Romanticism

1
Romanticism

• Mary Shelley and Romantic Literature

2
Romanticism

• Romanticism was movement in literature, art and
  music that flourished in the late 18th and early
  19th century.
• Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, and
  Keats were all Romantic writers.

3
Romantic Art and Literature Emphasized

• Emotion--or sensibility --over reason
• The natural world
• The Sublime-- spiritual awareness stimulated by
  grand landscape
• The individual
• Personal, subjective experience

www.itg.uiuc.edu/.../ romanticism_wip_2.jpg
4
Romantic Art Reflected Interest in

• Childhood Experiences
• Relationship between humans and nature
• Mythology, supernatural, and gothic themes
• Dark aspects of human experience (Romantic
  literature often showed poverty, distress and
  despair)

www.westga.edu/.../ Art_Show_files/image002.jpg
5
Roots of Romanticism
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• Reaction against the 18th century-- The Age of
  Reason -- with its faith in science, logic, and
  rationality
• The Industrial Revolution
• Urbanization--loss of rural life
• French Revolution (1789)

6
Jean Jacques Rousseau 18th Century French
Philosopher

• Believed man is naturally good
• Society corrupts the noble savage
• Knowledge and material progress crush our
  individuality and freedom
• Despised inequality--believed government should
  reflect general will

www.planetavisual.net/.../ deldia/img/roussea.gif
7
Effects of Romantic Movement

• Challenged 18th century tradition of art as
  rational and orderly
• Raised questions about authority--in government,
  education, and family structure
• Questioned good of rationality and science
• Ushered in new focus on individual and subjective
  experience in literature

www.seattlecatholic.com/.../ FrenchRevolution.jpg
8
Mary Shelley Family Roots
www.uua.org/.../images/ marywollstonecraft.jpg

• Born to William Godwin, radical philosopher and
  writer
• Mother was Mary Wollstonecraft (pictured), early
  feminist and author of A Vindication of Rights
  of Women
• Marys birth led directly to her mothers death
  Wollstonecraft contracted a fever during delivery
  and died 10 days later

9
Marys Youth

• Raised in radical, intellectual household
• She had excessive and romantic attachment to
  her father, but he was a distant parent
• Godwin described Mary as singularly bold,
  somewhat imperious and active of mind. Her
  desire of knowledge is great and her perseverance
  . . . almost invincible.

www.nlm.nih.gov/ hmd/frankenstein/IIA1.jpg
10
Marriage to Shelley

• Shelley was a disciple and houseguest of Godwin
• He eloped with Mary in 1814, when she was only 17
• Both believed in free love Shelley abandoned his
  wife Harriet and his child (Harriet later
  committed suicide).

www.wilsonsalmanac.com/ images/shelley1.jpg
11
Marriage and Motherhood

• Mary had a baby a year for the first four years
  of her marriage
• Three of the four children died in infancy
• After the first childs death --just months
  before she began Frankenstein--she wrote in her
  journal, Dream that my little baby came to life
  again that it had only been cold, and that we
  rubbed it before the fire, and it lived.

12
Friendship with Byron

• Lord Byron was the most famous Romantic poet of
  the time.
• He lived in exotic locations and had many lovers
  (including Marys half- sister Claire and his own
  half-sister).
• He became a model for the Romantic hero--daring,
  tormented, willing to challenge social norms, and
  ultimately tragic.

www.csulb.edu/ csnider/byron.jpg
13
Creation of Frankenstein

• In summer of 1816, the Shelleys went with Byron
  and others to Lake Geneva
• To pass the time, they hold a competition for a
  ghost story
• Marys entry is the beginning of Frankenstein.