Frankenstein Research Paper

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley was a novel that exposed the thoughts and fears of people through themes typically used in literary works of the Romantic Era, though she used a rather creepy story to get the points across. Romanticism was considered an era of change like no other and influenced many artists and writers to create pieces of art unlike anything else in history. A story filled with scary impossibilities, conflict of interests, and a telling of what it’s like to be different from everyone else, it truly was a tale of its time. Undoubtedly, the creation of Frankenstein was definitely interesting. Shelley’s friend, Lord Byron, actually played a part in bringing this story into existence by hosting a small competition to create the

Romanticism, as told by Gene W. Ruoff, “often features an organic conception of individual life, society, and the interconnections of humanity, nature, and divinity” (Ruoff, Gene W. "Romanticism." Scholastic GO!”, basically meaning artists of this time valued individualism in their works. Individualism encouraged being oneself during a new era, to push for changes and create the world everyone wanted to have. While individualism was undoubtedly a good thing, the other part of the romantic era was wary of science, and heavily contradicted the Enlightenment Era. People didn’t like what they couldn’t understand and new creations/evolutions in science became scary when they realized they couldn’t understand it. Shelley used that when creating Frankenstein to push the readers into understanding that perhaps the unknown wasn’t always a bad thing, maybe it was just never given a chance. But it could also turn on people if they didn’t keep an eye on

Continuing with individualism, Shelley really tried to get the point across that it was okay to be different even if others didn’t accept you. She also helped the readers understand that hating others for being different only caused conflict and despair. However, that wasn’t the only theme Shelley incorporated. There was also the theme of “humans creating what is beyond their power to control” (Ewbank, Inga-Stina. "Frankenstein." Scholastic GO!), which was based on man and his relationship with nature. Straying too far from the boundaries of nature can lead to uncontrollable disasters. People have always wanted to know what they could do and how far they could go, but it always reaches a point of too far when it’s too late to go back. This is typically how a conflict begins within a