Student: Diego Carretero Romn

Course: English Literature from 1800 to 1900

Year: 2014/2015
Group: C
Degree: Estudios Ingleses (UCM)
Professor: Francisco J. Corts Vieco
Title of the essay: The role and significance of nature in the novel: Swiss Alps, Scotland and
the Arctic, according to Romantic and Gothic tenets like The Sublime.

In this essay, I will analyze the role and significance of nature in Frankenstein,
focusing on the three main settings of the novel the Swiss Alps, Scotland, and the Arctic. In
the description of these landscapes it is clearly seen the influence of the external life of Mary
Shelley, as they are places where she had lived before writing her masterpiece, and it would
be impossible to describe them in that such a precise way if she had not been to that places
and experienced the sublime as her characters do. It is also highly relevant the influence of
Romantic poetry, specially in its approach towards nature, in the figures of the lake poets
Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth-, Mary's close friend Lord Byron, and her
husband Percy B. Shelley, who are quoted several times throughout the narration.
Apart from Romantic poetry, the work by Edmund Burke A Philosophical Enquiry
into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful, published in 1757, probably
helped her to create that atmosphere of horror and sublime which involves the reader and
moves him to the emotions that she attempted to transmit. Frankenstein is not the mere
Gothic story of monsters and horror, or the mere narration of linked occurrences; it combines
these elements of the Gothic genre with some Romantic passages, praising nature in prose as
a Romantic poet would do in his verses. In Nicole Smith words, By appropriating elements
of the romantic and combining them with characteristics that are clearly gothic, Mary Shelley
expanded the possibilities of both genres.
The sublime is found in several situations through the narration, but this has been a
problematic concept that for centuries, so to analyze the nature in Frankenstein it is necessary
to understand what the sublime is. It is clear that it is a feeling of climax, beyond pain and
rationality, which can be experienced by the the witness of extreme beauty, present primarily
in nature and architecture. According to Burke, terror is another of the primary sources of the
sublime. He also highlights a difference between sublime and beauty, sublime objects are
vast in their dimensions, beautiful ones comparatively small, and provides a concrete name
to the passion originated by the great and sublime in nature: Astonishment. He defines it as
that state of the soul, in which all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror. In
this case the mind is so entirely filled with its object, that it cannot entertain any other. We
will see how this is exactly what happens to Victor Frankenstein when he contemplates nature
despite all the pain which he undergoes. As well as Frankenstein, there are other characters
that feel astonished by the sublime in nature, Walton, Elizabeth, the monster, and Clerval.
From the very beginning it is noticeable the relevant role of nature, firstly in the case
of Robert Walton, who already in the first letter expresses his intentions to explore the North

Pole. To Walton in particular, nature is even more important than to the rest, it is the driving
force of his undertaking. His pleasing vision of this territory, I try in vain to be persuaded
that the pole is the seat of frost and desolation; it ever presents itself to my imagination as the
region of beauty and delight (Frankenstein, 15), completely differs from the dull and
desolate image described by Frankenstein, Covered with ice, it was only to be distinguished
from land by its superior wildness and ruggedness (Frankenstein, 209); but this may be
intentionally written by Mary Shelley to reflect one of the main tenets of Romanticism:
beauty is in the eye of the beholder, that means, beauty is subjective, and consequently,
depends on each person's perspective.
In Walton's second letter, it is found the first reference to Romantic poetry, concretely
to Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, when he defines the pole as the land of mist
and snow (Frankenstein, 21); another part this long poem will be quoted by Victor after the
creation of the daemon too (Frankenstein, 60). In the fourth letter he perfectly describes the
restorative effect that witnessing nature has on Victor. That admiration of Walton to
Frankenstein leads the reader to admire him too, and to identify in some way with him, so that
his sensations penetrate in a deeper way in the reader.
Even broken in spirit as he is, no one can feel more deeply than he does the beauties of
nature. The starry sky, the sea, and every sight afforded by these wonderful regions seem still
to have the power of elevating his soul from earth. Such a man has a double existence: he may
suffer misery and be overwhelmed by disappointments, yet when he has retired into himself,
he will be like a celestial spirit that has a halo around him, within whose circle no grief or
folly ventures. (Frankenstein, 30).
This is key in the Gothic novel to make the reader experience the sublime through the
terror suffered by the characters. It will also happen later on with Clerval, and even with the
monster, the daemon as Frankenstein calls him, whose narration originates a feeling of certain
empathy.
Early in the narration of Frankenstein's story, there appears the first mention to the
sublimity of his mother land, when he is describing Elizabeth:
She busied herself with following the aerial creations of the poets; and in the majestic
and wondrous scenes which surrounded our Swiss home the sublime shapes of the
mountains, the changes of the seasons, tempest and calm, the silence of winter, and the life
and turbulence of our Alpine summersshe found ample scope for admiration and delight.
While my companion contemplated with a serious and satisfied spirit the magnificent

