Signifiance of Frankenstein in the Romantic period or era - Research Paper Example

nation as the highest measure of human capacities because of its massive creative abilities and the way in which it gives us the capacity to reacting to sweeping change in every aspect of life. Sweeping change was something the Romantic writers were very familiar with. The Romantic Age also held nature in high esteem not only because of the creative element inherent in it, but also because of the capacity for the imagination to be discovered through contemplation of this nature. In other words, we create what we see so that it makes sense to us and nature provides us with the necessary room to roam.

The complicated nuances of the thought during this period in time are best understood when applied to a text that reflects the Romantic ideals. By examining the prevailing thought during the Romantic period and examining the text of Mary Shelley’s novel, the concepts of the Romantic Period become clear. Looking at the Romantic Period through a literary lens, the world was seen as a place full of signs and symbols that were capable of transmitting meaning, perhaps even providing indications of the future.

It was felt an individual, after having become familiar with this natural world, would become capable of knowing the events and actions of their times, the past and he future through their relationship with nature and their knowledge of the myths and legends of antiquity. “Walter Pater thought the addition of strangement to beauty (the neoclassicists having insisted on order in beauty) constituted the romantic temper. An interesting schematic explanation calls romanticism the predominance of imagination over reason and formal rules (classicism) and over the sense of fact or the actual (realism)” (Holman & Harmon, 2001).

This explanation helps to classify Romanticism, but it does little to help us actually recognize it. Characteristics of the genre identified by Welleck (2003) include a “revolt against the principles of neo-classicism criticism, the rediscovery