Frankenstein’s Necessary Lesson of
a Man- Nature Interchange
The
Enlightenment versus the Romantic perspective on Nature differs dramatically.
Whereas an Enlightenment thinker believes Nature is available mainly for man’s
usability, a Romantic would argue that Nature has inherent values regardless of
man’s presence. In the novel Frankenstein
(1818), Mary Shelley explores how we are part of nature instead of above
it, which is a truth that has the power to affect our emotions, to see Nature
as having a spirit and emotions of its own, and lastly, to give us an inward
peace over the minuscule conflicts of an anthropocentric mentality.
Shelley purposefully has Frankenstein and the creature
experience severe bouts of depression and suicidal thinking not only as
realistic emotions for the character’s trials, but also to show how Nature-
whether pastoral or sublime- can affect a person’s emotions. After Frankenstein
experiences the horrific scene of creating the monster and being anxious and
depressed afterwards, he has a joyful time with his friend, Clerval. He
remarks, “I became the happy creature who, a few years ago, loving and beloved
by all, had no sorrow or care. When happy, inanimate nature had the power of
bestowing on me the most delightful sensations… I was undisturbed by thoughts
which during the preceding year had pressed upon me” (51).Nature has a power
over man. Man is not over Nature, but a part of it. Therefore, man is in a
constant interchange with Nature by bestowing emotions towards it and Nature
bestowing emotions towards man. In this passage, Nature is able to distract him
and elevate him from his present burdens and bestow on him blissful feelings.
Later in the novel, as Frankenstein finds himself once again anxious and
depressed, he spends days on a boat and thinks that “the fresh air and bright sun
seldom failed to restore me to some degree of composure...on my return, I met
the salutations of my friends with a readier smile and more cheerful heart”
(24). Shelley provides other various examples of these picturesque scenes
changing a character’s emotions.
The sublime’s affect in Frankenstein, ties to Gerard’s statement that whereas “[…] the
beautiful is loved for its smallness, softness, delicacy; the sublime” is “admired
for its vastness and overwhelming power” (Gerard 64). In Frankenstein’s state
of sadness, he and his family travel into “sublime and magnificent scenes”
which “afforded me the greatest consolation that I was capable of receiving.
They elevated me from all littleness of feeling; and although they did not
remove my grief, they subdued and tranquilized it” (74). The sublime has a
great power to affect one’s mood, but in a different, more humbling way than a
picturesque scene might. Although Frankenstein’s predicament is massive, and although
it is a situation that could potentially end the world, the majesty and evident
power of the wilderness humbles hum and reminds him that Nature is still bigger
than every human dilemma. It brings a moment of clarity and puts things in to a
realistic perspective. Shelley shows that Nature in any season has the power to
change one’s mood and perspective.
Mary Shelley ascribes human emotions through the
trope and pathetic fallacies to show that Nature is alive and that man
experiences Nature subjectively. The creature, shortly after he is created and
it joyfully learning the customs and language of the De Lacey family, says, “The
birds sang in more cheerful notes, and the leaves began to bud forth on the
trees. Happy, happy earth! […] My spirits were elevated by the enchanting
appearance of nature; the past was blotted from my memory” (92). Because the
creature is already in a cheerful state, nature subjectively seems beautiful
and cheerful, thus amplifying the creature’s emotions. After the creature is
shunned from the De Lacey family which he loved passionately, he goes to the
woods and remarks, “Oh! What a miserable night I passed! The cold stars shone
in mockery, and the bare trees waved their branches above me” (111). Whether
Nature’s state is similar or different to a certain human’s emotions, it still
affects him/her either positively or negatively. Nature’s subjective affect among humans further proves the interchange between Nature and man, and that
Nature is fully alive just as a man is.
Mary Shelley gives the reader a warning that when our ambitions and work becomes so strenuous and that it disturbs our peace and inclines us to disregard the beauty of Nature, we know that we are on the wrong path as Frankenstein. When he “pursued” his “undertaking with unremitting ardour” (36) to make the creature come to life, he reminisces that “It was a most beautiful season; never did the fields bestow a more plentiful harvest, or the vines yield a more luxuriant vintage; but my eyes were insensible to the charms of nature” (37). He then says, “A human being in perfection ought always to preserve a calm and peaceful mind, and never to allow passion away or a transitory desire to disturb his tranquility […] Winter, spring, and never to passed away during my labors; but I did not watch the blossom or the expanding leaves—sights which before always yielded me supreme delight” (38). Frankenstein’s passion led him away from seeing Nature around him. In Mary Shelley’s Romantic viewpoint, the creature that Frankenstein creates is representative of the result when we let our passion overtake the interchange we are supposed to have with Nature.
When he thought that what he would create
would be spectacular, the ambition coming to fruition was actually horrifying.
Referring back to Frankenstein’s relationship with the sublime, the sublime
allows him to feel how his problems compare to the size of Nature, and he
realizes that Nature is more powerful which soothes his anxious heart. However,
in these extremely ambitious moments when he disregards Nature, he begins to
think that his problems are all that matter on this earth, thus filling him
with depression, dread, and a false perspective on life. Later in the novel,
Frankenstein once again, “passed through many beautiful and majestic scenes;
but...” his “eyes were fixed and unobserving” (128). Shelley puts him next to
Clerval, who has a healthy state of mind, and a mentality that she urges for
everyone to have. Whereas Frankenstein did not notice anything, Clerval “was
alive to every new scene; joyful when he saw the beauties of the setting sun […]
‘This is what it is to live;’ he cried, ‘now I enjoy existence! But you, my
dear Frankenstein, wherefore are you desponding and sorrowful’ […] I, a
miserable wretch, haunted by a curse that shut up every avenue to enjoyment” (128).
Clerval has the freedom to do one simple action that Frankenstein cannot:
observe. Observation is the technique to experience the interchange that Nature has to offer, and to show love towards it
as well. However, if we are so occupied without own goals and ambitions to not
even notice the majesty and beauty of Nature, which we are a part of and not
separate from, Shelley says that, “that study is certainly unlawful, that is to
say, not befitting the human mind” (37).
Mary Shelley’s treatment of Nature in Frankenstein affects the characters emotions and even plot sequences. For example, Frankenstein may have not created the creature in the first place had he took a step back from his obsession and admired Nature. This major role that Nature plays in the novel reveals the crucial role that it plays in our real world. Nature affects our emotions greatly, and we would be wise to never let our observation and love for Nature be outmatched by a focus on our petty and temporary conflicts.
Work Cited
Garard, Greg. Ecocriticism (The New Critical Idiom). N.p.: Routledge, 2011.
Print.
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Marilyn Butler. Frankensteins: The 1818 Text. Oxford: Oxford
UP, 2008. Print.
