The Romantic era was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement sparked towards the end of the 18th century and reached it's end at around 1850. The most famous composers of this era are pictured in the slideshow below. This era was created not only as a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, but also as a revolution against the Age of Enlightenment which had aristocratic political structures and social norms as well as the scientific ways of analyzing nature. This type of thinking was shown mostly in the arts, music, and literature. While Romanticism was associated mostly with liberalism and radicalism at it's peak, it had a greater impact on nationalism in the long run. The main characteristics of Romanticism that are present in Frankenstein are explored below.
The eerie and supernatural
The fact that Victor Frankenstein used little known practices in creating his experiment and that it worked is quite supernatural. If we were to actually attempt making a creature using his techniques it probably won't work. The conditions in which Frankenstein scourged for materials and made his creature is eerie. He went to a cemetery, using only a torch in the night to find his materials. Frankenstein's monster has supernatural abilities such as super strength. Also the fact that Frankenstein's monster spends lots of time just observing a family and trying to learn their ways is quite eerie.
Intense emotion
Not only do the characters in Frankenstein experience intense emotion, but also the readers of the novel. Victor Frankenstein himself experiences intense emotion right after he creates his monster, with the "commencement of a nervous fever which confined me [Frankenstein] for several months". (page 64) When William was lost, Frankenstein and his family all felt fear. When he was found dead and Justine was wrongly accused and hanged they grieved. All the people who saw Frankenstein's monster felt fear which lead to hatred. When Frankenstein's monster kills all of Frankenstein's loved ones, Frankenstein becomes driven only with the need for revenge against Frankenstein's monster. The readers of the novel experience intense emotions in the form of fear. It is said that Lord Byron ran from the room screaming when Mary Shelley read the story to him for the first time.
Satanic "hero"
Even though Victor Frankenstein is the main character of the novel, he isn't a hero. Not only does Frankenstein take other people's dead body parts and combine them to make a human, but he also tried to emulate God (by giving life) and failed. Unlike God who embraced his creations even though they sinned, he shunned his creation and even went so far as to try and kill him. He used unorthodox methods, that seem almost satanic, which aren't accepted in society to create his monster.
Nature vs. Science
The shunning of creating a machine, or something un-natural through science versus the glorifying of nature is shown throughout the novel. Victor Frankenstein, after creating something un-natural, a machine, sought solstice in nature. When Frankenstein defied nature and created the un-natural being, tragedy befell him and his loved ones, with everyone he loves being killed either directly or indirectly by the thing he created. This novel, in essence, shows how scientific developments against the basic laws of nature can lead to disaster.