Sorry I've been lazy about my posting, but here is my Frankenstein theme. YAY! I got it into the page limit... by 2 lines!
“Come in with the Rain”
The natural world in Frankenstein is utilized to help express the emotions of the characters or even foreshadow their future. Often bleak, nature, especially the weather, helps reflect character’s mood. For instance, the weather may be stormy while the character is in a despondent mood. The seasons, rather than the weather, may also change from winter to spring as something positive occurs in the character’s life, changing their mood. The natural world is also used to help foreshadow the character’s future, which is often hapless, is shown with dark shadows or bleak weather before something important happens in the characters’ life. Nature plays in influential role in Frankenstein, capable of reflecting or changing the character’s mood and foreshadowing their future.
In Frankenstein, the natural world is used to reflect the current mood of the characters. An example of this is seen after the monster finds the cottagers. After being forced out of town by the terrified townspeople, the monster stumbles upon the cottage and chooses to stay and live near it. He then starts to learn how to speak by listening to the cottagers through a crack in their wall. At this same time, the cottager’s lives also start improving and the weather begins to change. Before, when life for the monster had been difficult, it had been wintery and cold and the monster was feeling deeply rejected and he said that “dark melancholy clouded every thought” (Shelley. 75). That night it was also “pouring in torrents” (75) and the dark clouds from the literal storm were reflecting the monster’s clouded thoughts. Then after he finds the cottagers, the weather changes to spring: “‘The pleasant showers and genial warmth of spring greatly altered the aspect of the earth” the monster says, narrating this part of his story to Frankenstein, “The birds sang in more cheerful notes, and the leaves began to bud forth on the trees” (89). In the winter the monster had been denied human society and left out in the cold but now that it is spring, he has a warm place to stay near the cottage, reflected by the literal warmth of spring. Earlier in Frankenstein, before the monster narrates his story, Frankenstein’s emotions are mirrored by the natural world around him. On the night of and morning after the monster was created, the weather expresses the emotions of Frankenstein: “I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body.” Frankenstein complains, “For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardor that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (45). The next morning, Frankenstein is still disquieted by the monster that he has created and Shelley emphasizes his mood by, “the rain which poured from a black and comfortless sky” (46). Another example of the weather reflecting the monster’s disposition is shown in the passing of autumn. After the monster reads Paradise Lost he starts to notice the differences between him and ordinary humans more acutely. The monster realizes again just how monstrous he truly is and things for him start to go back to they way they were in the beginning of the monster’s story, before he finds the cottage. In the beginning for the monster, he had been aware of the rejection given to him by humans but then he had found the cottagers and busied himself with learning about them and their customs. Then after reading Paradise Lost, the monster realizes that he needs human contact. The monster also knows he cannot have it because of his deformity, which is shown by the passing of autumn to winter; going back to the season it was when he first arrived at the cottage: “Autumn passed thus.” the monster tells Frankenstein, “I saw, with surprise and grief, the leaves decay and fall, and nature began to assume the barren and bleak appearance it had worn when I first beheld the woods and the lovely moon” (101).
Along with mirroring the mood of the character, nature is also used to change a character’s mood. The natural world, and specifically the weather, is able to alter or even enhance the characters’ disposition. An example of this is seen after the monster runs away from the cottage. Having run away from the cottage the night of his rejection by Felix and the other inhabitants, the monster is infuriated: “I, like the arch-fiend, bore a hell within me;” the monster recounts, “and, finding myself unsympathized with, wished to tear up the trees, spread havoc and destruction around me, and then to have sat down and enjoyed the ruin” (105). Despite his mood the previous night, the next morning, he is calmed down by the sunshine. The monster tells Frankenstein of, “The pleasant sunshine, and the pure air of day,” and says that it, “restored me to some degree of tranquility” (105). In this example, the monster’s mood is greatly improved and the sunshine and warm weather calm him down, but nature can also cause the character to fall into a worse mood than before.
On the opposite side, the weather in Frankenstein also enables the characters to slip into a worse mood than before. While the monster is burning down the cottage, nature morphs his mood into an insanity. The monster tells this part of his story, saying: “‘As the night advanced, a fierce wind arose from the woods, and quickly dispersed the clouds that had loitered in the heavens: the blast tore along like a mighty avalanche, and produced a kind of insanity in my spirits that burst all bounds of reason and reflection” (106). In this example, the wind is used to produce insanity in the monster’s disposition. Frankenstein’s disposition is also changed by nature. After the formation of the creature, Frankenstein is beside himself with worry and temporarily goes insane from terror and sleep deprivation after the many sleepless nights he had spent working on his creation. His friend is able to nurse him back to health, but nature also helps him recover to his former pleasant moods. “When happy, inanimate nature had the power of bestowing on my the most delightful sensations. A serene sky and verdant fields filled me with ecstasy. The present season was indeed divine; the flowers of spring bloomed in the hedges, while those of summer were already in bud” (55). Frankenstein says outright that nature was able to make him feel better and improve his mood and mental stability.
Along with changing the character’s mood, nature is also used as a means of foreshadowing. Frankenstein tells a story about how when he was young he went to one of their family houses and while they were there, a terrible storm occurred. Rather than going inside, Frankenstein stayed outside to watch: “As I stood at the door, on a sudden I beheld a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak which stood about twenty yards from our house;” Frankenstein recalls, “and so soon as the dazzling light vanished the oak had disappeared, and nothing remained but a blasted stump. When we visited it the next morning, we found the tree shattered in a singular manner. It was not splintered by the shock, but entirely reduced to thing ribands of wood. I never beheld anything so utterly destroyed” (33). The tree shattered by the lightning is used as a means of foreshadowing the future in Frankenstein’s life. His life will also become “utterly destroyed” (33).
This foreshadowing is not always used to hint at destroyed futures, and in this example, the future is not years and years ahead, like the lightning-shattered tree, but the very next morning. Even earlier on in Frankenstein, nature is used as a sign of things to come. One morning, Robert Walton wakes up to find a dense fog surrounding the ship he is on. Prior to finding Frankenstein, this fog is used to create an air of suspense and anticipation of something, or in this case someone, to come. Robert Walton writes to his sister saying: “Our situation was somewhat dangerous, especially as we were compassed round by a very thick fog” (20). The fog is used to foreshadow the coming of Frankenstein. Another example of foreshadowing is when Frankenstein is heading back to his home after the death of William. The mountains are used to foreshadow Frankenstein’s future but this instance of foreshadowing is different from all the others because this time, Frankenstein realizes and acknowledges that the mountains are foreshadowing to something in his future: “The picture appeared a vast and dim scene of evil, and I foresaw obscurely that I was destined to become the most wretched of human beings” (59) Frankenstein recounts, realizing the importance of the mountains ahead of him. He understands that his life is going to become “a vast and dim scene of evil” (59) and that he is heading down the wrong path in life. In all of these examples, nature is used to foreshadow something, or even someone, to come. Whether it be finding Frankenstein or showing the grim future of Frankenstein, nature is manipulated to show the future of the characters.
In Frankenstein, nature is used in three main ways; to foreshadow the future and to emphasize or change the mood of the character. Nature is often used to reflect the darker moods of the characters, though it is also used to show the happier times in their lives. The weather especially plays an important role in Frankenstein, since it is the main form of nature used. In Frankenstein, nature plays an influential role, used to reflect or change the mood or even foreshadow the future of the character.
Works Cited
1. Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus. Ware: Wordsworth Classics, 1993. Print.
