Romantic Elements in Frankenstein and the Fall of the House of Usher

Mary Shelleys novel, Frankenstein, and Edgar Allan Poes short story, The F exclusively of the nursing home of doorman, although publish in different periods, on different continents, open in coarse m any of the main ideas that stood behind the literary movement of amativeism (the sublime, the wild-eyed hero, imagination, isolation), combined with elements of the Gothic (the mysterious and remote setting dominated by a gloomy atmosphere, conclusion, sin, pain, exotic elements, super subjective).One of the main elements that is integrated into the wild-eyed movement is the sublime. In his A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the subtilize and Beautiful , Edmund Burke defined the sublime as Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime that is, it is racy of the beefed- upest emotion which the mind is adequate of feeling. In Burkes cyclorama, the typic qualities that characterize a sublime landscape are massiveness of dimensions (especially in contrast with the limitations of the human body and mind), obscurity (that blurs the definition of boundaries), occult sliminess or intense vindicated. Through the impact that magnificent landscapes and violent storms produce, and in the midst of the terrors that temper creates, the characters experience the sublime, are overflown with dread, fear and a aesthesis of astonishment, which eventually allows them to sense the divine.In Frankenstein, reputation is a very hefty entity that so-and-so soothe and punish this doubleity is especially obvious in the connection mingled with sea captain and record that Shelly cultivates byout the novel. More oft than not, overlord takes sustenance from nature, which provides him with what could be described as somebodyal therapy when he is subjected to st ress or torment. When he condescends ill, it is not the unceasing do by and attention of his closest friends that ensure his recovery, except the beneficial influence of the alert ir that he breathes We passed a fortnight in these perambulations my health and liquor had long been reliefored, and they gained additional strength from the salubrious air I breathed, the natural incidents of our progress . . . I became the a desire(p) happy savage who, a some years ago, loved and beloved by all, had no sorrow or care. When happy, inanimate nature had the power of bestowing on me the most delightful sensations. A serene sky and verdant fields filled me with ecstasy. After his associate William is brutally murdered by the peter, lord falls into a deep responsibility of despair, unable to come about solace in the company of the rest of his family, or his best friend hydrogen. Once again, it is nature that heals him and allows him to maintain his saneness I remained deuce day s 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 move towards Geneva.The road ran by the side of the lake, which became narrower as I approached my native town. I discovered more distinctly the mysterious sides of Jura, and the bright summit of Mont Blanc. I wept like a child Dear mountains My own beautiful lake How do you welcome your wanderer? Your summits are clear the sky and lake are blasphemous and placid. Is this to prognosticate peace or to mock at my unhappiness? diversion from providing Victor with restoration and happiness when needed, nature prove to besides be an omnipotent force of foreshadowing.The lightning shredding the tree in front of Victors eyes is a warning that his endeavors will ultimately bring dying. When he is notified about Williams death, nature re flects his feelings of despair and suggests sad prospects of the future night also closed around and when I could hardly see the dark mountains, I felt still more gloomily. The picture appeared a vast and dim scene of evil, and I foresaw obscurely that I was destined to kick the bucket the most wretched of human beings. The night that Victor gives life to his groundworks is a dreary night of November, with rain patting dismally against the panes. This is similar with the gloomy nature described at the beginning of The die of the House of Usher, where the imminent expiry of this ancient family is foreshadowed by the atmosphere of melancholy and decay and the eerie people of colour of the mob, covered by minute fungi and weakened by the cranny that extends from the roof to the effectuateationsDuring the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the pin of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a sing ularly dreary tract of country and at aloofness found myself, as the shades of evening drew on, inwardly view of the melancholy House of Usher. Poes description of the un macrocosmly storm that takes protrude on the dreadful night that brings the ultimate destruction to the ancient House of Usher is strikingly similar with the ones described in Frankestein It was, indeed, a infuriated yet sternly beautiful night, and one wildly singular in its terror and its beauty. A whirlwind had apparently salt away its force in our neighbourhood for in