According to the critical essay on the Overview of Frankenstein by George V. Griffith, "Frankenstein typifies the most important ideas of the Romantic era, among them the primacy of feelings, the dangers of intellect, dismay over the human capacity to corrupt our natural goodness, the agony of the questing, solitary hero, and the awesome power of the sublime." Griffith points out the fact that Frankenstein displays these ideas of the Romantic era through Victor Frankenstein and through the monster, which at times he believes are the same person. Because according to Freudian readings the monster is what is internally inside Frankenstein only that the monster acts upon what he feels, which is basically the idea of the dismay over the human capacity to corrupt our natural goodness as well as the primacy of feelings. The idea of feelings being a primary issue in the Romantic era is displayed through the monster because he is described as being a child without a choice of being born and basically just wanting to be loved by someone, which shows the primacy of feelings. An example of an idea of the dangers of intellect would be through Frankenstein, to whom "life and death appeared ideal bounds" to be broken through, whom succeeds in his intellectual pursuit but at great cost, because in the end he not only loses his brother, wife, and best friend, he also ends up being the most alienated. Griffith also points out another idea of the Romantic era and this is, "that the monster sees in the De Laceys the loving family he has never known and their simple cottage life as a model of the happily primitive which the Romantics idealized." In a nutshell, Griffith focuses on the ideas of the Romantic Era and describes how they are all in Frankenstein and gives input on other ideas such as how the life of the author is basically being told in some sections of the novel. .
The critical essay in my opinion was straight to the point.
