Romantic fiction / novel

The social, political and intellectual climate of the years which followed the American and French
Revolutions is reflected in the important developments which the novel underwent in this period.
During this time, poetry is the most common genre, and fiction is not given much attention. However, even
the novel is affected by the deep changes of the Romantic age, and novelists bring new themes and
approaches to their work. Novelists begin to reflect a wider range of themes, issues and settings, and novels
start to tackle contrasting ideas, settings and points of view: present/past, male/female, urban/rural. There is
a large variety of themes, and the most important British novelists of the time reflect society and its issues in
different ways.
The three main directions of the novel are the historical novel (Sir Walter Scott), the novel of manners
(Jane Austen) and the gothic novel (Mary Shelley).
Sir Walter Scott (1771 – 1832) → he is a Scottish writer, and he opens up the novel to the movements of
history; he is considered the pioneer of the historical novel. He introduces themes such as revolution, dissent
and social change, and all his novels are set in the past, and deal with the transformations of Britain’s history
(focusing on Scotland); his novel mainly focus on the adventures of ordinary people when faced with important
historical conflicts and crises. Scott draws parallels between the historical situations depicted in his novels and
the world of his own time: he focuses on the past with the intent of reflecting and commenting on the problems
of the present. His heroes are described in depth, his historical knowledge allows him to provide detailed
descriptions and in his dialogues he is able to mix Scottish dialects with the polished language of noblemen. His
most popular novel is Ivanhoe (1820), a romance set in 12 th-century England, which is said to have inspired the
Italian writer Alessandro Manzoni, in terms of ideas and technique.

Jane Austen (1775 – 1817)

 Jane Austen grows up in a rural environment in the south of England; here she cultivates her intellectual
interests. Her father is a clergyman, and she’s one of eight children.
 1783: she is sent to boarding school briefly, but she’s mainly educated at home by her father. She lives a
comfortable life, where she can study and develop her ideas. Her father transmits his love for literature
to his daughter: Samuel Richardson becomes one of her favorite authors.
 Austen has a strong bond with her family, and family life is a frequent theme in her work, and her
heroines’ relationships with their parents and relatives are intensely explored.
 1805: her father dies and, as women could only inherit property if there were no male children in the
family, Jane, her mother and sister move to Jane’s older brother’s house. There, she begins to revise and
write the manuscripts for the works. Her brother helps her find a publisher for her novels, which are all
published anonymously at the time.
 1811: Sense and Sensibility is published.
 1813: Pride and Prejudice, her most popular novel, is published.
 1817: she shows symptoms of a rare disorder, and dies at the young age of 41.

