William Wordsworth’s poem “Tintern
Abbey”, less commonly known as “Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey,
on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour, July 13, 1798”, makes an
appearance in Mary Shelley’s Novel Frankenstein,
first published 20 years later in 1818.
Wordsworth’s poem flows through
various descriptions of the nature that surrounds him. First from an external
standpoint, and later from an internal reflection, he then goes into an
analysis of different eras of his life. The third section of “Tintern Abbey”
delves into the connection between external and internal. The nostalgic feel of
the comparison between his past and present is overflowing with descriptive oxymorons.
He describes his older and more mature attitude towards life as an “aching joy”
and as hearing the “still sad music of humanity”. These elevated thoughts are
no longer taking place in the abbey, and he is encroaching upon a universal
truth of the struggle that exists between past and present, childhood and
adulthood, thoughtless naivety and disturbing joy.
Mary Shelley’s novel encompasses
a variety of themes, and on pages 138-139 Victor Frankenstein is describing the
contrasting views that his deceased best friend held of the world and of the
awe-inspiring nature which surrounded them. She includes the lines,
“The sounding
cataract
Haunted him like a
passion: the tall rock,
The mountain, and
the deep and gloomy wood,
Their colours and
their forms, were then to him
An appetite; a
feeling, and a love,
That had no need
of a remoter charm.
By thought
supplied, or any interest
Unborrow’d from
the eye”.
Frankenstein describes his dear
friend using this poem because it emphasizes the ardor with which Clerval truly
loved nature. Furthermore, it draws a parallel between Henry Clerval and the
younger self that Wordsworth is describing. This comparison brings with it an undertone
of innocence and youth. Shelley writes that Clerval’s “wild and enthusiastic imagination
was chastened by the sensibility of his heart…The scenery of external nature,
which others regard only with admiration, he loved with ardour” (Shelley 139). The word chastened also makes an appearance in
Wordsworth’s poem when he describes the “still, sad music of humanity” which
has the “ample power to chasten and subdue”. This comparison between the gifted
poet Wordsworth and Victor’s beloved friend Henry allows us to truly grasp with
what depth Clerval relates to nature and the world which surrounds him. Wordsworth’s
descriptions begin to include a “deeper zeal of holier love”, idolizing the
nature that he personifies.
Henry Clerval, a “worshiper of
Nature” is used in Shelley’s novel to bring us to the realization that
Frankenstein is no longer able to experience life as his companion does.
Lacking the innocence that he loses when he betrays God with the sin of
rebellion, he is left a shell of his former being, no longer able to see nature
with the divinity that it holds, or life with an eye of joy. The contrast
between Clerval and Frankenstein is saddening because we long for our
protagonist to experience the joy of life, although we know that he will be
mourning the choices he made for the rest of his existence.
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