A Horror Novel: Frankenstein - Term Paper Example

Is Frankenstein a horror novel? What elements of gothic horror are present, and why is this effective style for this particular story? Impact of romanticism on Frankenstein Introduction Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is one of the Gothic novels. These novels relates to fictional styles that accentuates on monstrous, strange and deserted. Frankenstein fits in this category as it has terrifying elements that combine to make humanity and the society. In compliance to the functions that Gothic novels play, Shelley exemplifies numerous aspects of humanity that have negative traits. This includes attributes of oppression of a particular person based on their outlook and some conflicts that exist in a peaceful society. Shelley uses Frankenstein to criticize the establishment made by man and blunders owing to the current conflicts. In a horror novel, there is usually an element of detachment and contradicting nature. This also happens in Frankenstein in that, Shelley fails to mention, where victors create the monster (Blamires and Shelley 115-116). Shelley is a romantic write who is very much concerned with environment, human sentiments, sympathy for man, liberation of oneself from Romantic hero and resistance against the community. Romantics mostly associated themselves with the rustic life, as opposed to the contemporary life. Frankenstein applied most of this ideology into her novel and lived among those who practiced such life. Shelley perceives the monster as a romantic conqueror from the rejection that he encounters from the community. Wherever the monster steps, he is pursued because of his gruesome and gigantic size. In her novel, Shelley tries to communicate to the society about the very many people hunted because they are unacceptable in the society. No one who can blame the monster for what he encounters and Shelley explain to the audience the significance of showing sympathy to a create that does non-harm to any person (Blamires and Shelley 115-116). The most attempts to slot in into the society, but, because he does not possess some human values and features then he is not fit to socialize with human beings. The monster promises to reimburse the man for his absence in knowledge and then avoid any human encounters. He reads for himself until he grasps some knowledge, since he wished to be part of the society (Blamires and Shelley 115-116). Frankenstein is one of the first Gothic novels produced in the 18th century. The novel compiles both Romantic and Gothic elements and integrates them into an outstanding literature that is memorable. It is an exceptional novel because, when Mary Shelley produced Frankenstein, there were other novels that used Gothic themes however, the genre used in 1754 was still applicable. Romanticism is one of the key themes that well pronounced throughout the novel. There are several key ideas underlying the literary association, of Romanticism, in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (Boyd 52-55). Even though, there are dark motifs in her novel which seem to conflict with the brilliant tones and themes of her husband’s poems, and their modern friends, Mary Shelley falls under a contemporary romantic poet. Although there is a great difference between her poetic works and that of her husbands, Mary Shelley not only focused in romanticism, but assists in developing this theme into her fictional work. One can identify various instances that are indicative about romantic aspect of Mary Shelley in presenting her work. The Gothic elements that Shelley applies in the novel question the superficial conjectures of romanticism and looks at Romanticism in a different perspective. In essence, it is apparent that Mary Shelley takes a step further and exceeds her involvement in developing the theme of Romanticism, as opposed to other modern poets (Boyd 52-55) Social transformation in developed societies has evolved new perceptions in the study of innovativeness, changing the focus from the artistic, theoretical to an evaluation of the significance of creativeness in social and economic growth. In the novel, romanticism seems to favor the heroic feelings, and innovative enthusiasm alongside a gothic flavor for the incredible and the ghastly (Boyd 52-55) During the 18th century, England experienced tremendous change in terms of invention and creativity. When North America and Asia was going through a nationalistic and imperialistic development in addition to discovering various things, some people developed great minds and engaged in performing activities beyond imagination. They engaged in inventing and producing products that never existed before. They invented original products and never imitated anything. This idea was carried throughout the 18th century upto the 19th century, but this was accompanied by the essence of Romanticism (Boyd 52-55). Most of the novelist’s and fictional texts written during this period carries themes of Romanticism and the revolution of contemporary science. A relevant example that appeared during this period