstein was a horrific caricature of what was promised to them by a vengeful nature if they succeeded in their pursuits of bestowing life on a corpse. Additionally, on the Rime of the ancient mariner, a similar theme was taken on by Frankenstein as the cursed mariner, where he was being punished for exceeding a boundary against it like shooting an albatross. The epistolary form of the text enhanced the effect of natures punishment on Victor Frankenstein, as his tale was to be repeated by him and throughout time so that others could learn from his misdeed, and he never be relieved of the weight of his sin. Hence, in acknowledgement of Mary Shellys romantic, disapproving view of the god-forsaking science of galvanism in her time, it is relevant in the 21st century due to the progression of heartless science such as cloning, which is an example of playing God- inevitably a foreboding of a horrible consequence if this science continues. Mary Shelly was present in a time of such dramatic change, where humanity was screaming in the streets of Paris and mewling in the sewers of England. Inevitably, she would have recognised ambition as the genus of the bacterium which spread the plague of such chaos, and although her idealism entailed that blood be shed for a free country, she would have recognised the ambition in all of the sour things in the world which her ideals as a romantic antagonised, such as the rich-poor gap, the power-hungry and the men of science endued with the pursuit of bringing corpses to life. She utilised symbolism to represent the ghastly, abhorrent-looking monster as the product of Victors ambition- which could have been interpreted as the monster being his ambition itself. No mortal could support the horror of that countenance. This resonates with Shelleys belief that if there is no peace or harmonious appreciation for nature in a man, his extreme of ambition or sloth could have the most unfathomable consequences, represented by the monster, as his appearance is unfathomable. To further portray her values saturated with romantic idealism, on what indiscernable things could form at the prospect of continuous, extreme ambition, repetition was used thoughout the text for a common description of Frankensteins creature: monster, vile, gigantic stature, daemon. From Shelleys time, the vile abhorrence of ambition still holds, evident in the rich-poor gap which is a geographical line like latitude and longitude on the world map, and the apathetic increase in scientific utilisation such as genetic engineering on animals and cloning. This is directly indifferent towards Mary Shellys idealistic notion of no extremes in ambition, and so the ignored caution in Frankenstein creates a profound foreboding for the 21st century society. To conclude, Mary Shellys presence in a time of political and economic tumult had shaped her ideals of romanticism, which allowed her to converse through Frankenstein the vile, impenetrable side of society, which like Victor Frankenstein, continues to strive, ambitious and Godless, continuing through science to replicate Gods work, such as through cloning and genetic engineering, creating a disharmony in nature and promising foreboding consequences like Victor had to endure.