a Tintern of events

Benjamin Williams Leader Paintings, Tintern Abbey, 1831-1923

          The sounding cataract
Haunted him like a passion: the tall rock,
The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,
Their colours and their forms, were then to him
An appetite; a feeling and a love,
That had no need of a remoter charm,
By thought supplied, or any interest
Unborrow'd from the eye.


In this passage from Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey, the narrator recalls how he felt about nature when he was younger. According to him, nature no longer interests him as an "appetite" needed to be satisfied. Appetite can be defined as an instinctive physical desire, a strong wish or urge. However, his words are hypocritical to how he described nature as a boy.

Earlier in the poem, he had mentioned how his ventures into nature were "more like a man flying from something that he dreads, than one who sought the thing he loved" (Wordsworth 71-73). Nature when he was younger, therefore, was more of an escape than a place of desire. Even as he grew older and mature, Wordsworth began to immerse himself into nature in an attempt to realize his own sense of self, allowing nature to serve as a protective barrier. He described nature as "the anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, the guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul of all my moral being" (Wordsworth 110-112). 

Shelley's characters in Frankenstein were largely influenced by nature. The passage from Tintern Abbey was specifically quoted when Frankenstein and Clerval were traveling down the Rhine; Frankenstein was bothered by his task to create a female counterpart for his creation, and Clerval was fascinated by the landscape and scenery surrounding him. However, Clerval was enjoying nature not as a means of escape but rather out of admiration for the setting: "'This is what it is to live,' he cried; 'now I enjoy existence!'" (Shelley 112). As for Frankenstein, his interest in his friend's reaction towards the natural world acted as an escape; his friend's delight allowed Frankenstein to momentarily forget the stressful situation he was in. 

Following the passage of the poem, Wordsworth spoke of how that time was past, "and all its aching joys are now no more, and all its dizzy raptures" (Wordsworth 85-86). It's difficult to understand whether it's the present or the past that the narrator finds more favorable; despite equating nature to love, he also characterized it as having "aching joys." I believe that the joys are aching because they're reminders of simpler times, back when Wordsworth still had his innocence and youth. In a way, this could be equal to the memories Frankenstein had of his friend while they were traveling down the Rhine. As those days were the days he was happiest yet they reminded him of the last days he spent with Clerval, his memories could be described as "aching joys" as well.

Tintern Abbey as a whole was a story focusing on external nature versus internal nature, where the focus shifted from the physical aspects of the natural world to the hidden meaning and significance of it all. In relation to Frankenstein, this conflict between external and internal is similar to the characteristics of both Frankenstein and his creation and the war they have concerning their outward appearances and their inner desires.