is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The novel was produced in 1818 when Shelley was at her adolescent age, and living near Lake Geneva. In the novel, Frankenstein studies chemistry and natural philosophy in the University and she is determined to discover anonymous powers and disclose to the universe the deepest secrets of creation (Boyd 52-55). After she goes through painful hardships, she finds out the cause of production of life and achieves in creating animation from dead matter and making a creature from useless parts of the human body. The novel exemplifies the 18th century concept of the invention as the discovery of something that is very new to the world, which opens up the mind, instead of recapping the custom, and depicts the creator as someone with high intellectuals (Boyd 52-55) The story is also deeper into the romantic tradition, presenting more drama and arousing emotions. Frankenstein reveals this from the attitude she exhibits towards his accomplishments. He flees all across Europe like a fugitive just because his own creations are amazing. The creature that he invents follows him and is angry because he refuses to help it. Much horror and sadness entails the rest of the story as all the results of his scientific inventions befall him and his family. Frankenstein undergoes many tragedies because of his heroic invention, but finally he takes accountability of his deeds. One may view the novel as a discourse that exemplifies the morality of discoveries, contrasting “Christian ethics” with the current science (Blamires and Shelley 115-116). Many scholars have criticized the Frankenstein. A brief fictional story concerning an alchemist known as Von Kempelen was published in1849 by Edgar Allan. He had discovered the secret of turning lead to gold, which was named as the alchemist secret. The police discovered the alchemist when he acquired property in spite of her poverty situation. The police alleged him of some counterfeited activities and thus kept him under close watch. One day the police came to his compartment and found Von Kempelen with test tubes together with chemicals working. The more news of the discovery spread, the higher the price of gold dropped, the lead prices hiked and led to decline of rushing at the California gold fields. The story of von kempelen also acted as a caution concerning the worth and direction of recent science. The public apprehension concerning new inventions in science can be associated with dramatic public upheaval as towns industrialized and medicine developed as an occupation (Blamires and Shelley 115-116). The society has a role of caring for the sick, this was a task carried out by women, and the task was shifting from women to men, who were to take care of public health (Boyd 52-55) the thought of the doctor. Romanticism is a fictional movement which evolved during the 18th century, and stimulated by Mary Shelley in her novel’ Frankenstein. Romanticism emphasized on the concepts of intense emotion, and restrictions of reason. In addition, it also accentuated on the exceptionality and prejudice of human experience. The romantics considered the minds as the foundation of creativity and invention. Therefore, since emotion is emphasized and women are emotional, they played a great role in embracing Romanticism (Boyd 52-55). Given that, Romanticism embraced the element of emotional sentiments as being inventive, women were classified as sensitive beings. Mary Shelley, therefore, plays a great role in developing the theme of Romanticism in Frankenstein. Her competition aspect with Lord Byron and Percy Bushed Shelley shows that women were recognized to have similar abilities and potential like men (Boyd 52-55). On the restrictions of reason and the influence of emotion, Frankenstein portrays aspect of emotion, without any reason. Frankenstein, the monster charges against his family, after they deserted him. Out of emotions, Victor Frankenstein kills the female monster. All the events taking place in the novel relates to emotional sentiments (Boyd 52-55). Another feature of Romanticism that Shelley expresses and contributes towards development of her literature work is her conviction that sentimental feelings and relationships were not only significant, but also acted like currency in a person’s life. Instead of working together with a common objective, she argues that “ The great secret of mortals is love…and an identification of ourselves with the beautiful which exists in thought, action, or person, not our own. A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and of many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own (Blamires and Shelley 115-116). According to (Blamires and Shelley (115-116), some romantics were very much focused than even the kind of attachment that Shelley illustrated, and seemed to agree with each other. Works Cited Blamires, Harry. "Mary Shelley." The Age of Romantic Literature. Harlow, Essex: Longman/York Press, 1990. 115-116. Boyd, Stephen. "Frankenstein as a Novel." Mary Shelley: Frankenstein. Harlow, Essex: Longman and York Notes, 1994. 52-55. Read More