Group+5

=Frankenstein by Mary Shelley=
 * by Sarah, Michelle, and Chloe**

Romantic Characteristics
[] - Victor Frankenstein is considered to be the classical Romantic hero who revolted against the common traditions of the bible and more into the sciences. “By one of those caprices of the mind, which we are perhaps most subject to in early youth, I at once gave up my former occupations; set down natural history and all its progeny as a deformed and abortive creation; and entertained the greatest disdain for a would-be science, which could never even stop within the threshold of real knowledge,” (Shelley 38). **
 * Heroes generate visions of a rebel or outlaw, usually revolting against social convention:

- The monster, wretched and solemn about his loneliness, explodes in anger to Victor arguing for him to create a companion for him. This romantic element is repeatedly seen throughout the novel as the monster describes his feelings of rejection and isolation. ** “From you only could I hope to succor, although towards you I felt no sentiment but that of hatred. Unfeeling, heartless creator! You had endowed me with perceptions and passions, and then cast me abroad an object for the scorn and horror of mankind. But on you only had I claim for pity and redress, and from you I determined to seek that justice which I vainly attempted to gain from any other being that wore the human form,” (Shelley 138).
 * Focuses more on the values of emotion, passion, sentiment and imagination over reason and logic:

- In creating Frankenstein’s future companion, it is symbolic how he chooses to create this creature in the Orkneys (islands off the north coast of Scotland). Victor describes this place as dark and deserted. On the other hand, Victor becomes nostalgic and describes the nature of Switzerland with beauty. “I thought of Switzerland; it was far different from this desolate and appalling landscape. Its hills are covered with vines, and its cottages are scattered thickly in the plains. Its fair lakes reflect a blue and gently sky; and, when trouble by the winds, their tumult is but as the play of a lively infant” (Shelley 165).
 * Emphasized the beauty of nature and the universe:**

- Possibly to just add stress to the new weapons of destruction at the time, or to simply emphasize the significance of her death in its relation to Victor Frankenstein, Shelley had Justine Moritz killed via guillotine. No matter the rhyme or the reason, this existence of this guillotine within Shelley’s novel, yet again, brings //Frankenstein// closer to the classification of a novel of the Romantic genre “And on the morrow Justine died. Elizabeth’s heart-rendering eloquence failed to move the judges from their settled conviction in the criminality of the saintly sufferer. My passion and indignant appeals were lost upon them. And when I received their cold answers and hear the harsh, unfeeling reasoning of these men, my purposed avowal died away on my lips. Thus I might proclaim myself a madman, but not revoke the sentence passed upon my wretched victim. She perished on the scaffold as a murderess!” (Shelley 75).
 * New weapons of destruction – guillotine:**

__**Mystery:**__ Unsure of whether or not this experiment would work, it was truly a mystery as to how exactly such an experiment did work, for it was successful – evidenced by the creation of the monster. What could be pure luck or just extremely accurate scientific workings, the reader may never know, for such an act of creating life through sparks of electricity was not only a mystery to Victor, but to the reader as well. “With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet. It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs” (Shelley 43). []
 * Gothic Elements:**
 * - The creation of the monster**

After his almost miraculous creation, the monster was left alone due to Victor’s fear of his manmade creature – leaving the monster alone to roam within the quarters of Victor’s home. Upon returning to his humble abode, Victor found that the monster had left too. In light of such a realization, Victor hoped that his problems were over, but being readers of such a great intelligence, we all knew that such was unlikely. Where he went and when he would reveal himself, were still mysteries to us however. “But I was in reality very ill, and surely nothing but the unbounded and unremitting attentions of my friend could have restored me to life. The form of the monster on whom I had bestowed existence was forever before my eyes, and I raved incessantly concerning him…By very slow degrees, and with frequent relapses that alarmed and grieved my friend, I recovered. I remember the first I became capable of observing outward objects with any kind of pleasure, I perceived that the fallen leaves had disappeared and that the young buds were shooting forth from the trees that shaded my window. It was a divine spring, and the season contributed greatly to my convalescence. I felt also sentiments of joy and affection revive in my bosom; my gloom disappeared, and in a short time I became as cheerful as before I was attacked by the fatal passion” (Shelley 48). []
 * - What happens to the monster after Victor Frankenstein creates him?**

__** Horror: **__ ** - Henry Clerval’s death ** Shelley created a truly horrific scene encircling Henry Clerval’s death. By building such intense suspense up to the actual reveal of Henry Clerval’s body, Shelley typified this Gothic aspect of horror within her Romantic novel – terrifying the reader with, yet another, death of a person closely related to/affiliated with Victor Frankenstein. "I feel yet parched with horror, nor can I reflect on that terrible moment without shuddering and agony. The examination, the presence of the magistrate and witnesses, passed like a dream from my memory when I saw the lifeless form of Henry Clerval stretched before me” (Shelley 167).

** __Grotesque:__ ** **- The monster, in general** ** In terms of the monster’s physical nature, grotesque would be the only suitable word for his description. With his pale, yellow skin, “shriveled complexion”, and so much more, the monster portrayed the uttermost meaning of the word grotesque – thus, allowing for more proof as the Gothic and, ultimately, Romantic nature of Shelley’s novel. “How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavored to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shriveled complexion and straight black lips” (Shelley 43).[] ** After Victor had heard the screams of his wife on his wedding night, he had the sudden realization that the monster was after his wife, not him. He ran back with panic only to find the disturbing image of his wife's dead body and finger marks on her neck.
 * - Elizabeth’s death **

“She was there, lifeless and inanimate, thrown across her bed, her head hanging down, and her pale and distorted features half covered by her hair. Everywhere I turn I se the same figure—her bloodless arms and relaxed form flung by the murderer on its bridal bier,” (Shelley 193).