Haunted [him] like a passion: the tall rock,
The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,
Their colours and their forms, were then to [him]
An appetite; a feeling, and a love,
That had no need of a remoter charm.
By thought supplied, or any interest
Unborrow’d from the eye."
― “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley (ch. 18, pg. 139)
Mary Shelley alluded to many works in her novel Frankenstein, including Wordsworth’s poem “Tintern Abbey”. With this poem, the allusion is strong because Shelley pretty much quotes eight lines from it verbatim, changing only a few punctuation marks and a couple of words to fit her story. She writes these lines towards the end of the eighteenth chapter, after Victor gives a wordy description on his love and appreciation for his friend Henry Clerval. Shelley most likely quotes these lines to draw a comparison between Wordsworth (the speaker of the poem) and Clerval.
During those eight lines of “Tintern Abbey”, Wordsworth is reflecting back on his connection to nature when he was younger―according to him, he was very uninhibited five years ago when it came to nature. He describes “the coarser pleasures of his boyish days” in the stanza as more visceral, with him exploring the hills “like a roe” might bound through them (Wordsworth, lines 67-69, 74-75). The younger Wordsworth loves nature with more of an eager craving or “appetite” (line 81) as an animal loves meat. When the passage in Frankenstein is studied in comparison, it is easy to tell that Clerval is being put in the same intellectual condition as the younger Wordsworth: Clerval also has a deep love for nature, and is described as having “a wild and enthusiastic imagination” with a soul that “overflowed with ardent affections”. For Clerval, the “scenery of external nature, which others regard only with admiration, he loved with ardour” (Shelley 139). In comparison, Clerval is just as uninhibited as the younger Wordsworth was when he first viewed the abbey.
So, if Clerval mirrors the younger, enthusiastic Wordsworth, could Victor be meant to mirror the older, more mature Wordsworth that revisits the abbey? Probably. After all, the passage reflecting on Clerval is written in Victor’s voice, and considering how it is the older Wordsworth that reflects on the younger Wordsworth, one can see a structural parallel between Victor and the older Wordsworth arise. If this is true, then Victor sees himself as the more mature friend between himself and Clerval. Shelley wants the reader to see how Victor imagines himself to be the one who has “learned to look on nature, not as in the hour of thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes the still, sad music of humanity” (Wordsworth lines 89-92), the one who has grown past the earlier, frenzied state and has developed “elevated thoughts” (line 96). Between himself and Clerval, Victor thinks himself to be the one who has gained the ability to understand more of nature, most likely because he believes himself to have “conquered” it with the conception of his Creature.
However, the reader is also able to discern the irony of Victor’s thoughts. Victor thinks he is more mature than Clerval when the real situation is actually the opposite. After all, it had been Victor who was foolish enough to deem himself worthy enough to attempt to surpass the divine; it had been Clerval who nursed Victor back to health when Victor realized the horror of his actions and became overwhelmed. Victor, in reality, is immature compared to Clerval, but he does not realize this. So overall, not only is Shelley showing how Clerval and younger Wordsworth and also Victor and older Wordsworth are alike in Victor’s eyes, but she also reveals how confused of a person he is―he does not see himself to be the juvenile, overreaching individual that she and the audience know him to be.
Mary Shelley alluded to many works in her novel Frankenstein, including Wordsworth’s poem “Tintern Abbey”. With this poem, the allusion is strong because Shelley pretty much quotes eight lines from it verbatim, changing only a few punctuation marks and a couple of words to fit her story. She writes these lines towards the end of the eighteenth chapter, after Victor gives a wordy description on his love and appreciation for his friend Henry Clerval. Shelley most likely quotes these lines to draw a comparison between Wordsworth (the speaker of the poem) and Clerval.
During those eight lines of “Tintern Abbey”, Wordsworth is reflecting back on his connection to nature when he was younger―according to him, he was very uninhibited five years ago when it came to nature. He describes “the coarser pleasures of his boyish days” in the stanza as more visceral, with him exploring the hills “like a roe” might bound through them (Wordsworth, lines 67-69, 74-75). The younger Wordsworth loves nature with more of an eager craving or “appetite” (line 81) as an animal loves meat. When the passage in Frankenstein is studied in comparison, it is easy to tell that Clerval is being put in the same intellectual condition as the younger Wordsworth: Clerval also has a deep love for nature, and is described as having “a wild and enthusiastic imagination” with a soul that “overflowed with ardent affections”. For Clerval, the “scenery of external nature, which others regard only with admiration, he loved with ardour” (Shelley 139). In comparison, Clerval is just as uninhibited as the younger Wordsworth was when he first viewed the abbey.
So, if Clerval mirrors the younger, enthusiastic Wordsworth, could Victor be meant to mirror the older, more mature Wordsworth that revisits the abbey? Probably. After all, the passage reflecting on Clerval is written in Victor’s voice, and considering how it is the older Wordsworth that reflects on the younger Wordsworth, one can see a structural parallel between Victor and the older Wordsworth arise. If this is true, then Victor sees himself as the more mature friend between himself and Clerval. Shelley wants the reader to see how Victor imagines himself to be the one who has “learned to look on nature, not as in the hour of thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes the still, sad music of humanity” (Wordsworth lines 89-92), the one who has grown past the earlier, frenzied state and has developed “elevated thoughts” (line 96). Between himself and Clerval, Victor thinks himself to be the one who has gained the ability to understand more of nature, most likely because he believes himself to have “conquered” it with the conception of his Creature.
However, the reader is also able to discern the irony of Victor’s thoughts. Victor thinks he is more mature than Clerval when the real situation is actually the opposite. After all, it had been Victor who was foolish enough to deem himself worthy enough to attempt to surpass the divine; it had been Clerval who nursed Victor back to health when Victor realized the horror of his actions and became overwhelmed. Victor, in reality, is immature compared to Clerval, but he does not realize this. So overall, not only is Shelley showing how Clerval and younger Wordsworth and also Victor and older Wordsworth are alike in Victor’s eyes, but she also reveals how confused of a person he is―he does not see himself to be the juvenile, overreaching individual that she and the audience know him to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment