RE: ADSactly Literature - Distant, Novelesque and Lugubrious (English Romanticism - Part II)
It’s been a nice surprise to find an article on my favorite literary moment in history written by you, @josemalavem, an essay author whom I most admire. These troubled people made awesome writers; and although most romantic theses are, well, romantic, what they inspired is a balm for the soul.
Among all the great works you refer to and so gracefully comment on, I want to say something about young Marie Shelley’s Frankenstein. This is still one of my favorite novels in the world because of its gothic atmosphere and its archetypal baggage. Although reputed critics state that it is in fact a Ci-Fi igniter in the Western literary tradition, I think of the scientific experiment as a motif instead of the cornerstone of the argument. None of the three narrators offers any details about galvanism, for instance; instead, throughout the novel science is viewed as something obscure and scientists, accursed. What is more romantic than that! (love it).
The thesis of a world the novel discusses is the same as in the myth of Prometheus, who stills fire/knowledge(/life?) from Zeus/God/Father and gives it to men, and then is punished/exiled/crushed. It is about the eternal yearning of humans to know our Creator. It is about free will and its consequences. It is really an amazing work. I think this young author played with powerful archetypal notions (man playing God, the quest for origin…) and even Freudian (the annihilation of the Father, e.g.), her ingenuity never being appreciated fairly—not even by her own husband, which we can confirm by reading the preface he wrote for the first edition of her book).
I like to have my students read the Jewish legend of the Golem, the myth of Prometheus, and also about Adam and Eve and the other references in the book (the works read by Frankenstein’s monster-son) because I they learn that even the romantics had to be learned people if they wanted their works to meet the public eye and survive the test.
All in all, British romanticism is the cradle of amazing literature.
Thanks a lot for bringing this to the table today. Just delicious.
Excellent commentary on the romantic implications of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, @marlyncabrera! I would have liked to expand a little more on his work, but as they are very basic and informative articles, it is not enough. Indeed, there is a very daring view in the author using the analogy with Prometheus (which also speaks of her cultural reflection), which appears to challenge the god himself (in Percy Shelley's work there is something of that as well). There would also be much to be said about the "romanticization" of the monster. Thank you for your contribution. Greetings.