ABSTRACT
The experience of space is crucial for Romantic approaches to the understanding of human nature. Frankenstein is deeply preoccupied with the boundaries of that which makes us human, in the biological and moral senses of the term. The attempt to map inner geography was a new approach to the understanding of human nature. For Romantic attempts to grasp the nature of perception and intuition, geographic space is used frequently as a metaphor but, almost without fail, a metaphor that indicates vast distances, particularly from one's point of origin. The scientific advancements of Frankenstein's age discredit traditional fantasies about the real existence of heaven and hell, but they claim to furnish the machinery that gives access to the secrets represented by the metaphorical locations of 'heaven' and 'hell'. The chapter analyzes the tensions in Frankenstein between an uncompromising, life-denying quest for absolutes and attempts to explore and demarcate the spaces that enable healthy growth and development.
