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The Role Of Sublime In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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“When I was about fifteen years old, we had retired to our house near Belrive, when we witnessed a most violent and terrible thunder-storm. It advanced from behind the mountains of Jura; and the thunder burst at once with frightful loudness from various quarters of the heavens. I remained, while the storm lasted, watching its progress with curiosity and delight.” (pg. 69). When Victor Frankenstein witnesses a violent thunderstorm, his immediate reaction is the need to harness the power of nature. He was amazed at the beauty and terror of it all- the only way to describe the awe he felt watching that storm is Sublime. Sublime is technically defined as: of such grandeur or excellence as to inspire or awe. Unfortunately, what most people think …show more content…

He wanted more than anything to make a great contribution to science. Not only did he want to have something sublime, he wanted to be sublime. In doing so, he creates a monster. This monster is so hideous that it becomes outcasted by society. Go back to the definition of Sublime- it is to have something of such great beauty as to inspire awe. Victor expected his creation to be magical, but it wasn’t. There was no beauty in the horror he created. Victor was disgusted by his creature at first, but he didn’t try to kill it. He knew that this thing, whatever it was, could be dangerous, but the violence may have been his only link to understanding the monster; one thing that Victor always loved was nature. He often found himself awestruck at the beauty of it. It was violent; Victor found something breathtaking in the violence. He must have seen the same thing in his creation. Everything about it was violent- the monster was put together with pieces torn off of dead bodies and electrocuted until the heart started to beat. However, it was unnatural. The beauty of nature is how natural it is. The monster was anything but natural- he was not brought into this world the way humans are. That was the flaw in the plan, and why Victor could not reach his

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