Loss Of Innocence In Frankenstein

On a casual glance, one would never expect the Songs of Innocence and the Songs of Experience to parallel Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. The first two are books of poetry romanticizing the simplicity of nature over the rushed boom of the Industrial Revolution, and the later, a horror story about an articulate, yellow skinned monster that inspired a whole subgenre of fiction and films. The connections lie deeper than what a quick read can pick up; they’re in the fiber of the themes of distinction between innocence and experience. .
One overlapping key element is having respect for nature. Nature can seem inconsequential. What importance could there be in grains of sand or the tint of a sunset, but William Blake and Mary Shelly write of the power in nature, and the consequences for disturbing it. …show more content…
He lets this fixation drive a wedge between him and his beloved Elizabeth as she states in a concerned letter. This same determination brought him to the brink of exhaustion when creating the monster. Victor clearly expresses this dark desire in this passage “I have described myself as always having been imbued with a fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature (21)”.
In “Auguries of Innocence”, William Blake warns against disregarding nature’s power. He emphasizes this power by declaring “To see a world in a grain of sand (11)” is to hold “Eternity in the palm of your hand (11)”. The poem then uses long, lyrical stanzas to emphasize the destruction harming nature can bring. Lines such as “The wanton boy that kills the fly Shall feel the spiders enmity