Fully defining the sublime seems to lead to an almost endless compilation of puzzle pieces, all of which fill only a small part of the final picture. Edmund Burke attempts to piece together an authoritative definition of the sublime – and the human experience that accompanies it – in A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful. Burke's definition proclaims that "everything that is terrible in any way" (Burke 499) invokes the sublime, which he considers "the strongest emotion that the mind is capable of feeling" (Burke 499). In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the monster illustrates the Burkean sublime. Shelley's descriptions of the monster and its actions are consistent with Burke's definitions and his categories of darkness, power, terror, difficulty, and immensity, each of which facilitates sublime experiences. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Additionally, the monster arouses feelings of extreme fear, astonishment, and terror (each of which is necessary for Burke) in Victor, Walton, and the De Lacey family. , but in no case harm or kill them. By not inflicting direct physical harm on the characters above, the monster maintains its power and dangerousness at a "certain distance" (Burke 500), which satisfies Burke's requirement for delightful astonishment of sublimity. The monster further embodies the sublime due to its perpetual liminal state. The monster is elementally human, but remains an inhuman creation; physically immense, but recounts his experience of learning to read and speak as a child would. Liminality contributes to Burke's concept of the Darkness that causes the sublime experience. Even the monster's ultimate ending retains an air of the sublime, as Shelley never clearly states what is happening beyond Walton's vision. In A Philosophical Inquiry (from Difficulty), Burke states: "When a work seems to have required immense strength and labor to carry it out, the idea is grandiose" (503). The great effort Victor expended in assembling and bringing to life the monster of Frankenstein Chapter IV is nothing less than the difficulty Burke deems sufficient to create a sublime experience. Victor reflects on the process by which he created the monster and the emotional experience. Shelley writes: “No one can conceive the variety of feelings which swept me, like a hurricane, in the first enthusiasm of success” (32). Victor cannot adequately describe the emotional attachment he has to his creation and the difficulty of the endeavor, and defaults to a metaphorical hurricane. The power and force of a hurricane seems to adhere to Burke's notion of experiencing the strongest possible emotion as a result of the sublime, which alludes to the inherent sublimity of the monster. As the monster comes to life, the sublime effect on Victor becomes apparent in the following lines: I had worked hard for nearly two years, with the sole aim of breathing life into an inanimate body but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream faded, and breathtaking horror and disgust filled my heart (Shelley 34). The monster's appearance overwhelms Victor, reminding him of the incredible effort - "worked hard for nearly two years" - that he has invested in something he does not consider beautiful. Victor's disappointment with the monster's form fills him with an almost painful fear that resembles the sublime astonishment postulated by Burke in the section: On the Passion Aroused by the Sublime. Even as the monster lies motionless on the table, Victor overflowsof a discouraging and powerful emotion, simply sublime. The physical construction of the monster further fits Burke's image of the sublime in Difficulty, as "its yellow skin barely covered the working muscles and arteries beneath" (Shelley 34) fits the concept that "the grossness of the work increases the cause of greatness” (Burke 503).Although the monster lives, its incomplete form with its exposed muscles robs it of any semblance of perfection, and thus makes its creation even more sublimely Burkean. Imperfection seems to be a precept of the horror genre, making a single frightening flaw or eccentricity the root of danger. Darkness is another source of sublime events in Burke. His definition extends beyond the unknown, citing the natural apprehension that comes with vagueness. The monster is ultimately “the dark, confused, uncertain image” (Burke 501) that has “greater power” according to Burke. The monster's body, composed of several different bodies sewn together and reanimated, remains an obscure example of humanity. He is both a living being and an undead combination of other beings. How can we reconcile the question of its true state without considering the importance of obscurity? In volume II, chapter IV of Frankenstein, the monster recounts his first months of life in the hovel among the chalets and his experience of learning about the world: "I discovered the names which were given to some of the objects of discourse the most familiar: I learned and applied the words fire, milk, bread and wood” (Shelley 75). This quote is relevant to Burke's notion of darkness in two ways. First, given the monster's size, "about eight feet tall and proportionately large" (Shelley 32), the idea that he still needed to learn the basic principles of language seems problematic. The type of elemental learning that the monster describes participating in indicates that