Defining Romanticism: The Implications of Nature Personified as Female in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre

In Romanticism and Gender, Anne K. Mellor discusses the definition of Romanticism. She reclassifies traditional Romanticism as "masculine romanticism" and adds the new classification, "feminine romanticism." In Mellor's scheme, since masculine romanticism does not focus on "the recognition and appreciation of the beloved woman as an independent other but rather the assimilation of the female into the male (or the annihilation of any other that threatens masculine selfhood), the woman must finally be enslaved or destroyed" (26).

Both Bronte and Shelley refute this prototype of masculine romanticism through a triumph of the feminine. In Mellor's words, novels or poems characterized as feminine romanticism "grounded their notion of community on a cooperative rather than possessive interaction with Nature, troped as a female friend or sister" (3). Both Jane and the monster are guided by a type of Nature that is characterized as a mother-figure. As the conclusion of both novels indicates, Bronte and Shelley use the female Nature to redefine traditional Romanticism.

In Frankenstein, Victor's driving force to create the monster, and ultimately reanimate life, is the loss of his mother, Caroline Beaufort. In the scene preceding her death, Shelley personifies Nature as a female for the first time when Victor characterizes the studies of Issac Newton as having "partially unveiled the face of Nature, but her immortal lineaments were still a wonder and a mystery" (21). After Nature is personified as female, Victor witnesses Nature's power in a thunderstorm where he witnesses "a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak" and "so soon as the dazzling light vanished, the oak had disappeared, and nothing remained but a blasted stump" (22). The adult Victor states:

when I look back, it seems to me as if this almost miraculous change of inclination and will was the immediate suggestion of the guardian angel of my life- the last effort made by the spirit of preservation to avert the storm that was even then hanging in the stars, and ready to envelope me. Her victory was announced by an unusual tranquility and gladness of soul, which followed the relinquishment of my ancient and latterly tormenting studies. It was thus that I was to be taught to associate evil with their prosecution, happiness with their disregard. It was a strong effort of the spirit of good' but it was ineffectural. Destiny was too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction. (23)

Immediately after this scene, Victor's mother dies, leaving him without a maternal influence for the rest of the novel.

After his mother's death, Victor has a "void of the soul" so profound that he subverts Nature to fill it (24). When Victor plans to develop "the ability to give life to an animal as complex and wonderful as man," he is motivated by the thought that he could one day "renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption" (32). His machinations are initiated by his desire to raise his mother from the dead.

As Victor works to create life, Nature again is personified as female. Significantly, Victor states, "the moon gazed on my midnight labours, while, with unrelaxed and breathless eagerness, I pursued nature to her hiding places" (33). Victor loses "all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit" and his "eyes were insensible to the charms of nature" (33). However, when Victor finally succeeds in his quest to possess Nature, "horror and disgust" fills his heart upon viewing his new creation (35). Victor seeks escape in sleep only to be tormented by dreams of his cousin, Elizabeth, and his mother. Victor states:

I thought I saw Elizabeth, in the bloom of health, walking in the streets of Ingolstadt. Delighted and surprised, I embraced her, but as I imprinted the first kiss on her lips, they became livid with the hue of death; her features appeared to change, and I thought that I held the corpse of my dead mother in my arms; a shroud enveloped her form, and I saw the grave-worms crawling in the folds of flannel. (35)

Significantly, Victor's dream further illustrates his inability to emasculate creation. Nature appears as the "grave-worms crawling in the folds of flannel" to remind Victor that he cannot usurp Nature's processes (35).

When Victor wakes from this nightmare, he again views the monster. Ironically, Nature must force herself into the room as Victor states: "by the dim and yellow light of the moon, as it forced its way though the window shutters, I beheld the wretch- the miserable monster whom I had created" (35). When Nature will not allow Victor solace in denial, he flees into the courtyard to watch morning dawn, "dismal and wet," as he is "drenched by the rain which poured from a black and comfortless sky" (36).

After Victor flees, the monster awakens alone and miserable. His initial source of comfort is a "gentle light" that gives him a "sensation of pleasure" (71). In his confusion, he can see only one object, "the bright moon" (71). From the monster's first conscious hours, the moon is the only nurturing source available. In these early days, Nature provides for the basic needs of the monster, and the monster enters into a cooperative interaction with Nature. For instance, "the clear stream" quenches his thirst and trees shade him "with their foliage" (71). Throughout this time, the moon "show[s] itself" until the monster migrates to the Delacey's hut (71). When the Delacey's see the monster's unnatural appearance, they spurn him. As a result, the monster goes on a path of destruction.

While the monster wanders, Nature uses lightening to remind Victor to take responsibility for the creature. When Victor travels toward home upon hearing of the death of his brother, William, Victor speaks to Nature, "Dear mountains! My own beautiful lake!" (49). Victor attempts to possess Nature and is warned through "lightenings playing on the summit of Mont Blanc" and "vivid flashes of lightening" dazzling his eyes (49-50). Victor speaks to William through the "tempest" and says, "William, dear angel! This is thy funeral, this is thy dirge!" (50). As he speaks these words, a "flash of lightening" illuminates the creature, and Victor assumes that the creature murdered William (50). Again, Nature reveals her power through lightening that illuminates the results of Victor's creation.

Victor's mother also reappears when Victor learns that the monster murdered William. Victor states:

I gazed on the picture of my mother which stood over the mantle-piece. It was an historical subject, painted at my father's desire, and represented Caroline Beaufort in an agony of despair, kneeling by the coffin of her dead father. Her garb was rustic, and her cheek pale; but there was an air of dignity and beauty, that hardly permitted the sentiment of pity. Below this picture was a miniature of William; and my tears flowed when I looked upon it. (51)

The events that follow represent Victor's punishment for usurping Nature. After he refuses to create a mate for the monster, his entire family is murdered, directly or indirectly, by the monster. In order for Nature to be restored to her rightful status, Victor must die at the conclusion of the novel because he possesses the information necessary to create another monster. As Anne K. Mellor states in "Possessing Nature: The Feminine in Frankenstein," "Nature's revenge is absolute: he who violates her 'sacred hiding places' is destroyed" (228).

In Jane Eyre, Edward Rochester does not recognize Jane as an independent other and subverts her interaction with Nature. Like Shelley, Bronte also uses Nature, personified as female, to prevent this subversion. Like the monster, Jane represents the feminine conscience that refuses to be redefined through a masculine interpretation.

Throughout her childhood, Jane is guided by the moon until she arrives at Thornfield. Ironically, the moon is conspicuously absent from Jane's life at Thornfield until the night that she meets Rochester. The moon, "waxing bright", reappears in the text when Jane encounters Rochester for the first time (99). When Rochester tells Jane she should not be out so late, Jane replies, "I am not at all afraid of being out late when it is moonlight" (100). At this initial meeting, the moon is a source of comfort for Jane without direct involvement in the unfolding events.

However, as Jane's relationship with Rochester progresses, the moon symbol becomes an active guide to Jane. Rochester's first attempt to redefine Jane occurs when he disguises himself as a fortune teller. When he asks Jane why she does not tremble, Jane replies, "I am not cold" (172). When he asks why she doesn't turn pale, she replies, "I am not sick" (173). When he asks why she does not consult him, she replies, "I am not silly" (173). Rochester counters Jane's statements with his own reinterpretation and refuses to recognize Jane's independence. Still in his disguise, Rochester states:

You are cold, because you are alone: no contact strikes the fire from you that is in you. You are sick: because the best of feelings, the highest and sweetest given to man, keeps far away from you. You are silly, because, suffer as you may, you will not beckon it to approach; nor will you stir one step to meet it where it waits you (173).

Here, Rochester redefines Jane's statements and characterizes her situation as lacking needs that only he can fill.

Shortly after this dialogue, the moon becomes a more aggressive symbol. That night, the "full and bright" moon awakens Jane after she falls asleep (180). Jane states that the moon "came in her course to that space in the sky opposite my casement, and looked in at me through the unveiled panes, her glorious gaze roused me" (180-81). By rousing Jane, the moon plays an active, almost physical, role in the scene. The moon becomes a more prominent symbol as a warning to Jane because she is still unaware that Rochester is already married.

On the night of Rochester's proposal, Jane first notices Rochester's shadow "thrown long over the garden by the moon" when she attempts to sneak past him (218). After Jane accepts Rochester's proposal, a change comes over the night. Jane describes the moon as "not yet set" while the chestnut tree "writhed and groaned" and "wind roared in the laurel walk" (225). Jane sees a "livid, vivid spark" and hears "a crack, a crash, and a close rattling peal"(225). Rochester and Jane escape Nature's fury when they flee to Thornfield Hall. The next morning, Jane learns that the chestnut tree "had been struck by lightening in the night, and half of it split away" (225).

In this scene, Nature gives Jane a direct warning through the fury unleashed when Jane accepts Rochester's proposal. The lightening and other intense natural phenomena represent Nature's most assertive attempt to guide Jane away from Rochester. However, for Rochester, these same symbols represent a much more deadly warning. If he does go through with a bigamous marriage to Jane, then Nature will somehow split them apart just as the lightening split the chestnut tree where he proposed.

