ABSTRACT

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley (1797-1851) is a famous novelist of the Romantic period. She was not only the only daughter of William Godwin, a leading reformer and radical philosopher of that time, and Mary Wollstonecraft, a radical feminist, but also the second wife of the great Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her masterpiece Frankenstein is considered as the top work of Gothic novel and the first science fiction in the modern sense. Frankenstein tells such a story, the main character Frankenstein created a monster through years of research and exploration, but finally killed by it. Frankenstein is a Gothic novel. Most Gothic novels focus on presenting irrational factors, but this novel is not only for exploring psychological phenomena like horror, despair. As a science fiction, it foresees some problems we will come across in the development of modern society, for example, the over-use of nature, which makes people think about the relationship between human and nature rationally.This paper analyzes the essence of irrationality in this novel. We should use science and technology reasonably and live in harmony with nature.

Keywords：Mary Shelley; Frankenstein; Gothic novel; science fiction; irrationality;

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

摘要

Chapter One INTRODUCTION-1

1.1 The Introduction to the Author-1

1.2The Introduction to the Novel-2

Chapter Two LITERATURE REVIEW-4

2.1 Overseas Research Status-4

2.2Domestic Research Status-4

Chapter Three ON THE IRRATIONALITY OF FRANKENSTEIN-6

3.1 The Irrationality of the Settings-6

3.1.1 The laboratory-6

3.1.2 The forest-7

3.1.3 The North Pole-7

3.2 The Irrationality of the Characters-8

3.2.1 The creator-9

3.2.2 The monster-10

3.3 The Irrationality of the Themes-12

3.3.1 The violation of natural law-13

3.3.2 The violation of social convention-13

Chapter Four CONCLUSION-15

WORKS CITED-16