Conversations with the Supernatural: Imagination, Satire and Ambiguous Fantasy in the Works of Washington Irving and Mary Shelley
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Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Washington Irving’s short stories challenge the rules of nature, ‘excit[ing] a feeling, analogous to that of the supernatural, by awakening the mind’s attention to the lethargy of custom and directing it to…the wonders of the world’ (Coleridge 527). Shelley’s Frankenstein, written following the age of the Enlightenment and rational thought, comments on the dangers of science, as well as the conditioning of society on individuals. Therefore, although Shelley’s supernatural creature is accepted as a reality in her novel, its purpose alludes to Shelley’s own comments on society. This limits the novel’s ability to fully commit to the supernatural and convince readers to accept its fantasies and the creature’s existence as reality within the text. In comparison, Irving’s short stories provide a tension – his references to German folktales allow the reader to indulge in their imagination, whilst providing constant questions throughout as to whether he has fully committed to the reality of the supernatural. This essay will therefore argue that both authors do not dedicate themselves to the existence of the supernatural, but rather its allusions. Instead, by stimulating the ‘strongest emotions which the mind is capable of feeling’ (Burke 59), the authors highlight their socio-political perceptions. Shelley comments on her distrust in the progressions of science, whereas Irving mourns the disregard for America’s primitive Dutch past in favour of American idealism following the American War of Independence.
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