Rochester does not heed Nature's warning and goes so far as to reinterpret Nature into a masculine ideal that suits his personal intentions. After Jane agrees to marry Rochester, Rochester tells his own, masculine version of moon folklore to Adele that closely parallels the earlier fortune teller scene. Rochester tells Adele, "I am to take mademoiselle to the moon, and there I shall seek a cave in one of the white valleys among the volcano-tops, and mademoiselle shall live with me there, and only me" (234). Rochester's myth represents Jane alone with him, with no room for the guiding role previously played by the moon in Jane's life. When Adele asks what Jane will eat, Rochester replies, "I shall gather manna for her morning and night" (234). When Jane grows cold, Rochester will "carry her up to a peak and lay her down on the edge of a crater" (234). Rochester pledges to fulfil each of Jane's basic needs, shelter, food, and warmth, and in so doing, creates an all-inclusive world where he makes Jane dependent on him for all her needs, just as a child is dependent on a parent for those same needs. Rochester's moon myth symbolizes his willingness to usurp the feminine order.

Significantly, Rochester has already suggested a parental role for himself by characterizing Jane in child-like terms. On numerous occasions, Rochester refers to Jane as: "little girl" (119), "child" (220), "girl-bride" (227), and "my good little girl" (231). By characterizing Jane as a child, Rochester adopts the role of the patriarchal father and attempts to become her entire world by making her dependent on him for all her needs.

As the engagement progresses, Jane begins to see Rochester as her "whole world" and as "an eclipse" between herself and God (241). The unusual use of the word "eclipse" represents Rochester's ability to become the moon and replace Nature. As Jane's own statement indicates, Rochester is now everything to her, and Jane ignores Nature's warning.

Perhaps the most significant moment where the moon clearly guides Jane is her decision to leave Rochester after she learns of the existence of Bertha Mason Rochester. After the aborted wedding, Jane dreams of the red-room at Gateshead and the moon. Jane states:

she broke forth as never a moon yet burst from cloud: a hand fist penetrated the sable folds and waved them away; then, not a moon, but a white human form shone in the azure, inclining a glorious brow earthward. It gazed and gazed and gazed on me. It spoke to my spirit: immeasurably distant was the tone, yes so near, it whispered in my heart-'My daughter, flee temptation!' 'Mother, I will'. (281)

At this pivotal moment, Jane returns to her true mother figure and gains the inner strength to leave Rochester.

Unlike the fate of the monster in Frankenstein, Jane is ultimately able to return to Rochester through the feminine retelling of Rochester's moon myth at the end of the novel in way that restores power to the maternal Nature. In his conversation with Adele, Rochester says that he will find a cave on the moon for Jane to live in with him, alone. In contrast, when Jane returns to him at Ferndean a rich woman with an inheritance, she tells Rochester: "If you won't let me live with you, I can build a house of my own close up to your door, and you may come and sit in my parlour when you want company of an evening" (382). In this retelling of the moon myth by Bronte, Jane is in control of where she lives. Similarly, Rochester also told Adele that he would feed Jane with manna. In this reinterpretation, when Rochester tells Jane that he never takes supper, Jane replies, "But you shall have some to-night. I am hungry: so are you" (384). Jane also brings him water (381). In Rochester's version, he promises to carry Jane to a volcano if she gets cold. However, at the novel's conclusion, Bronte places Jane in control of fire as well. Jane pauses in her conversation with Rochester to "make a better fire, and have the hearth swept up" (384). Ironically, due to his blindness, Rochester can barely even determine if the fire is good as he can see only "a ruddy haze" (384).

Consequently, Bronte reaffirms the position of Nature by retelling the moon myth through Jane, with her newfound inheritance, and Rochester, with his blindness and physical deformity, in a way that reasserts the power of Nature. Jane fulfils all of Rochester's needs and is no longer dependent on him for any of her needs. As a result, Rochester can no longer refuse to recognize Jane's independence. Unlike Victor, Rochester is ultimately able to find happiness with Jane without denying Nature her role. In Frankenstein, Victor cannot maintain a cooperative, coexistence with Nature while he possesses the knowledge of her secrets. However, Rochester is able to ultimately reunite with Jane through the feminine retelling of his moon myth that recognizes Jane as an independent other and reestablishes Jane's cooperative interaction with Nature.

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WORKS CITED

Mellor, Anne K. Romanticism and Gender. New York: Routledge., 1993.

Mellor, Anne K. "Possessing Nature: The Female in Frankenstein." Romanticism and Feminism. Ed. Anne K. Mellor. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1988. 220-232.

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York: Dover Publications, 1994.