Romance and Realism in Frankenstein Ethan Henry, Liam Ellinger, Taylor Morris, and Jessie Pan

Literal Meaning Romance is the bond of love between two people, and the acts of acting it out. Realism is the desire to make something artificial be as close to the real version as possible. These two elements are contrasted in Frankenstein, with realism signified by the up to date scientific ideas presented for the time, and romance played by the monster’s fascination with the purity of the human family, and his desire to be like them. This fantasy is shaken off, however, when he realizes the more realistic side of the coin, that he cannot participate in this organic relationship because he will always be judged by his looks, cast out from human society.

Example from text #1 “Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world.” (Shelley 54) Frankenstein describes his romantic view of life and death to the reader, showing his idealistic idea that it is his duty to produce life to bring light to the world. Frankenstein romantically pursues knowledge and science as the light and good in society, without thought of the consequences.

Example from text #2 “His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful…His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath…his shriveled complexion and straight black lips.” (58) Frankenstein clearly describes his creation, showing realism, by not distorting his description, even though his is horrified of his failure.

Point of View (First Person POV) Major Character POV: Victor Frankenstein (Main Character) Victor relays his story to Walton in a long narrative. Victor is obviously prejudiced against the creature, who he automatically deems as hideous and wicked, which influences his story against the creature and creates a need for him to justify his actions, potentially distorting his story in terms of credibility and realism. Victor's narrative even contains letters that he may not be able to accurately recount. Participant POV: The Creature (Major Character) The creature's narrative is contained within Frankenstein's, as Frankenstein tells Walton what the creature told him. The creature tells Frankenstein of his experiences which turned him from a once benevolent being to a destructive and wicked monster. Minor Character POV: Robert Walton (Observer) Walton's starts and finishes the novel through his letters to his sister. He encounters Frankenstein and the creature on his expedition to the Arctic. Unreliable Narrators: all speakers, especially Frankenstein Both Frankenstein and the creature's narratives are individually influenced by their own biases and intentions, however they're also both in favor of Victor, as he also relay's the creature's parts. Walton is biased in favor of Victor, who he sympathizes with; Frankenstein's influence causes him to wary and distrustful of the creature. The different perspectives in which the story is told and the ways in which they influence the individual narratives distorts the story's realism. The biases each speaker possesses potentially causes them to change or exaggerate their stories in favor of themselves. Frankenstein is especially prone to this, due to his disdain for the creature and his dominance over the narrative. The effect of these prejudices, however, is that the novel is more romanticized, due to the additional detail and grandness of it as a whole.

Conflict Internal Conflict (Man v. Self): External Conflict: Victor is conflicted with himself after finishing making the creature and while making the female counterpart. He agonizes over his responsibility of them, their potential actions, and how the creature kills all those he loves. External Conflict:  Man v. Man: The obvious physical conflict between Frankenstein and his creature as they wreck vengeance on each other  Man v. Society: The creature is born benevolent and wants to be accepted by others, but society shuns him for his appearance and causes him to become evil.  Man v. Nature: Walton and Frankenstein both try to achieve their goals—Walton to complete his expedition and Frankenstein to capture and kill the creature— but end up failing due to the terrible Arctic weather.  These grand conflicts or struggles, either through physical confrontation or larger-than-life factors, help to romanticize the novel with drama, while the more personal conflicts both further romanticizes and adds a depth of realism to the novel. The inner struggles of characters make them seem more relatable and thus elicit more sympathy from the reader.

Irony Tragic/Situational Irony: Elizabeth is killed by the creature on her and Frankenstein's wedding night instead of him.  Situational: Frankenstein's expectations are contradicted; he believes that he will be killed and thus leaves Elizabeth alone, giving the creature an opportunity to kill her.  Tragic: This outcome should have been expected, at least by the audience, due to the creature's warnings and his tendency to kill those Frankenstein loves rather than himself.  Structural Irony: Frankenstein is an unreliable narrator, not only due to his obvious bias against the creature.  What he says during his narrative does not necessarily correlate with what he does, and his actions are often times strange. These actions include when he barely gives consideration to possible consequences or ethical issues before making the creature, only realizes the creature's hideousness after finishing it, and proceeds to abandon his creation.  Furthermore, Frankenstein's apparent inability to foresee Elizabeth's death, or at the least her endangerment, is suspicious considering his intellect, and his ceaseless determination even on the verge of death to chase the creature is a pointless pursuit and suggests motives besides simply non-self-serving vengeance. The Structural Irony from the potential unreliability of Frankenstein as the speaker distorts the realism of the novel, and the Tragic and Situational Irony of Elizabeth's death provides additional dramatic effect. These both contribute to the romantic aspect of the novel, by allowing it to be further dramatized with details of events that seem too incredible and horrific to be true.

Points of view The creature: The creature starts out romantic, seeing the purity of the cottage people going about their business, and thinks that he too could have a system of mutual respect and understanding like that. He then changes over to a more cynical, realistic view, after realizing that he can never have this relationship because he will always be viewed as a monster by humans. Victor: Victor has a somewhat similar transformation, first believing in his research and scientific knowhow, thinking that the monster could fit into normal society and have proper morals, which it does at first, but then, after the monster begins to attack others, he takes a more realistic view, realizing that the monster he created is not pure, but an abomination that must be destroyed.

2015: How does cruelty function in the novel? The cruelty of how the villagers react negatively to the creature and how the man shoots him after saving his daughter shows that people will never accept him. At first, we are led to believe that it is just his appearance that makes people hate him but now we can see that even after he saves a man’s daughter’s life he is still punished for it. After this the creature turns his back on humanity and vows to destroy Frankenstein’s family and to forever hate human beings. The creature gave mankind several chances but after being unconditionally kind to them and still not being appreciated; he gave up.

1st Significant Moment Justine is wrongfully accused of murdering William and she is put to death Significance: This event is truly the first time the monster has caused any conflict. Right after he was created Victor simply hated him because of his appearance; however, now he resents the monster because he murdered his younger brother and caused his beloved housekeeper to be wrongfully accused and executed. This event signifies the beginning of the monster’s reign and the beginning of the monster starting to take away those that Frankenstein loves.

2nd Significant Moment The monster strangles Elizabeth killing her on the night of her and Victor’s wedding Significance: This event signifies the final tragedy of the novel. Throughout the novel the monster takes away those that Victor loves and attempts to ruin his life due to his own loneliness. Victor finally thinks that he will have a chance at happiness by marrying his love, Elizabeth. However, on the night of their wedding the monster somehow gets to Elizabeth and strangles her before they can wed. This is important because after this Victor has had it and devotes the rest of his life to finding the monster and destroying it.

Citations Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus. London: Penguin, 2003. Print.