what has romantics got to do with in Frankenstein, and what is it generally?

Question

no links please, if they're not helpful

Answer 1

Great question.

"Romanticism" was the big new idea of the early 19th century. It focused people's attention on the forces of nature, the emotional aspects of life.... so, painting in the 1700s was sort of photo-realistic but very stiff, unnatural poses, in the 1800s it was more emotional, shaded, impressionistic. Same thing with music - the difference between Bach and Chopin or Debussy. Same thing with poetry - old guys like Pope were dissed.

So, two of the great Romantic poets were Byron and Shelley. They were buddies and Shelley's wife Mary wrote Frankenstein. She was also the daugher of Mary Wollstonecraft - the first great Feminist in England, and her dad was William Godwin, who was one of the protegees of Jean Jacques Rousseau, the great Romantic back-to-nature philosopher. .

Mary's book is partly about the conflict between natural things and unnatural things and how humans mess up the world when they interfere with nature.... it has a lot fo other aspects to it. The Hollywood versions, as usual get it all wrong, although it is interesting that in the classic Hollywood horror movie Bride of Frankenstein the movie starts off with a scene showing Byron and Shelley talking to Mary about the book. An amusing detail is that there is a big storm raging during the scene. That is factual. they had gone to Switzerland for the summer but that year the weather was really crazy due to a big volcanic explosion that had clouded the atmosphere. They couldnt go out so they stayed home and wrote stories....

Answer 2

Look up information on 'gothic romance'.