Hat Are the Typical Enlightenment Concerns That Mary Shelley Engages with in Her ‘Frankenstein’ Do You Understand Shelley's Novel as an Apotheosis of These Values, a Critical Rejection, or Something Else? Essay Example
What are the typical Enlightenment concerns that Mary Shelley engages with in her ‘Frankenstein’ Do you understand Shelley’s novel as an apotheosis of these values, a critical rejection, or something else?
“With knowledge comes personal responsibility; the denial of responsibility leads to tragic outcomes” (1)
The Age of Enlightenment paved a road for new ideas to take their place over old, outdated traditional beliefs. The central idea that the human capacity to reason should be the arbiter of scientific discovery and political progress is fundamental to the modern world. The typical concerns of enlightenment such as grasping the power of human intelligence to understand and explain nature in a new and exciting way through empirical science has led to numerous breakthroughs in the way the world is now understood. The explanations brought about by religion to understand nature were being discredited and the miracles were demystified in this age, with knowledge becoming the truth and reason and rationality the code of morality not God. Enlightenment art and literature were also used to spread the discoveries made through the thirst for knowledge, but not all classic literature, such as ‘Frankenstein’ sought to engage with the enlightenment in a wholly positive manner.
Mary Shelley’s novel ‘Frankenstein’, set in Geneva, known for its Enlightenment ideas with thinkers such as Jean Jacque Rousseau, is a Romanticist overview of the dangers of mankind’s rapid scientific endeavor brought about by the Age of Enlightenment. The Romanticists Emphasized freedom of individual self expression, spontaneity and sincerity. Romanticism became the new standard in literature, replacing the imitation of classical models favored by eighteenth century neoclassicism. The Romantics rejected the ordered rationality of the Enlightenment as mechanical, impersonal, and artificial. They turned to the emotional directness of personal experience and to the boundlessness of individual
“With knowledge comes personal responsibility; the denial of responsibility leads to tragic outcomes” (1)
The Age of Enlightenment paved a road for new ideas to take their place over old, outdated traditional beliefs. The central idea that the human capacity to reason should be the arbiter of scientific discovery and political progress is fundamental to the modern world. The typical concerns of enlightenment such as grasping the power of human intelligence to understand and explain nature in a new and exciting way through empirical science has led to numerous breakthroughs in the way the world is now understood. The explanations brought about by religion to understand nature were being discredited and the miracles were demystified in this age, with knowledge becoming the truth and reason and rationality the code of morality not God. Enlightenment art and literature were also used to spread the discoveries made through the thirst for knowledge, but not all classic literature, such as ‘Frankenstein’ sought to engage with the enlightenment in a wholly positive manner.
Mary Shelley’s novel ‘Frankenstein’, set in Geneva, known for its Enlightenment ideas with thinkers such as Jean Jacque Rousseau, is a Romanticist overview of the dangers of mankind’s rapid scientific endeavor brought about by the Age of Enlightenment. The Romanticists Emphasized freedom of individual self expression, spontaneity and sincerity. Romanticism became the new standard in literature, replacing the imitation of classical models favored by eighteenth century neoclassicism. The Romantics rejected the ordered rationality of the Enlightenment as mechanical, impersonal, and artificial. They turned to the emotional directness of personal experience and to the boundlessness of individual