Settings

• Shelley often uses settings as a way of highlighting the isolation of characters and their separation from others.
• This fits in with the characterisation of a Gothic hero, but also links to the Romantic notion of the Sublime.

• Romantic writers and artists believed that nature had a ‘sublime’ effect on man, due to its awe-inspiring beauty.
• This encouraged an appreciation that was mixed with the terror and threat of its vastness and power.

• The work of Romantic artists often demonstrated nature’s capacity to impact the emotions of man.
• This is seen in how certain landscapes are able to influence the feelings of the characters.
• The idea of the Sublime is also exemplified in the work of many Romantic artists.
  • Examples will follow on the next slides.

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, Caspar David Friedrich (1818)

Chalk Cliffs on Rügen, Caspar David Friedrich (1818)

• In both of these paintings, the person or people appear insignificant (both in size and in the fact that they are depicted from behind) in comparison to the nature by which they are confronted.
• The natural scenery is vast and impressive, and it seems to have a powerful effect on the people, who seem to be appreciating it in quiet reflection.

• “During this short voyage I saw the lightnings playing on the summit of Mont Blanc in the most beautiful figures."
• "I watched the tempest, so beautiful yet terrific.."
  • Despite the violence of the storm, Victor seems to find comfort in what he sees.

• "This noble war in the sky elevated my spirits; I clasped my hands, and exclaimed aloud, "William, dear angel! this is thy funeral, this thy dirge!"” (Chapter 7)

• Victor refers to the weather as a "noble war", attributing a sense of status and magnificence to these natural happenings which contrast with his own insignificant mortality.
• The impact of the storm on his "spirits" allows him to feel able to communicate with his deceased brother, perhaps suggesting the ability of nature to elevate man.

• Shelley uses setting to demonstrate the Romantic notion of sublime nature having an impact on the emotions of man.
• After the horror of losing both William and Justine, Victor falls into a period of despair.
• He goes out actively seeking the magnificence of the Alps.
  • The sheer size of the scene helps to remind him of his own insignificance, and therefore the insignificance of his problems.

• “[I] sought in the magnificence, the eternity of such scenes, to forget myself and my ephemeral, because human, sorrows."
• "My wanderings were directed towards the valley of Chamounix. I had visited it frequently during my boyhood."
• "Six years had passed since then: I was a wreck -- but nought had changed in those savage and enduring scenes.”

• At the end of this quotation, Victor compares the huge changes which have taken place in him over the past six years, with the constancy of all-powerful nature.
• He seems to find this comforting.

• As well as presenting the emotional impact of settings on Victor, Shelley also echoes this in her presentation of the Monster.
  • Having suffered through the winter months, the Monster takes great cheer from the arrival of Spring.
• As we saw with Victor in Chapter 7, Shelley here uses language of spirituality in order to emphasise the deep-reaching impact of nature on beings.

• "The pleasant showers and genial warmth of spring greatly altered the aspect of the earth. Men, who before this change seemed to have been hid in caves, dispersed themselves, and were employed in various arts of cultivation."
• "The birds sang in more cheerful notes, and the leaves began to bud forth on the trees."

• "Happy, happy earth! fit habitation for gods, which, so short a time before, was bleak, damp, and unwholesome."
• "My spirits were elevated by the enchanting appearance of nature; the past was blotted from my memory, the present was tranquil, and the future gilded by bright rays of hope and anticipations of joy."