Answer:
The context of Romanticism influenced both the origin and content of Frankenstein. In the summer of 1816, Mary and Percy Shelley were travelling in Europe and spent time visiting Byron at his house in Switzerland. According to Mary Shelley’s introduction to the 1831 edition of the novel, the three writers devised a game to see who could invent the most terrifying ghost story. The author writes that that night she had a shocking dream about an inventor assembling a monster, and began writing the story that she would eventually expand into Frankenstein. Many of the trademarks of Romanticism are evident in the novel. Walton and Frankenstein are ambitious geniuses who are determined to live up to their destinies; while neither is an artist, both engage in works of ground-breaking creativity by pushing the limits of geography and science. The impact and beauty of the natural world, always significant to Romantic writers, play an important role in creating an appropriate setting for the novel’s dramatic events. The monster’s experience of coming into the world without any knowledge of social norms and behavioral expectations reflects Romanticism’s curiosity about how innate human nature is gradually shaped by society and culture.
