Book Club

Frankenstein reflects the Romantic period of England which this novel was written during. In the novel there are two main characteristics of the Romantic period that are reflected. The use of nature is very reflective of the Romantic period and it shows up a lot in Frankenstein. In the novel, when the characters search for peace, quiet, and insight on something they usually go to the woods or victor would go to the mountains. This reflects Romanticism because there was a big focus on nature and the sort of power it contains. It also reflects Romanticism in that it has Enlightenment-style ideas that play major roles in the novel. For instance, Victor's unquenchable thirst for knowledge that lead him to create the monster, this is a very Enlightenment-style idea. Enlightenment ideas were very popular throughout the Romantic period.

In The Time Machine there are a variety of Victorian ideas that are represented. Class issues were very important during the Victorian Era, and also in the novel. The entire future state was based on a very polarized class system with the workers which have evolved into flesh eating monsters and the upper class which evolved into a weak race of consumers. Another characteristic of the Victorian period in the novel is the focus on the individual's occupation more than them themselves. We see this in The Time Machine because a majority of the characters' names weren't even names, they were just they're jobs or what we would know them for if we lived in the community.