Frankenstein

Romanticism

A work of literature can be considered Romantic if it:


 * Was written between 1789 & 1832 (or a bit before and after; these dates are especially accurate for poetry)
 * Focuses on the individual's experiences (often subjective)
 * Emphasizes potential and freedom of the individual (conventional morality came under question)
 * Emphasizes emotional religious experience (perhaps Methodist) rather than intellectual faith
 * Views nature as a place of purification and redemption (untouched nature evokes a sense of awe; response to the Industrial Revolution) and a place to look inside yourself; wiser than humans; spiritual purity
 * Focuses on spiritual utopia as a possibility
 * Emphasizes the inner world of the individual (exploring ideas of consciousness)
 * Promotes pantheism (the idea that the creator and the created are the same), atheism, Methodism
 * Emphasizes dreams and visions (Coleridge etc) and the subconscious
 * Values emotion and intuition over logic and rationality
 * Explores the idea of 'the sublime' - thrilling emotions of awe, wonder majesty etc
 * Includes a lot of sensory imagery and symbolism
 * Rejects the scientific absolutism of the Enlightenment
 * Focuses on and admires the state of innocence, often accompanied by a sense of wonder, alienation, or even terror and madness
 * Questions or finds wanting the existing social order (often at the start Romantics were very progressive but many became more Conservative as the revolution in France became more bloodthirsty and violent)
 * Was written under the influence of opiates or explores the effects of opiate taking
 * Is centred around a heroic figure; or, confusingly, invents or re-interprets a rebellious anti-hero, for example Prometheus.

During this time, novels (usually by women) were considered inferior to poetry (usually by men).