Integrite Fall 2012

4 IntĂŠgritĂŠ: A F aith and Learning Journal run decidedly against the then current belief that humans are good at heart.

Herein is the Rubicon that the Romantics crossed: desire for domination creates autonomous rules, scuttling outside authority. As Nathan Scott said in Religion and Modern Literature, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Keats, and Shelle\ ³DOO PDNH XV feel that for them the traditional archetypes and systems of faith had ceased to be effective and that they, as a result, in their dealings with the world were thrown back upon their own private resources´ .

Human autonomy is linked with an unusual meteorological event² possibly Promethean fire?²GXULQJ 6KHOOH\œV FUHDWLYLW\ LQ 7KH H[SORVLRQ and planet wide fallout from the volcanic eruption in Tambora, Indonesia, created the environmental backdrop for F rankenstein. In Monsters from the Id, E. Michael Jones tells the story: The summer was late in coming in 1816²some might argue that it never came at all²largely because a volcanic eruption in Tambora, Indonesia, spewed tons of ash into the atmosphere, disrupting the climate. Storms abounded. When Shelley, Mary, and Claire had crossed the Alps on their way to Geneva in midMay, they had needed a carriage drawn by four horses as well as ten men to accompany them and dig them out of the snow drifts.

The storms would continue for the rest of the summer and the lightning that accompanied the rain would take on literary significance. (69) 7KH ZHDWKHU UHSRUWV RI WKDW \HDUÂśV VWRUPV KLJKOLJKW ZKDW ZRXOG EHFRPH WKH metaphor of life in )UDQNHQVWHLQÂśV FUHDWXUH OLJKWning. Electricity allowed curiosity to create the forbidden becoming the monstrous. Prometheus brought fire from heaven to earth. Frankenstein brought life to earth from fire out of heaven.

The volcanic eruption occurred once, but the explosive metaphor rumbles through human history. Shelley uses the warnings against Captain Walton to stand as a signpost for the ages: Frankenstein tells Walton in the fourth letter written August 19th, You seek for knowledge and wisdom, as I once did and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to VWLQJ \RX DV PLQH KDV EHHQÂŤ <HW ZKHQ , UHIOHFW WKDW \RX DUH SXUVXLQJ WKH VDPH FRXUVHÂŤ , LPDJLQH WKDW \RX PD\ GHGXFH DQ DSW moral from my tale. (39) Mary Shelley depends on the doctrine of depravity to make her point: our humanity is not perfect nor can it recreate itself. F rankenstein raises the issue of curiosity for the forbidden leading to the monstrous.

If humans are inherently corrupt, Shelley would have us consider these questions: How should humanity deal with knowledge? Is imagination a good WKLQJ" 'LG ³FXULRVLW\ NLOO WKH FDW´ RU LV WKH FDW D FDW EHFDXVH LW LV FXULRXV" +RZ