The novel of manners It is another form which develops during the Romantic period; this
label describes novels which depict the social conventions and habits of the upper and dominant classes
(mainly the landed gentry, wealthy landowners), usually read by middle-class readers, who wanted to move
up the social ladder. Jane Austen is one of the most renowned authors of the novel of manners. In her
novels, she describes the hardships of female heroines and their inner world, their feelings and their desire
for self-discovery, which often clashes with upper-class preoccupations, such as courtship, marriage, social
decorum, morality and propriety.
 Pride and Prejudice (1813)
The novel mainly focuses on the complex relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy. Both characters are
intelligent, but also blinded by prejudice, so they misjudge each other. Darcy is proud and feels superior to
the Bennets. For this reason, Elizabeth sees him as an unpleasant man. A series of small events allow them
to reconsider these ideas and to recognize they are in love with each other. They manage to reach a self-
realization, rejecting their misconceptions and overcoming their pride and prejudice.
Plot
The story is set primarily in the county of Hertfordshire, about 50 miles from London, and centres around
the Bennet family – Mr. and Mrs. Bennet and their five unmarried daughters: Jane, Elizabeth (Lizzy), Mary,
Kitty and Lydia. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet have no direct male heir to inherit their property, it is therefore very
important to them to marry their daughters to wealthy young men. The news that two wealthy young
gentlemen – Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy – have settled at the nearby manor, causes great excitement among
the Bennets. Mrs. Bennet hopes the two young men will end up marrying two of her five daughters. After a
number of social gatherings, Jane and Bingley grow close and Darcy, who initially seemed arrogant and
distant, learns to appreciate Lizzy’s wit. On the contrary, Elizabeth’s negative opinion of Darcy’s snobbery
is reinforced by her new acquaintance, Mr. Wickham, who tells her how Darcy has treated him unjustly.
Meanwhile, Bingley suddenly leaves London and Jane is sad and perplexed: Elizabeth finds out that Darcy
and Bingley’s sisters had tried to separate Bingley from Jane, and this gives Elizabeth further reason to hate
Darcy. Shortly afterwards, Darcy proposes to Elizabeth, but she rejects him firmly. Meanwhile, the Bennets
receive the shocking news that Lydia has run away with Mr. Wickham in order to marry him. Darcy helps
find them, and he assists in reuniting Bingley and Jane. Lydia returns as Wickham’s wife, and Lizzy
discovers that Darcy himself has made this marriage possible. Elizabeth and Darcy become closer, each
realizing their mistakes: he in thinking her inferior, she in judging him too quickly. The novel ends with the
marriages of both Elizabeth (with Darcy) and Jane (with Bingley).
Themes
 Marriage: in the society of Austen’s time, a woman’s social condition and economic security
depended on marriage; such awareness is reflected in her plots, which revolve around young girls’ need
to find a suitable husband. Mrs. Bennet’s obsession with her daughters’ marriages reflects a typical
concern of Jane Austen’s time.
 Social class: in all her novels she focuses on the social setting she knows, the world of the country
gentry and its relations with the upper classes. She accurately depicts the manners and behavior which
characterize the provincial society of her time. She criticizes the snobbery of the aristocracy and the poor
education of the middle class with delicate irony. Social class interferes with Mrs. Bennet’s plans: even
if she encourages her daughters to socialize with the upper-class Bingley and Darcy, the five girls are
their social inferiors and are treated as such, especially by Darcy, who is proud of his status. At the
same time, the novel seems to suggest that love can defy social prejudice: the marriages between
Elizabeth and Darcy and Jane and Bingley are the demonstration that true love, when it does not disrupt
the fundamental rules of decency and propriety, can overcome social hierarchies.
 Pragmatism, morality and social conventions vs. feelings, aspirations and individuality: Austen’s
novels support the idea that “appropriate” behavior and the respect of social rules should prevail over
