A Critical Essay of Jane Eyre and Frankenstein
The following is a critical essay of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre using Romanticism as a basis. First I must have a definition of Romanticism. I figured that the best place to look would be A Dictionary of Literary Terms published by J. A. Cuddon. According to this book," the word romanticism has come to mean so many things that by itself, it means nothing at all... It is a word at once indispensable and useless. The variety of its actual and possible meanings and connotations reflect the complexity and multiplicity of European romanticism."(p.586) In English, the definition was way too long for them to write down because romanticism involves so many aspects. The definition grew to colossal amounts where, during that time period, virtually every literary article could be considered romanticism. In frustration, I read on. "At the same time, in fairness, it should be said that the baffling and, very often, irritating part about anything to do with the romantic and romanticism is that it is very vague and formless."(p.587) I find that my frustrations are justified. With the risk of writing an endless paper carefully combing Jane Eyre and Frankenstein to find every aspect of romanticism, I decided that
Rochester then continues his ambition of making Jane completely dependent on him, fulfilling all of her basic needs. Jane even states that Rochester is becoming her "eclipse" between herself and God. Which shows him becoming the moon, or at least taking over its role in her life as a guiding figure. Rochester now becomes everything to her and she ignores the warnings of nature. After Victor leaves, the Monster wakes up alone and miserable. In the state that he is in, the only thing that the Monster can see is the light of the moon, which gives him comfort. Nature has, once again, become the good force, calming the untamed beast. Therefore in the Monster's first hours, nature is the only nurturing thing around him, also showing the feminine qualities of a mother. From that point forth, Howie creates a relationship with nature, almost with it being a mother figure. For example, the river quenches his thirst and the trees give him shade. Nature is "taking care" of the monster; while society has already started rejecting it, because of its variation of the norm. Many events then follow that show Victor's punishment for going against nature. When Victor refuses to give the Monster a partner, his whole family is murdered. And a final act of power, for Nature to regain her throne, Victor dies in the end because he still has the knowledge to play God. Shelley is now showing the absolute, unquestionable power of nature, a power that no human can properly understand. The moon then lights his path, until he reaches the cabin of the Delacey's, as if guiding his way. They see him in the light and are frightened by him and they reject him. This causes him to go on a rampage. This also shows another idea of romanticism, in which society is the corruptive force, while things are naturally good and become corrupted by society. The monster varies from the "norm" and is rejected for this. In Frankenstein, Victor's main reason for creating the Monster was the death of Caroline Beaufort, his mother. Before his mother's death, Shelley refers to nature as female for the first time when Victor comments on Isaac Newton's studies by saying that he "partially unveiled the face of nature, but her immortal lineaments were still a wonder and a mystery"(n.p.), referring to nature as "her". This not only shows the power of nature not being able to be understood in its vastness, but it is also showing the feminine side of Nature. After this statement, Shelley reveals nature's power again to Victor during a thunderstorm when he sees "a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak"(n.p.) and then goes on to say "so soon as the dazzling light vanished, the oak had disappeared, and nothing but a blasted stump remains"(n.p.). Soon after this, his mother dies, Victor is left without a mother figure. The idea that Nature is trying to show is its power to control all of the inhabitants of the Earth at its whim. I would pick those aspects of romanticism that I found most prevalent and interesting in the texts. After reading these stories, I realized that there were many ideas relating to Romanticism in the texts, some of them being varia
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2113
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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