Sunday, October 31, 2010

How do the concepts of Enlightenment and Romanticism shape Victor Frankenstein's understanding?

Until the completion of
his experiment,is very much influenced by and even seems to embody Enlightenment ideals. He
describes himself, as a child, as follows:

[I was] more
deeply smitten [than Elizabeth] with the thirst for knowledge. . . . While [she] contemplated
with a serious and satisfied spirit the magnificent appearance of things, I delighted in
investigating their causes. The world was to me a secret which I desired to divine. Curiosity,
earnest research to learn the hidden laws of nature, gladness akin to rapture, as they were
unfolded to me, are among the earliest sensations I can remember.


Victor is interested in what makes the world work, while his cousin is interested in
imagining new worlds during her playtime. Victor wishes to understand, while Elizabeth wishes to
create. He is interested in the science of nature, while she is interested in the beauty of it.
Once he gets to college, it is no different; his "eager desire to learn" is in full
effect, and his pride is...

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