at the time described in the quote, he would have had the intellect of a child and the form of a giant man. This confusion between external appearance and internal reality seems representative of obscurity in the Burkean sense. Another important aspect of the quote on page 75 concerns diction. The inclusion of the words “discovered,” “discourse,” and “applied” indicates an eloquence that readers do not normally associate with monsters. Arguably, the disparity between a monstrous form and an eloquent tongue responds to the example Burke sets in the darkness. The monster's true nature is uncertain and confusing as it straddles the line between human and inhuman. Plus, the monster is literally nameless. Throughout the novel, he is only referred to as "the monster". Its anonymous nature complements its obscurity of form and makes it difficult, if not impossible, to discern completely. Because of the monster's darkness, he wields great power (as Burke might say) due to the inability of others to discern and understand him, leading to the fearful thoughts that accompany the sublime. Another Burkean facet of the sublime is immensity. Burke states: "The greatness of dimension is a powerful cause of the sublime greatness of dimension, the immensity of extent, or quantity, has the most striking effect" (502), which applies intuitively to Victor's monster and his physical form. As previously stated, the size of the monster, nearly eight feet tall and proportionately large, a "being of gigantic stature" (Shelley 32), clearly demonstrates the immensity of the monster. Besides being obviously intimidating in size, the monster's proportional size indicates an even greater mass. Only the dimensions of the monster demand attention and embody an undeniable immensity. When imagining a human or creature of this size,the reader must accept that such a creation would arouse intense admiration and astonishment. Throughout the novel, Shelley returns to descriptions of the monster's extent and a notable example occurs near the end of the novel when Walton, a ship captain trapped in the Arctic and Victor's new acquaintance, first sees times the monster itself. which I cannot find words to describe; gigantic in stature, but crude and distorted in its proportions” (Shelley 152). After recognizing the creature's large size, Walton "involuntarily closes his eyes" (152) and attempts to remember himself. The intense physical reaction to the monster that Walton describes parallels the kind of powerful emotional response that Burke derives from sublime incidence. By its appearance, the monster illustrates the concept of immensity and responds well to the definition of the sublime given by Burke. In studying the qualities of power and terror of the sublime described by Burke, the monster seems, almost elementary, to characterize both. Victor's monster is undeniably terrible, causing extreme fear in Victor and Walton, as cited above. The “breathtaking horror and disgust” (Shelley 34) that Victor feels at the first sight of the living monster clearly amounts to fear, or for Burke's sake, terror. Walton calls the monster's appearance "terrible hideousness" (152) and his reaction can only be seen as terrible fear. The terror that the monster arouses in the people who see it remains true to Burke's belief that fear can induce the sublime. Furthermore, Burke argues: “Whatever is terrible, as regards sight, is equally sublime” (501). Given the monster's gruesome, gigantic, and disturbing appearance, it easily fits Burke's idea of ​​something visually terrible, which makes the monster inherently sublime. . The monster is also the ultimate “modification of power” (Burke 501) and this intensifies the danger and fear, which lead to the sublime. The ease with which the monster extinguishes the lives of Victor's friends and loved ones shows the power the monster possesses. In volume II, chapter VII of Frankenstein, the monster describes his encounter and the murder of Victor's brother, William, the child was still struggling, and charged me with epithets that carried despair to my heart: I grabbed his throat to silence him, and in an instant he lay dead at my feet (Shelley 97). The monster grabs William's throat only to try to calm him down, but because of the great power he possesses, the child dies. Although the monster reacts strongly to his murderous work, the way his attempt to silence William failed seems to indicate that even the monster cannot predict the power he has. The monster also moves quickly and powerfully, as it pursues Victor, and Shelley describes it, "advancing towards Victor with superhuman speed. The monster leapt over the crevices in the ice, among which Victor had been walking cautiously" (65). The qualifier “superhuman” seems particularly relevant in reference to the power possessed by the monster. By surpassing the abilities normally attributed to humans, the monster demonstrates sublime power. Imagining such an event almost instantly arouses astonishment and raises the question of how such an incredibly robust creature could have existed. The superhuman speed is one that would also arouse terror and fear in the viewer, who might wonder if such speed would not be used against him. For Burke, the fear intrinsic to the sublime arises “wherever we find strength, and in what light we regard power” (502), which is “the concomitant of terror” (502). Thus, any force that, 1996.