that location were frequent and violent alterations in the direction of the wind and the majestic density of the clouds (which hung so low as to press upon the turrets of the house) did not stay fresh our perceiving the life-like velocity with which they flew careering from all points against apiece other, without passing away into the distance. Although two work present an overwhelmingly powerful nature, that scum bag foreshadow futu re events, the nature in The Fall of the House of Usher lacks the vast landscapes that are very much depicted in Frankenstein the prevailing feeling that dominates Poes story is confinement, slenderness to the point of claustrophobia the Usher estate is shut off from light and the property description of the house, reflected by the tarn which is in turn mirrored by the windows creates the antic of an enclosed space, from which leave is almost impossible.The house eventually becomes the tomb of Roderick and Madeline, collapsing onto itself and sinking into the reflecting pool. Supernatural, supported by the dark themes that are prevailing in some(prenominal)(prenominal) literary works, plays an important part in the spell development, both authors place on the blurred boundary betwixt the living and the dead, with an emphasis on the mysteries of life and the mysteries of existence.In Poes story, Madelines condition causing her to fall into a coma-like state that will lead to her being buried brisk is highly unbelievable, especially in combination with the account of her incredible escape from the vault, which is presented in parallel with the plot of The Mad Trist. In addition to this, the destruction of the house in the storm on the night Madeline returns to the living only when to be crushed together with her fellow, gum olibanum ending the Usher cable is just as unrealistic, yet with a great artistic encumbrance on the reader. As if in the superhuman energy of his utterance there had been found the potency of a spell the huge antique panels to which the loudspeaker system pointed, threw slowly back, upon the instant, their ponderous and ebony jaws. It was the work of the rushing gust simply then without those doors there DID stand the lofty and enshrouded figure of the lady Madeline of Usher.thither was blood upon her every portion of her emaciated frame. For a moment she remained horror and reeling to and from upon the threshold, then , with a low moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon the person of her brother, and in her violent and now final death-agonies, tidal bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the terrors he had anticipated. In Frankenstein, the major supernatural event (the creation of brand- vernal life) is disguised under the appearance of a scientific try out Frankenstein manipulates nature in a bizarre and outlandish way, he uses electrical energy to animate a corpse composed of body parts collected from different cadavers. The result of his work is a creature so grievous and uncanny, that it makes him run in fear and hide in his chamber How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form?His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful Great immortal His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath his bull was of a lustrous black , and flux his teeth of a pearly whiteness but these luxuriances only make a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips. The characters in both Frankenstein and The Fall of the House of Usher are late Romantic characters, with a strong propensity towards the Gothic. Roderick Usher is a unusual figure, excessively reserved and sensibly mysterious, he lives isolated in a decrepit, dark and scary house. His physical appearance is quite shocking to the impertinent visitor, he looks dead even though he is still lively A cadaverousness of complexion an eye large, liquid, and luminous beyond comparison lips somewhat thin and very pallid, but of a surpassingly beautiful prune a nose of a delicate Hebrew model, but with a breadth of nostril unusual in similar formations a fine moulded chin, speaking, in its want of prominence, of a want of moral en ergy hair of a a more than web-like softness and tenuity these features, with an inordinate expansion above the regions of the temple, made up altogether a countenance not easily to be forgotten. He suffers from a mysterious noisome gist, with bizarre symptoms (his senses are incredibly heightened, he can only simulate to wear certain types of fabric, he cannot stand light or the odour of flowers, and all music, with the exception of some stringed instruments inspire him with horror). He often oscillates between vivacity and sullenness, between reason and incoherence, between amazement and dread. Rodericks interests lie within the field of Arts, he is skilled at music and at ikon, and the cashier compares him with a real artist, Fuseli, stating that If ever mortal painted an idea, that mortal was Roderick Usher.Rodericks artistic creations reflect his state of mind, his obsession with death, the one painting of his that is described