Detailed analysis of Gothic and Feminist perspectives in Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' Akshara Palshetkar College

Romanticism was a literary, artistic and an intellectual movement that originated in Europe approximately at the end of the 18th century. This movement was originally a revolt against the neo-classical movement which focused on rationality and logical thinking. Hence influencing its literature too. The main reason behind the romanticist literary movement was the immense impact the French revolution had upon it. The ideals of the French Revolution “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity” encouraged the poets and the novelists of the era to free the literature from the shackles of neo-classicism. Romanticism is one of the movements where nature was prioritized and poets emphasized on ‘imagination’ and ‘wonder’, where their performance regarding poetry was judged and evaluated on the basis of their creative ideas and notions and not on the ideals of rationality. The style of Gothic became popular during Romanticism.

Gothic novels are generally characterized by its gloomy settings, which creates a fear in the minds of the reader. They are alternatively referred to as Gothic Romances. The writers set their stories in the medieval times. The setting is always melancholic where one finds use of castles, dungeons, subterranean passages. The...