Percy and Mary Shelley

Eloped when she was very young. He was already married. He wanted his current wife to act as a sister.
His first wife committed suicide eventually. Mary and Percy ran away to Switzerland to avoid criticism.
They became friends with Byron. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein at age 19. They decided to have a contest to see who could come up with the best ghost story.

Percy Shelley

Everything changes; it is mutable, like clouds that disappear forever.
2^nd Stanza – We’re like lyres, each string makes a different sound; each person is different and constantly changing.
3^rd and 4^th Stanzas – Each day changes and passes away. The only constant is change. This is the doctrine of Hearclitan flux, which goes back to the philosopher Heraclitus who said the only constant is change.

same mountain as in Frankenstein.
Considers it a divine object. Finds power there, terror of divine revelation like Mt. Sinai in Bible.
The Enlightenment looked to nature for harmony & order, which it easily found. The movement of the planets in the solar system seemed like a giant clock, precisely keeping cosmic time for millennia.
The Romantics looked to nature for majesty and power.
Divinity = Power – supremacy of God/Nature (he was an atheist). As in nature, so in in the divine, the Romantics sought power, will, creativity.
Awed by magnitude of mountain. Description: trees surround mountain, blown by wind.
Line 48: Platonic shades. Only storms dwell in mountain.
Lines 90-98: everything changes. God is the unmoved mover", tranquil, remote, serene. He is transcendent (lives beyond this world), has no part in normal reality; yet, by some, he is considered eminent (everywhere), can be seen in everything. He considers mountain to be transcendent, above this world, aloof from man.
Lines 107-119: Nature/God destroys everything; people flee in terror from mountain, the Divine.
Lines 39-43: Mountain implants images into his mind.

Intellectual = beyond the ability of the senses to perceive.
Platonic influence, "shadows of unseen power." For Plato, the things we see around us are the lowest level of reality. The beautiful chair should lead us to contemplate the IDEA of the beautiful chair, which should lead us to contemplate the idea of Beauty itself.
Truth comes to us from above but is evident in images/shadows of reality that we observe.
Contemplation of beauty in physical things leads to higher progression of contemplation of ideal beauty. Emanates outward because beauty is within.
Stanza 3 – Gnostic Doctrine: must have secret knowledge to get to heaven; levels you must pass through. In some Gnostic systems, the spirit was imprisoned by body by the evil Old Testament God Jehovah. The good God Jesus frees us..
Stanza 4 – wishes beauty would stay firm within our loves so that we could be Gods. Beauty comes and goes however. Searches for transcendence in beauty so he can be immortal.
Stanza 5 – He sought beauty & satisfaction in the physical world. The spirit awoke him to beauty. Spirit is spring. The cave could be an oblique reference to Plato's parable of the cave, where Plato describes the movement from sense perception to spiritual perception.
Stanza 6 – dedicated himself to creating beauty through poetry in a tribute to the ultimate beauty.
Line 78 – nature descended on his passive youth on mountain, Mt. Blanc.
Beauty is imminent in everything.

Meets an Egyptian who tells him of a ruined statue in desert. Legs still stand, head with sneer was found in sand. His power has become formless. Only ruins of creation remain. We live to create but our power has limits because when we die, nothing remains.
The king thought his great works would lead the visitor to despair of accomplishing as much.
The fact that his works are crumbled to dust makes us instead despair of achieving anything permanent. Like that song "Dust in the Wind" by Kansas.

The notes below are for material we aren't reading this quarter.
BRM
4/6/1999

"Prometheus Unbound"

Prometheus (or his spirit) is giving him a ride. He had been saved to a rock because he stole Zeus’ fire (Zeus makes lightning).
Prometheus created man. He needed fire from Mt. Olympus to give man a spark. Was a Titan, cousin of Zeus. Zeus created woman to get even with man.
Heaven’s despotism is the law that keeps man from having divine fire (Greek mythology).
Line 19 – "Demogorgon": Satanic hero defies omnipotent power.
Prometheus unchained/unbound – free because he created.

Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus.

Dream of man: to create life without sexual reproduction because women call into question the progeny of descendants. You can’t be sure of who your father really is.
Frankenstein creates ugliness from filth; assembles different body parts from stuff he collected.
Why did he make him so big? It was hard to work with small parts.
2 Intros: Husband’s Preface – he doesn’t want people to think she’s against science since it shows limitations/destructiveness of creation.
Alchemists tried to make gold from other elements that were associated with hell. Man with secret knowledge. God limits.
Frankenstein – original mad scientist. Studied alchemy during his youth.
Promise of Science: new knowledge/discoveries to make life easier.
Science has made life better but worse at same time. People want benefits.
Mad scientist is blinded by his quest. Looses site of morality.