Voltaire's Letters on England is a collection of letters written in the early 1700s to his fellow educated citizens on various topics he had encountered. Written in 1818, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a novel about a young man by the name of Victor Frankenstein who had found a method to bring the dead back to life. Voltaire and Shelley have differing attitudes regarding the ideas of reason, science, and progress because Voltaire is an Enlightenment philosopher while Shelley is mainly a Romantic. Reason is an explanation based upon proof or personal beliefs which can be used as explanations for certain events and actions. Science is the attempt to understand the laws of the natural world. Progress is the idea of development and how far the
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Because the general public tends to associate beautiful appearances with positive aspects and grotesque appearances with negative aspects, many will immediately think the monster won't have a single positive aspect. Victor's descriptions such as 'Abhorred monster! Fiend that thou art!' and 'Vile insect' confirm the reader's belief that the monster only has negative aspects (113, Shelley). Like the reader, other character in the novel that see the monster are afraid to interact with it. Another example of Shelley using emotional feelings are her descriptions of females. The peasant woman Victor saw in his childhood was raising another person's child alongside her own (28, Shelley). All the females in the novel are kind and are willing to take care of others but have been lead to death by forces outside of their control. Victor's mother died via a disease, Justine was accused and executed for a crime she didn't commit, Elizabeth was killed by the monster on her wedding night only because she was Victor's …show more content…
He states the benefits but doesn't mention any potential weaknesses the new knowledge would bring. In Letter XVI, Voltaire mentions scientific discoveries that he holds in high regards "[they] have changed the face of Nature with regard to us" (62, Voltaire). While Voltaire agrees with Shelley that there is a sublime, he disagrees with Shelley and the Romantics on the sublime being a barrier one shouldn't pass. He encourages the exploration of the sublime. Tools such as telescopes assist in the exploration of the sublime. Voltaire's attitude of science is similar to his attitude towards progress, a positive upward
Because the general public tends to associate beautiful appearances with positive aspects and grotesque appearances with negative aspects, many will immediately think the monster won't have a single positive aspect. Victor's descriptions such as 'Abhorred monster! Fiend that thou art!' and 'Vile insect' confirm the reader's belief that the monster only has negative aspects (113, Shelley). Like the reader, other character in the novel that see the monster are afraid to interact with it. Another example of Shelley using emotional feelings are her descriptions of females. The peasant woman Victor saw in his childhood was raising another person's child alongside her own (28, Shelley). All the females in the novel are kind and are willing to take care of others but have been lead to death by forces outside of their control. Victor's mother died via a disease, Justine was accused and executed for a crime she didn't commit, Elizabeth was killed by the monster on her wedding night only because she was Victor's …show more content…
He states the benefits but doesn't mention any potential weaknesses the new knowledge would bring. In Letter XVI, Voltaire mentions scientific discoveries that he holds in high regards "[they] have changed the face of Nature with regard to us" (62, Voltaire). While Voltaire agrees with Shelley that there is a sublime, he disagrees with Shelley and the Romantics on the sublime being a barrier one shouldn't pass. He encourages the exploration of the sublime. Tools such as telescopes assist in the exploration of the sublime. Voltaire's attitude of science is similar to his attitude towards progress, a positive upward