Chapters 18- 20 Conclusions

Many conclusions can be drawn from chapters 18- 20 of Frankenstein. It is highly suggested in this portion of the story that Henry Clerval is a symbol of Romanticism. His love of life, adventure, and nature support this. Henry Clerval in this portion commented on how he had the goal to go to India and help with colonialization, to see the world and the people in it. This portion is reminiscent of the chapters containing the Catholic Turk Saphie, who embodied the Orientalist movement and Western ideals at the same time, through the fact that she had distinctly oriental features and music capabilities, but morals and religion of a Westerner. In this way, Henry Clerval comments on how he is planning on going to India to interact with the people, mystified with their customs and culture. But, the goal is colonialization, the reach for 'western perfection' of these exotic countries. There is again the Western bias that paints the oriental world as distinctly beautiful, with a need for Western 'intelligence'. Orientalism embodies the Romantic movement in literature, with the break from the Industrial society of that period, to that of the mystical qualities of the human self, along with nature. Henry Clerval is not a scientist, he means to travel and see the world, to go into a country that has not been industrialized, a country that embodied the mystical nature that the romantics were so enthralled with.
Another easily drawn conclusion is Henry Clerval's death, alluded to in the last few paragraphs of chapter 28, where Frankenstein breaks from the story to address Walton, and pay tribute to Henry Cerval, thus foreshadowing the characters death. From this allusion to Clerval's death, comes the foreshadowing of the death of Romanticism within Frankenstein, and therefore a foreshadowing of inevitable downfall. Throughout the novel, whenever Frankenstein has embraced romanticism, he has been momentarily saved. Whenever he has pursued his science, he created catastrophe. This catastrophe was most evident in his creation of the monster, when he had many chances to turn back, but did not. Clerval constantly brought Frankenstein out of his deep depressions, after he had steeped himself in his science, and back into the world of Romanticism. The suggestion that Frankenstein is a representation of the consequences of science, supports this conclusion. Frankenstein's creation would decide the fate of Clerval, just as the fate of romanticism would be decided by the 'monstrous' creations spawned by science, in the form of scientific discoveries, the analyzation of nature, and a departure from the earthly view of the world, into the cold view of the world through a scientist's eyes. Perhaps this implies that Frankenstein is a call to action, besides a ghost story, to tell its readers to object to science.