appearances of things, I delighted in investigating their causes. The world was to me a secret
which I desired to divine. (Frankenstein, 38)
There is a significant difference between Elizabeth and Victor, one flaw in
Frankenstein, the one that would cause all the miseries in his life and in his close relatives, his
blind ambition to knowledge, awakened by the sight of that sublime nature. During his
infancy, being only 15 years old, it is a thunder-storm what definitely arouses that thirst for
knowledge and power, It advanced from behind the mountains of Jura, and the thunder burst
at once with frightful loudness from various quarters of the heavens. I remained, while the
storm lasted, watching its progress with curiosity and delight (Frankenstein, 42). Storms are
one of the main sources of the sublime in nature, as they contains the two main elements:
danger, and therefore fear and terror, and vastness. In addition, storms have a negative
connotation throughout the novel; they are premonitions of a nearby tragedy, they are present
after the creation of the monster (Frankenstein, 60), or right before the murder of Elizabeth
(Frankenstein, 198).
Natural elements are likewise employed by Shelley to build up metaphors that express
and explain feelings in a more romantic manner than just defining them rationally, as it can be
seen when Victor talks about that flaw mentioned before: for when I would account to
myself for the birth of that passion which afterwards ruled my destiny I find it arise, like a
mountain river, from ignoble and almost forgotten sources; but, swelling as it proceeded, it
became the torrent which, in its course, has swept away all my hopes and joys (Frankenstein,
40), or to extol oriental poetry When you read their writings, life appears to consist in a
warm sun and a garden of roses (Frankenstein, 70).
Nevertheless, the most important role that nature plays in the novel is the one of
restorative agent, provoking that state of astonishment described by Burke. To Burke, delight
and pleasure are to different emotions; while delight implies the removal of the pain, pleasure
is the opposite of pain, the pure joy. To Frankenstein and the monster, nature is a source of
both delight and pleasure, firstly works removing their pain away, and then they are able to
experience the pure pleasure given in the sublime; on the other hand Clerval has no sorrow to
erase, so his experience of astonishment is much purer. Besides, he is described nearly as a
romantic poet, He was a being formed in the "very poetry of nature", [] The scenery of
external nature, which others regard only with admiration, he loved with ardour
(Frankenstein, 161). He is the only companion that does not ruin the delight of Frankenstein

in nature, furthermore, his presence increases the pleasure of the experience. The fragment of
the Wordsworth's poem that he then quotes, Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern
Abbey, deals with that regenerative effect of nature.
The Swiss Alps represent not only the sublime of the setting, but also, to Frankenstein,
the sensation of being home, in the place where he lived during the innocent period of
childhood. This fact makes this setting specially capable of elevating Victor and make him
forget the horrors lived. In his return from Ingolstadt, after the death of William, the
contemplation of the familiar mountainous landscape, imperturbable, immutable, delights him
as no other place could do, transmitting its calm to Frankenstein, I remained two days at
Lausanne, in this painful state of mind. I contemplated the lake: the waters were placid; all
around was calm; and the snowy mountains, 'the palaces of nature,' were not changed. By
degrees the calm and heavenly scene restored me, and I continued my journey towards
Geneva. (Frankenstein, 67). Be noted that Victors finds comfort in nature, but social
relationships, excepting Clerval, Elizabeth, and maybe his father, in most of the cases bother
him, more intensely after the monster's creation. He blame the deaths of Justine and William
on himself, so his pain was double, for the loss of his loved ones and the feeling of guilt. The
move to their house of Belrive, closer to nature, with less social interaction, had a curative
effect that he never expected it to have, Thus not the tenderness of friendship, nor the beauty
of earth, nor of heaven, could redeem my soul from woe; the very accents of love were
ineffectual (Frankenstein, 96), but when he starts a journey towards the valley of
Chamounix, it seems like the more he penetrates in nature, the more his sorrow descends.
This valley, with its ruined castles and the view of the mighty Alps, is the most sublime
place that he knew until then, and maybe, together with Oxford, the most sublime ones of the
novel, as ruined architecture and mountains where some of the highest symbols of sublime.
There could be perfectly observed the Mont Blanc the supreme and magnificient Mont
Blanc, which raised itself from the surrounding aiguilles, and its tremendous dome
overlooked the valley. [] The very winds whispered in soothing accents, and maternal
Nature bade me weep no more (Frankenstein, 98). As Victor himself recognizes, the sublime
ecstasy of the setting was the greatest consolation he could ever had.
The influence of Mary Shelley's husband Percy is clearly present in this passage,
specially his poem Mont Blanc: Lines Written in the Vale of Chamouni. While Mary stayed at
Geneva in 1816 with Percy and Lord Byron (two of the most laureate poets of the English
Romanticism), she was not the only one inspired by that sublime landscape, it was also the
place where were written this poem by Percy B. Shelley, and the third canto of Lord Byron's

