Seminar 3 Answers

1. What passages in the text could make us think Frankenstein is a romantic story?
First of all, I would like to clear out and clarify what romanticism means or tries
to portray in the novel/literary genre or area and when it really started to gain fame
and be used commonly by authors to express certain feelings. In the more previous
era, “romantic” didn’t mean what it does today and in my opinion Frankenstein
definitely wouldn’t classify as one by modern standards.
However, in that era Romanticism was a movement, which was born in England,
in the late 1700s to the mid-late 1800s and was basically a pushback or a kind of
opposition against Enlightenment ideals/ideas of rationality, logic and modernity.
Basically, the romantics were people who emphasized powerful emotions such as
lust, sex and affection, but could also easily include fear, wonder, curiosity, joy,
and the sublime.
The word “romantic” in that era was commonly used to describe stunning natural
wonders such as gorgeous sunsets, dark and sublime skies, raging thunderstorms,
beautiful forests, etc. and early “romantic poetry” was focused on nature as well.
Now, I shall comment what passages I have dully noted in this text and make me
believe that Frankenstein belongs to this “romantic movement”. In this novel this
basically means the uninhibited expression of special strong emotions. And that
being said, in Frankenstein, feelings and emotions are not based on any form of
rational or physical science.
The curious fact of Frankenstein is that it is constituted by a lot of elements, such
as nature, symbolic meaning, the creature and its deep meaning itself, etc. On the
one hand, if we start by the nature in this text, we will find many references to the
complete dark environment, sparkling sky, lightnings. And, the immense violence
due to the rain and thunder created a sort of joy and greatness from the scary and
furious acts, which normally created terror and horror, but instead created peace
in the creator´s mind. In addition, the abrupt hills and mountains alongside the icy
walls of the glaciers, the woods and the clouds created a very tranquil climate and
mind state for the wanderer. I must cite examples such as the following: “These
sublime and magnificent scenes (abrupt sides of vast mountains, shattered pines,
glacier, etc.) afforded me the greatest consolation that I was capable of receiving.
They elevated me from all littleness of feeling; and although they did not remove
my grief, they subdued and tranquilised it.” There are many more examples and
their main goal is to represent the “sublime” and also “delightful”. Destruction of
a pure natural landscape was regarded as undesirable but very pleasing and the
fact of destruction created within another invention. There is also another example
that represents the sublime: “While I watched the tempest, so beautiful yet
terrific.” These ideas are still with us and led the way for modern day conservation
and environmentalism.
Not only this, but I would also like to point out that If you will preserve nature,
nature will preserve you. Nature, however, did punish the creator when he tried to
defy its rules. When he tried to create life in his own terms, by bonding beautiful
and atractive body parts, nature gave him a monster. On top of making an ugly
creature he neglected it, so nature further punished him by having the creature
turn into his downfall. I read some personal things about Shelley and she probably
chose this theme due to the sad loss of her innocent baby. No matter how hard she
wanted to bring it back she couldn't because that´s how nature works and that is
why it shouldn't be tampered with.
A lot of symbols are mentioned in this story such as light, darkness, fire, Adam
and Satan (demon), etc. First of all, light is a positive symbol in Frankenstein,
representing hope, knowledge or learning and liberty. As a previous background
showing optimism in science and exploration. Light is the element or aspect that
let Frankenstein come to life alongside lightning and it leads to positive things.
We have this example: “My eyes becaeme accustomed to the light, and to perceive
objects in their right forms”. On the other hand, when the creator returns home to
Geneva after his brother William's murder, it is during a dark, stormy night that
he sees the monster. That vision convinces him that the monster is linked to the
murder and his darkness is dispelled by light (flash of lightning that reveals the
monster). Darkness is also a symbol for evil and also symbolizes emptiness and
despair. Both the monster and the creator face loneliness and compare it to an evil
tone known as dark black. I may cite this as an example: “Darkness then came
over me, and troubled me.”
Of course, these two elements are pretty normal to be found here, but fire is the
dual-faced sword of light, because it can sustain life by heating food and providing
warmth. But fire can also cause pain, death, and destruction, as shown in the
following piece: “One day, when I was oppressed by cold, I found a fire which
had been left by some wandering beggars, and was overcome with delight at the
warmth I experienced from it. In my joy I thrust my hand into the live embers, but
quickly drew it out again with a cry of pain. How strange, I thought, that the same
cause should produce such opposite effects!” The monster discovers the dual
nature of fire. I discovered while I was finding information about Frankenstein
the fact of that this story is also named “The Modern Prometheus”, so the fire
symbol also recalls the Prometheus myth, as he brought fire to humans.
The most interesting fact which I would like to point out is that Frankenstein is
referred to Adam (biblical character) and Satan too. In page 235 of our dossier we
see that Adam is mentioned in this line: “I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather
the fallen angel, whom thou drivest drom joy for no misdeed.” And the word devil,
satan or demon is mentioned as well in these examples: “Devil, I exclaimed”, “I
expected this reception, said the Daemon” and the word “diabolically” is named.
The monster himself is curious about the world and desires and asks for a mate in
order to not feel lonely. In contrast, the monster is also a demon/devil, cast out of
heaven. Like Satan, it lives in hell (what the world has become after he is rejected).
He is in a fallen state and the creator really had hoped to make him a beautiful and
magnificent creature. Instead, he is hideous and very ugly. The creator, Victor,
plays the role of God due to having created something and Frankenstein has a very
interesting twist to him, because he is compared to Adam (first creature in this
world), but he is also Satan because he is left hanging alone and is able to do evil
things. The monster is capable of murder but also compassion and kindness.
Finally, I would like to emphasize on the meaning or actual representation of the
monster/creature, whose name is Frankenstein. I consider that it represents a great
range or variety of ideas. It may be a symbol of science toa n alternative way of
understanding the world besides the one that has been offered by religion and the
 monster represents the power and deformities which science produces. It also may
represent that a child cant be born without having the natural loving process of a
sexual relationship and the creator´s idea against societys misogyny is incorrect
and against nature. As a matter of fact I love reading philosophical ideas, so I have
thought that the creature is compared to the human being born as a blank slate and
Voltaire´s “tabula rasa” says that society is the one who gives the input and fills
us. The creature was born good but it was turned to evil due to the rejection from
society, and especially from his creator. Sin is created from the outside and never
from within, so that means that society educates us and what society teaches us,
will determinate ho we will be in the future. We always get judged by others too
much and we also do it by naming and laughing at the skin colour of somebody,
at their weight, their sense of style/clothes, economic level, etc. The creature only
wants to be loved and accepted and we are the ones who convert him into a bad
and violent monster.