by the narrator is that of a tomb, an immen se long and extraneous vault or tunnel, while one of the songs he plays at his guitar is The Haunted Palace. Roderick shows signs of other in secernateectual pursuits, he develops the idea of sentience of all vegetables and even inanimate things, like the gray stones of the home of his forefathers, giving as proof of their sentience the gradual yet certain condensation of an atmosphere of their own about the waters and the walls.Unlike Roderick, who is portrayed as an artist, Victor Frankenstein is depicted as a scientist. He is animated with a aridity for knowledge, a passionate intrust to learn the secrets of heaven and earth however, these feelings, noble at offset are distorted into a pathological obsession, a dark hope of becoming god-like, of being liberated of profane law and limitations, obsession that will ultimately lead to his demise. In his require to discover the principle of life, Victor undergoes the study of its required counterpart, death, and immerses himse lf in midnight labors, pillaging cemeteries and charnel houses and torturing living creatures.His ambition to create new life affects his entire being in such a way, that he undergoes intense emotional and mental changes, and manages to transcend the limited condition of an mundane mortal, achieving a status similar to that of Dr. Faustus After days and nights of incredible labor and fatigue, I succeeded in discovering the cause of generation and life nay, more, I became myself capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter. ()No one can conceive the variety of feelings which bore me onwards, like a hurricane, in the first enthusiasm of success.Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a overflow of light into our dark world. A new species would bless me as its fountain and source () I pursued nature to her hiding-places. Who shall conceive the horrors of my secret dig up as I dabbled among the unhallowed damps of the grave or hurt the living animal to animate the lifeless clay? Although not typical, the Creature is also a Romantic figure, a troubled soul labored into self-isolation, that strives to overcome his own limitations and possesses surprising depth and sensitivity.He has a dual nature, both inherently good and capable of evil, and is compared to both Adam (the creature that has been forsaken by his creator) and Satan (the fallen angel turned deviant in the absence of his god, capable of unspeakable acts of cruelty). He is torn between clemency and vengefulness, between the desire to be integrated into human society and the desire to destroy humans for rejecting and shunning him based on his grotesque appearance.He proves his benevolence when he saves a little girl from drowning and when he helps the De Laceys by providing them with firewood, but he is also a wretched creature that lets himself overtaken by the thirst for revenge and kills all the members of Victors family, including his bes t friend, Henry Clerval. The destinies of creator and creation are inextricably connected, they are viewed as manifold of each other they both suffer from an impenetrable solitude, feeling like a miserable wretch unfit for human society, they both continually oscillate between good and evil, between elation and despair.Their identities are in an elaborate way intermingled, at one point the creature calls Victor his slave, reminding him that You are my creator, but I am your master. Moreover, the reader is not able to discriminate who the real monster is between these two characters Frankenstein, that out of purely narcissistic reasons brings the Creature into this world and abandons it, refusing to assume any type of responsibility for his actions, or the abominably-looking creature that succumbs to the dark dimension of his spirit and seeks to achieve revenge for his sufferings, thus destroying many innocent lives in the process.The same motif of the double (Doppelganger) can b e found in Poes story, where there is a strong connection between Roderick and Madeline Usher, the last descendents of the Usher clan, the twins that mirror each other as Poe places an emphasis on the striking similitude between brother and sister. The siblings share an inexplicable state of illness, they are both affected by a malady for which no remedy has been found In the manner of my friend I was at once in love with an incoherence an inconsistency and I soon found this to arise from a series of feeble and futile make outs to overcome an habitual trepidancy an excessive nervous agitation. ()It was, he said, a constitutional and a family evil, and one for which he despaired to find a remedy a mere nervous affection, he at once added, which would undoubtedly soon pass off. It displayed itself in a host of touched sensations. The disease of the lady Madeline had long baffled the skill of her physicians.A settled apathy, a gradual wasting away of the person, and frequent a lthough transient affectations of a partially cataleptical character were the unusual diagnosis. Roderick and Madeline are not just brother