Shelleys Mont Blanc What Is the Mountain Outside of the...

Percy Shelley encountered in Nature a phenomenon which for him recreated the clear, cognizant thinking unlocked only in dreams. His excursion to the valley of Charmonix in the south of France resulted in the awe inspiring sight of Mont Blanc actively challenging his knowledge of the limits of the human mind, allowing a murky idealism inspired by the philosopher David Hume to come to the forefront of his writing. He questioned outright whether the mountain, or at least his interpretation of it, existed outside of the imaginings of his mind. Though his conclusion may have been infinitely doubtful, his thesis was clear: there can exist no purely objective reality. Though the physicality of the mountain was unquestionable, its true†¦show more content†¦It is a process in which what he sees informs him, and thus he informs what he sees. This process by which Shelley receives the mountain in waves is exactly how he relates it to us: in sublime bursts and raves. Indeed, the entire functioning of the mountain is based on this circular philosophy, the cycle of destruction and regeneration with no regard for life. As Shelley muses, ?So much of life and joy is lost.? Ultimately, in the event that there is no God, it is Nature that reconciles us through this process to life and death. What amount of this is revelation to Shelley through the omnipotence of the mountain, and what amount of knowledge did he already have within him? The mountain as Shelley defines it, with these questions of life and death, is purely his own creation. We may reason that it is just a mountain, a physical existence, no less and no more. But for Shelley the mountain embodies all the thoughts he has projected onto it and all those in turn which it has exchanged with him. At the end of the poem, he begs: And what were thou, and earth, and stars, and sea, If to the human mind s imaginings Silence and solitude were vacancy? Evidently Shelley s verse demands closer analysis than that of Wordsworth, for he is dealing with a deep psychology in hisShow MoreRelated Millennial Themes in The Prelude and Mont Blanc Essay1534 Words   |  7 PagesMillennial Themes in The Prelude and Mont Blanc On reading Book VI of Wordsworths thirteen-part version of The Prelude, I was particularly struck by the passage in which, following his crossing of the Alps, the poet describes the sick sight / And giddy prospect of the raging stream (VI. 564-565) of the Arve Ravine as both an apocalyptic foreboding and an expression of millennial unity in his theory of the One Mind: The unfettered clouds and region of the heavens, Tumult and peace,Read MoreThe Feelings Of Nature And Man1614 Words   |  7 Pages The Feelings of Nature and Man Shelley’s novel Frankenstein really describes Victor Frankenstein’s state of mind as it impacts the thematic movement of the novel, using light, color, speed, temperature, sound and smell. The similarities that are used in Shelley’s novel between Frankenstein’s feelings and the landscapes he describes are striking. Victor Frankenstein, a man with great determination and pride, had a strong desire to prove people wrong that he could create life. Trying to successfullyRead MoreAmerican War Of Independence And The French Revolution Essay1755 Words   |  8 Pagesfeeling† (14) of the reader. Their â€Å"glorification of the ordinary† (16) gives familiar context to the extremes. William Wordsworth said that â€Å"ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual aspect† (17), and it is this kind of thinking that makes up romanticism. Romantics wrote in response to what transpired around them. The most significant event of this time was the French Revolution, which fit into and formed the ideas that created Romanticism. â€Å"Imagination! — lifting up itselfRead MoreRomantic Elements in Frankenstein and the Fall of the House of Usher3538 Words   |  15 PagesRomantic elements in Frankenstein and The Fall of the House of Usher Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, and Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, The Fall of the House of Usher, although published in different periods, on different continents, have in common many of the main ideas that stood behind the literary movement of Romanticism (the sublime, the Romantic hero, imagination, isolation), combined with elements of the Gothic (the mysterious and remote setting dominated by a gloomy atmosphereRead More The Sublime in Tintern Abbey Essay3280 Words   |  14 PagesSituated prior to and directly within this conceptual fabric is the contentious debate taking place between deism and pantheism. Wordsworths Tintern Abbey seems to adopt or at least imply a pantheistic stance. What does the speaker mean in declaring we see into the life of things (50)? And what is he referring to when he notes that there is a motion and a spirit that impels / All thinking things (101-102)? I use this preliminary sample as a starting point to my cursory talk about the sublime. I dont