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Interpretation And Inversion Of Romantic Idealism_ A Critical Analysis Of Frankenstein

Posted on:2004-04-01Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:D HouFull Text:PDF
GTID:2155360092486733Subject:English Language and Literature
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In 1818, Mary Shelley at the age of 19, published Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, one of the first science fictions in western literature. Despite being the progeny of two famous political writers Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, Mary Shelley only began writing at the insistence of her husband, Romantic poet Percy Shelley. While she wrote 17 works during her lifetime, Frankenstein remains her only novel that has been examined beyond its 19th century shelf life. Frankenstein also has a distinct place in motion picture history. Since 1910, there have been 71 motion picture adaptations made of the novel.Here Mary Shelley tells a story of a young ambitious scientist Victor Frankenstein making a gigantic being out of corpse. Frankenstein abandons his creature at his first sight and the creature revenges himself by murdering Frankenstein's youngest brother William, his maid Justine, his best friend Henry Clerval and his wife Elizabeth. The series of killings subsequently lead to the mutual destruction of Frankenstein and his creature.The volume and quantity of critical work on Mary Shelley and Frankenstein is astonishing. Both Harold Bloom and Anne.K. Mellor, two leading authorities on Mary Shelley and her works, state that the continued interest in Frankenstein, is due to the fact that critics believe the novel is an archetype of Romantic idealism.The first part of my paper sets off a discussion about how Mary Shelley interprets Romantic idealism through her creation of Frankenstein, drawing on several literary resources, namely, the Promethean myth, Goethe's Faust, Paradise Lost, the Byronic hero and Caleb Williams. It first presents a brief introduction to the social and literary contexts of idealism and lay out a possible definition functioning in this paper. Here idealism refers to the Romantics' ambition to go beyond nature's limitations and achieve sublime glory through their creative power, best exemplified in the literary creation of Frankenstein. Also included in this part are a general summary and a detailed delineation of Frankenstein's characterization.And then the second part focuses on Mary Shelley's critique of idealism featuring her negative presentation of Promethean images like fire and light, her understanding of self-deification and the God undeified as well as her prediction of demonization. Mary Shelley resents the negative sides of idealism: the excessive elevation of individual leads to self-aggrandizement/self-deification and egotism; meanwhile the insatiable quest for glory and power results in alienation/demonization and neglect of one's responsibility.The third part unfolds Mary Shelley's vision of nature where her fatalism springs up. Her nature can not only educate and comfort humans, but also manipulate their destiny. To her, nature is more like an omnipotent machine with immutable laws. She also inherits the idea of mutability from her husband and develops her unique fatalism, which is another counteraction to idealism.The fourth and the concluding parts display Mary Shelley's social ideal on the domestic affection in a bourgeois family. She warns that a solitary quest at the price of family bond ends up nowhere. However we should not ignore her limitations: the domestic affection among the De Laceys never extends to the monster, which makes his redemption impossible.
Keywords/Search Tags:Interpretation, Inversion, Romantic Idealism, Vision of Nature, Fatalism, Domestic Affection
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