and sister but twins who share sympathies of a scarcely lucid nature which connect his mental disintegration with her physical decline. (Martha Womak, Edgar Allan Poes The Fall of the House of Usher). Moreover, according to Edward H. Davidson in his book Poe A little Study, the fissure in the decaying mansion represents an irreconcilable fracture in the exclusives personality.Roderick represents the mind, the intellect, the conscious, while Madeline is the unconscious, the embodiment of the senses (hearing, seeing, touching, tasting and smelling). One of the conceptions that Gothic cultivated was that man was born(p) basically evil, and that humans have to try throughout their entire lives in order to prevent their evil nature from overtaking them. In Poes story the two brothers visibly struggle against their psychological issues, the men tal illnesses brought on by centuries of intermarriage in the family. He uses these characters to explore the human psychology, with a special mphasis on the perverse and self-destructive nature of the conscious and subconscious mind. In Frankenstein, the Creature seems to have been born evil based on his abominable appearance, yet later on his account of his first memories reveal his innocent nature, that is distorted by the hardships and constant rejections he is subjected to. Symbols play a significant role. The House of Usher refers both to the actual mansion and the last of the all time-honoured Usher operate and becomes an actual character, being presented with a humanized description, with vacant eye-like windows.The house seems to be an character reference of the siblings souls, mirroring their state of mind, and Roderick develops a theory that the stones of the house have sentience and that they substantiate the fate of the Usher family . The fissure that is barely visib le on its frontage and the fungi that cover it are symbolic of the decay of the Usher bloodline. The collapsing of the house straight down into the tarn symbolizes the linearity of the Ushers family tree, bereft of branches, and its inevitable collapse.The two main symbols in Frankenstein are light and fire. Walton expects to unveil the secrets of the world in the North Pole, described as a country of lasting light. Nearly all of Victors epiphanies are under the sign of light. When he becomes interested in natural philosophy, he says that A new light seemed to dawn upon my mind, and when his ceaseless endeavors finally lead him to the discovery of the secret to creating new life, he describes his feelings as if a sudden light broke in upon me. He compares the creation of a new species to pour a torrent of light into our dark world. However, both Victor and Walton fail to understand that light thats too bright is also blinding and they disregard the dangerous consequences of the ir quests for enlightenment. The importance of fire as a symbol is prefigured by the novels full title Frankenstein, Or the Modern Prometheus. In Greek mythology, Prometheus was the titan who gave the knowledge of fire to earthly concern and for his generous action he was severely punished by the Gods.In Frankenstein, Victor attempts to give the gift of the secret of life to humanity, but ends up suffering grave punishment as a result of defying God his creation kills his entire family and destroys his life. Throughout the novel, fire is depicted as a powerful yet dangerous force that can be apply both for sustenance (the discovery of the wonders of fire by the monster) as swell as for punishment (the description of demons suffering in the lake of fire in hell).Concerning archives techniques and point of view, both stories are told using first person point of view, but with significant differences. The narrator of The Fall of the House of designate is a character of whom we kno w very little, highly unreliable, as we have no proof of his sanity moreover, he is called madman by Roderick doubly at the end of the story. He is submerged into the underworld of the human mind, where unreason prevails over reason, where fantasy suppresses reality, and he is the only one that manages to escape and tell the story of what had happened.Mary Shelleys Frankenstein is also written using the first person narrative, but from multiple perspectives, using a complex narrative structure, that combines the form of an epistolary novel with that of a frame story the plot is completely encased in Robert Waldons letters, who he relates his encounter with Victor Frankenstein, who in turn gives an account of his terrible life story, including the confessions and lamentations of the creature.Each channelize of perspective provides the reader with new insight regarding the facts of the story and the distinctive traits of the characters involved. In conclusion, both Frankenstein and The Fall of the House of Usher can be considered landmarks of Romantic and Gothic literature, the authors managing to combine standard and specific elements in a whimsical and captivating manner that has kept them relevant even almost two hundred years after they were first published.