romantic enthusiasm. Austen does not ignore the power of emotions, however she thinks they should be
controlled, in order not to clash with society’s expectations. Her characters search for balance between
social conventions and their aspirations.
 The role of women: Austen’s female characters usually play the traditional role of daughters, sisters or
wives, but they’re not passive; they are intelligent, active and lively, they have feelings and opinions,
and they are often obstinate and more capable and energetic than male characters. However, Austen
criticizes the structure of society, where men hold economic and social power, and observes the
differences between the roles and expectations of men and women.
 No historical insight: Austen focuses on provincial life and does not depict the historical events of her
time, however she indirectly shows how these events influence the characters’ daily lives.
 Self-knowledge and introspection: Elizabeth, proud of her intelligence, initially judges Darcy
superficially, through the lenses of prejudice. Darcy’s aristocratic pride causes his prejudice against
Elizabeth’s inferior social position, and he does not notice her many virtues. However, both are capable
of recognizing their mistakes and of reflecting on their behavior and finally change their views. They can
be defined as round characters, as they learn from experience and evolve. Through misunderstandings,
the couple can grow and mature, and arrives at a deeper self-knowledge and understanding of each other.
 Surface and appearance: from the beginning, the novel advises the reader to look beyond the surface,
because things – and people – are never as simple as you think, and we only know a fragment of who
they really are.
Style
 Third person narrator, with the story’s perspective mainly centered on Elizabeth.
 Realism: her novels have been defined as “realistic studies of manners”: with her prose, she studies
social relationships, without a moralistic intent. Austen also shows everyday life in villages, and through
the description of microcosms, she shows the complexities of human nature, and her characters are
relatable and understandable.
 Irony: use of gentle, rational satire, she makes fun of the ridiculous to correct it, and shows the
contradictions of human behavior. The ironic tone is set by the opening sentence: “It is a truth
universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife”.
 Use of witty dialogues, which help build her characters’ personalities.
 Different voices and speech for different characters (Darcy has a more complex language than
Elizabeth, whose syntax is simpler).
 Mary Shelley (1797 – 1851)
 1797: She was born in London as Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin. Her father is the radical atheist
philosopher William Godwin and her mother is the feminist thinker Mary Wollstonecraft who, however,
dies less than a month after Mary was born. She grows up in an intellectual environment.
 1814: She meets poets such as William Blake, Lord Byron and Percy Shelley. She falls in love with
Shelley, and they run away together, traveling across Europe when she is 16. Their relationship is
heavily criticized, as Percy Shelley was already married, so the two live a nomadic existence.
 1816: She spends the summer on Lake Geneva with Shelley and Byron, and they have a competition to
see who can write the scariest story. On this occasion, she develops the story of Frankenstein’s monster,
and wins the competition. In the same year, she marries Percy Shelley, after his wife’s suicide.
 1818: They move to Italy, settling first in Como, then Lucca, Rome, Naples and Florence (here Mary
gives birth to Percy Florence, the only child who survives), and Mary starts working on Frankenstein,
which is published the same year. It becomes an immediate bestseller. Unfortunately, the same year,
two of their younger children die, and Mary never fully recovers from this trauma.
 1822: Percy Shelley dies, and Mary and her two-year-old son have to go back to England for financial
difficulties, even though she despises English conformism and social system. She supports herself by
editing and publishing her husband's work and writing articles and other works. She writes six more
novels, but they are not as successful as Frankenstein.
 1851: She dies in London of a brain tumor in her sleep.