2. How would you define Mary Shelley´s narrative style?

To start with, I would or may like to write a little intruduction about the author.
Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein in 1818, which became her most famous work
related to the Romanticism movement. Victor Frankenstein, the main character,
is a romantic character because he represents the “romantic” ideals/ideas of great
and immense imagination and innovation. Other examples of Romanticism in the
novel appear when Shelley incorporates vivid imagery of nature. Throughout the
story the feelings of Shelley´s characters often copy the state of nature around
them. For example, the icy descriptions of the land where the monster retreats and
emphasizes the monster´s loneliness. The landscape can also mirror the isolation
that Frankenstein feels. These descriptions of nature are parallel to a number of
emotions that are expressed by the characters and help solidify Frankenstein as
one of the greatest Romantic novels of time. The association of nature and human
feeling shows how Shelley prefers to use metaphors of a natural setting rather than
other descriptions.
Mary Shelley had many important influences while growing up because her own
father was William Godwin and he was an important philosopher. On the other
hand, her mother was Mary Wollstonecraft and she was a very famous journalist,
radical thinker, and a feminist.
In a formal point of view, she used the framing device element and this is created
when one character is telling a story from one character to another. She utilised a
 very minimalistic and simplistic aspect and that means that she didn’t always use
complicated words and vocabulary, she used a systematic and easy way to express
certain situations. For example, we have: “As he said this he led the way across
the ice; I followed. My heart was full, and I did not answer him, but as I proceeded,
I weighed the various arguments that he had used and determined at least to listen
to his tale.” The curious fact is that the only narrators we have are Victor and the
Creature. We do not receive the narrative voice of a female. This shows us the
objectification of women, which existed long before the feminist movement. I
have personally read the entire book/novel and the plot was very well thought out
was very well written. Mary Shelley did an amazing job executing the scenes of
creation as well as the references to her own life through the monsters feelings. I
also enjoyed the fact that certain aspects of the creator represented characteristics
of those from Shakespearean literature such as Hamlet with the suicide scenarios.

Bibliography
https://prezi.com/ocjjtz1lciei/mary-shelleys-style-of-writing/
https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/symbol-monster-frankenstein-388247
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein
https://balletbabe96.wordpress.com/2014/12/02/frankensteins-narrative-technique-
explained-and-simplified/
https://www.quora.com/How-is-Frankenstein-a-romantic-novel
https://es.slideshare.net/hezaltrivedi/romanticism-in-frankenstein-60375194
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Shelley
Virtual Campus powerpoint presentation about English Romanticism.
The Iconos culturales y literarios de Inglaterra dossier/book (pages 230-242).