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, both of them dealing as well with the sublime, and probably
having a great impact on Mary's writing of Frankenstein.
As it has been asserted before, Oxford is one of the most astonishing landscapes of the
novel. It provides Clerval and Frankenstein a different experience of the sublime, given by the
historical importance of the city, The spirit of elder days found a dwelling here, and we
delighted to trace its footsteps. If these feelings had not found an imaginary gratification, the
appearance of the city had yet in itself sufficient beauty to obtain our admiration
(Frankenstein, 165). There, Victor feels for a brief instant once again astonished:
For a moment my soul was elevated from its debasing and miserable fears to
contemplate the divine ideas of liberty and self sacrifice of which these sights were the
monuments and the remembrancers. For an instant I dared to shake off my chains and look
around me with a free and lofty spirit, but the iron had eaten into my flesh, and I sank again,
trembling and hopeless, into my miserable self (Frankenstein, 165).
In their way to Scotland, they also passed through the Cumberland lakes, an indirect
reference to Romantic poetry, as this place is known for being the birthplace of the lake poets
Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth.
When they arrived to Scotland, their paths are divided as Frankenstein was
determined to visit some remote spot of Scotland and finish my work in solitude
(Frankenstein, 168). The coastal village of Orkney seemed to him an ideal place to carry out
his undertaking, barren, rough, hardly more than a rock whose high sides were continually
beaten upon by the waves (Frankenstein, 168), where nothing could distract him, neither
nature, nor human activity. However, there is some kind of sublime in the giant roaring ocean
due to its vastness and inalterable tide, minimal but appreciated by Victor: in the evening,
when the weather permitted, I walked on the stony beach of the sea to listen to the waves as
they roared and dashed at my feet. It was a monotonous yet ever-changing scene. I thought of
Switzerland; it was far different from this desolate and appalling landscape (Frankenstein,
169). To Nicole Smith this last phrase expresses more than a feeling of homesickness, it is a
metaphor of the differences between the Creature and the human world. Orkney, as the
Creature, occupies a world that is bleak, that is attacked on all sides by an unforgiving set of
conditions, whereas Victor, his family, De Lacys, etc., live in a world full of beauty, despite
some occasional hurtful situations.
Nevertheless, in that desolate place, the lack of distractions that allows him to work

hard on his female Creature makes him realize of the terrible consequences of his action, so
he destroys his creation, and, in consequence, the monster murderers Clerval, his most
appreciated friend, and later Elizabeth. This is a turning point, for the moments after their
wedding, before Elizabeth's death, were the last moments of my life during which I enjoyed
the feeling of happiness (Frankenstein, 196). The daemon achieves so the first part of his
revenge Frankenstein, as him, could never be able to enjoy the sunlight: The sun might
shine or the clouds might lower, but nothing could appear to me as it had done the day before
(Frankenstein, 201).
Finally, the Arctic, as it has been said in the beginning of the essay, is described by
Frankenstein as the most arid and rough setting, a description that largely contrasts with
Walton's vision. But even this nearly impracticable lands are easily cross by the Creature.
Nancy Friedericks, in his analytic essay On the Sublime and Beautiful in Shelley's
Frankenstein, states that even in the Arctic it is found sublime, as it represents the frontier
of human society, the home of the socially rejected - as the Swiss Alps and Orkney do. He
also suggest that the fact that the daemon can easily surpass these boundaries and abrupt
territories, demonstrates the superiority of the monster not only over human race, but also
over nature itself.

Bibliographical References

Burke, Edmund. A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime
and the Beautiful. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.

Fredericks, Nancy. On the Sublime and Beautiful in Shelley's Frankenstein. Essays

in Literature, 23 (1996): 178.

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus. London: Penguin Books,

2003.

Smith, Nicole. Elements of Romanticism in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

http://www.articlemyriad.com/. Internet: 10/05/2015.

Wordsworth, William. Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, The
Norton Anthology of English Literature. London: Norton, 1993.