The gothic novel It is another genre that flourished in the late 18 th and early 19th century. It is
characterized by an atmosphere of mystery and terror. The label comes from the typical setting: medieval
buildings, ruins, old castles, dungeons, labyrinths, secret passages, hidden panels and trapdoors, and a
typical element of gothic fiction is the description of such terrifying settings. The plot is usually complex,
and there are supernatural elements and characters, such as monsters, vampires or ghosts. Gothic fiction is
also influenced by the concept of the sublime, where terror, emotion and feelings are exaggerated. In this
case, the terrors of gothic fiction can also be seen as a metaphoric representation of repressed unconscious
desires. In gothic novels we also see a more radical idea of sexuality. The most important author is Horace
Walpole, who wrote The Castle of Otranto (1764), which is considered the first gothic novel. Other
important gothic novelists are Matthew Lewis (The Monk, 1796) and Ann Radcliffe (The Mysteries of
Udolpho, 1794, and The Italian, 1797). Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is one of the most famous gothic
novels, though it goes beyond the structure of the gothic novel, anticipating elements of modern horror and
science fiction.

Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus (1818)

Frankenstein is the story of a scientist who tries to defeat death by giving life to a creature made up of parts
of corpses. However, it is much more sophisticated than an ordinary gothic novel, as it transforms a basic
horror story into a reflection on the nature of creation, scientific responsibility, the dangers of scientific
ambition and social justice.
Plot
Frankenstein begins when an arctic explorer, Robert Walton, whose ship is trapped in ice, meets Victor
Frankenstein, who has been wandering the ice fields, travelling by sledge. Frankenstein tells Walton his
story, which we discover in the letters that Walton is writing to his sister.
Victor Frankenstein is a brilliant student, who leaves home in Geneva to study natural philosophy and
chemistry at the university of Ingolstadt, following his father’s dream. Here, he starts to experiment with
electricity and the animation of dead bodies. Thanks to this research, he gives life to a creature with
supernatural strengths and great intelligence, but also a horrible appearance that inspires disgust. Victor
immediately repudiates, rejects, and abandons him, and he starts roaming the country alone and confused,
until he finds some peace in the woods where he learns how to speak and read by observing a family in a
cottage. This experience also makes the creature aware of his repulsive appearance and, seeing in his
creator’s actions the main cause of his loneliness, he seeks revenge against him, turning into a destructive
monster. He reaches Frankenstein in Geneva, where he starts to kill members of his family to make him feel
alone as he himself is. He asks the scientist to give him a female companion, but Victor refuses to create
another abomination. One by one, Frankenstein’s family and friends are horribly killed, and the scientist
decides to hunt the monster down, and finally finds him in the Arctic regions of the North Pole. Victor,
exhausted, is rescued by a ship, but he dies on board. The creature bids him goodbye, then jumps out onto
the floating ice, and is carried away by the waves.
Themes
 Science: Mary Shelley is interested in the development of science, and is intrigued by the experiments
on electricity that were popular at the time. However, despite her interest in scientific progress, she
reflects on the responsibility that comes with being a scientist, and the “dark side” to the scientific
positivism of the 19th century: in this novel, she warns the reader against the negative consequences of
the uncontrolled use of science.
 Man vs. God: The Modern Prometheus refers to the myth of Prometheus, punished for stealing fire from
the Gods and giving it to men, allowing them to learn, discover new things and gaining power.
Prometheus represents the quest for scientific knowledge, but his story shows us the consequences of
ambition. Just like Prometheus, Victor is an extremely ambitious figure who creates a new life (in some
version of the myth of Prometheus, he is said to have created humanity from clay). He wants to learn the
secrets of the world, but he goes beyond the natural limits of men, “playing” with nature as if he were
a God and violating both natural and divine laws. He is punished for his excessive pride and
arrogance.
 Criticism to society: the figure of the creature is much more complicated than evil monsters we find in
horror stories; he begins his life as an innocent character (Rousseau’s “noble savage”, a human being in
a state of innocence, untouched by society), however his experience of social rejection and
abandonment drives him to take revenge and commit evil actions. Mary Shelley criticizes “civil”
society, which is often responsible for corrupting people and creating the same evil it condemns.
…another interpretation
 The “double” or doppelgänger: a common interpretation is that Victor and the creature are the same
person, or that the creature is Frankenstein’s extension. They share psychological traits and experiences,
and the only difference is their appearance: Victor creates a double that is the expression of his
repressed self, especially in the relationship with his strict father. The creature looks at Frankenstein as
his creator, and their relationship resembles that of Victor and his father. Victor projects his anger and
resentment onto the creature, and the creature develops aspects of his feelings, thoughts and attitudes.
At first, Victor builds his creature carefully, then he rejects it (as Victor’s father rejected him). The
creature absorbs the negative feelings and the evil side emerges. By rejecting the creature, Victor rejects
himself, and feels a sense of guilt for all the crimes his creature has committed → The horrors produced
by the creature are the result of Victor’s repressed self.
Style
The novel has a complex structure:
 Different narrators: the story is told in the first person by three different narrators (Frankenstein,
Robert Walton and the creature), each providing the reader with a different perspective (maybe Mary
Shelley wants to convey an idea of truth).
 Epistolary novel: the novel is structured as an epistolary novel, as it is framed by the letters of the
explorer Robert Walton, where he tells his sister about his strange meeting with Frankenstein, his story
and his death. However, following a “Chinese box” structure, the point of view shifts to the main part of
the narrative, Victor’s perspective/story. This introduction reminds us of Coleridge’s Rime of the
Ancient Mariner, as Frankenstein tells the narrator his “cautionary” tale*, waring him against the
dangers of ambition. Then, Shelley gives voice to the monster, in a long passage where he explains the
reasons for his destructive behavior. [*A cautionary tale is a genre of story that is told to warn the
audience of a specific danger; usually it wants to teach a moral lesson.]
 Different writing forms: the text combines elements of different genres (horror, romance, science
fiction) and styles (letters, notes, journals, inscriptions) → All these different forms of writing might be
seen as a mirror to the origin of the creature’s body (made of different parts).
 Gothic elements: the story is not set in a medieval castle and there aren’t ghosts, supernatural events nor
witchcraft, however the novel contains many gothic elements, such as the horrifying details of the
monster’s creation and his bloody rage and murders.