Romanticism in The Magicians and Frankenstein

The Magicians written by Lev Grossman and Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley are 19th century Romantic narrative because of their use of Childhood Innocence, the beauty and sublime of nature, characters being Byronic Heroes, and the use of Pathetic Fallacy with both The Magicians and Frankenstein. In The Magicians, a television show, Quentin Coldwater captures the ideals of Childhood Innocence, and the qualities of a Byronic Hero. Along with the setting and his interaction with the settings all capture those three parts of Romanticism. As well as, in Frankenstein with the monster has the Childhood Innocence since he is born into the novel with no corruption by the outside world, the setting’s affect on Victor Frankenstein and his Byronic traits.

The Magicians is a contemporary example of a Romantic narrative. The main character Quentin Coldwater is the poster child of many of the Romantic ideals.  He during his childhood he wants of wanting a magical world (Fillory) and magic to be real. He never grows up from wanting this to be real even when he is applying to Graduate school people such as his best friend, Julie, and his parents continue to tell him to give up on this silly idea. For the first day or so, Quentin was happy being in nature and learning that magic is real. That he could finally become the person he wanted to be in this school surrounded by only nature. But the longer Quentin spent around people- it was the nature that did it- he began to go back to his old ways. Nature was overpowered by human presence. This is why Romantic often went out into nature alone. The solidarity of being alone in peace within vast nature made them feel the happiest that Quentin felt when he first got to Brakebills.

Within The Magicians there is an overlap or binary of the city (New York City) which is dark and depressing, Brakebills (Quentin’s University) which is light and vibrant due to the nature around it, and Fillory is energetic and airy. Fillory seems to be the most Romantic location with all the animals and creatures that can talk and give advice in a godly way. In one scene, Quentin is in Fillory and gets the help of a witch lady to help him find his friends. After a few paces on of his friends, Penny, finds him and he tells the lady he does not need her help any longer, but she still wanted payment. She said to him, “We only seem whimsical.” This shows the sublime within nature. The lady was beautiful and in essence a part of the nature of Fillory. Even in the most beautiful world and still there was a trick to her services. It is alerting that by her actions that she is supposed to be helpful, because she is apart of nature and nature is the place Romantic go to seek out help and guidance. Rather than freely help she required things in return which was frightening to Quentin because of Fillorians nature is supposed to be that of nature and peace.

Quentin is a Byronic Hero because he is a depressed soul who thinks of his own passions and dreams. He is a loner, anti-social young man who is always in his own head and ritted with insecurities and anxiety. Nothing can ever please him (just like the Romantics who lived in a constant state of ennui.) Even when he get everything he wants, he is still not happy or excited about living. An example of this is when Quentin went with Penny to seek out the White Lady (a creature that grants your wishes when you capture her.) She said to him, “What else could you possibly want?” Quentin had everything that he ever want, but that was not enough for him to be happy.

Within The Magician, the audience can tell the mood of the characters or when something bad was going to be happening based on the weather. A scene that uses Pathetic Fallacy is when Julia (Quentin’s best friend) and her online witches were trying to summon a goddess. First, we see Julia’s memory of meeting the goddess as light, and sunny, but when they restore her full memories the scene changes. The background is dark, and eerie, we see characters killed, and Julia raped. The fact that the weather changes clues us into the fact that what is happening is darker and grittier, and also leads way to how Julia feels after she finds out the goddess was actually Reynard the troublemaker.

In Frankenstein, the monster has the Childhood Innocence, he is born into the word and has to learn everything about the world on his own when his creator, Victor Frankenstein leaves him on his own.  This untampered with mind is what the Romantic loved about Childhood. In a scene we see the monster trying to save a girl, but get shot in the process because he is ugly. Even with scenes like this and people running away from him the monster kept his childlike innocence, until he could no longer retain it. The fact that he is always being abandoned plays a part in the fact that he no longer keeps his innocence.

In Frankenstein, the beauty and the sublime are in each narrator’s life. For Captain R. Walton, it is the icebergs. He writes to his sister, “... we were nearly surrounded by ice... Our situation was somewhat dangerous, especially as we were compassed round by a very thick fog” (Grimly, 9). Even in a dangerous situation, Walton could find a moment in enjoy the beauty of nature. For Frankenstein, he seems to go to nature when he needs peace such as after he killed the monster’s future wife. He went out on the water to get rid of the body, but mostly to clear his mind. The beauty is the peace he gets from being in nature. The sublime is how small he seems in comparsion to nature. The monster, also, found peace in nature because of a family who lived out in a cottage in the woods. When he revealed himself to them they (the young man that lived there)  were disgusted and ran him out. Although, he found more peace with the family’s presence they were a conduit for him understanding nature, the world around him and knowledge overall.

Frankenstein is a Byronic hero from the beginning of the novel. In the beginning, he was a desperate young man looking for knowledge anywhere he could since the untimely death of his mother. Even when he was told not to read specific books he still read them in his pursuit of knowledge, and his want to understand life and death. In the end, he becomes more of a Byronic hero in the way that he is a depressed soul hell bent on revenge like Manfred from Lord Byron (who is the original Byronic hero).

In Frankenstein, Pathetic fallacy is used in the scene where Elizabeth was killed by the monster. In the graphic version copy Gris Grimly illustrated the view of Elizabeth’s death scene. On the next page,  Victor is angry which we can see not only from the look at his face,or the black borders around the page, but also the dark background within the images.

The Magicians written by Lev Grossman and Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley are 19th century Romantic narrative because of their use of Childhood Innocence, the beauty and sublime of nature, characters being Byronic Heroes, and Pathetic fallacy.  It will continue to flourish as it always has. The importance of Childhood innocence, and Byronic hero is commonplace today. We as people relate more to the innocence or Byron type characters because they reflect more of who we are. In TV shows and movies the use of Pathetic fallacy is widely understood, and used. In almost 200 years, Romantic fiction has not slowed down or disappeared from our stories, and only evolve.

Work Cited Page:

Grossman, Lev. "The Flying Forest." The Magicians. SyFy. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 15 Feb. 2017. Television.

Shelley, Mary, and Gris Grimly. Frankenstein. New York: HarperCollins, 2013. Print.