Mary Shelley, with her brilliant tale of humanity's obsession with two opposing forces: creation and science, continues to attract readers with the many meanings and effects of Frankenstein on society. Frankenstein had a major influence on literature and pop culture and was a major contributor to an entirely new genre of horror. Frankenstein is best known for arguably being considered the first fully realized science fiction novel. In Frankenstein we find some of the main concepts that underlie the literary movement of Romanticism. Mary Shelley was a colleague of many Romantic poets such as her husband Percy Shelley and their friends Williamworth and Samuel Coleridge, although Frankenstein's themes are darker than their brighter subjects and poems. Yet she was very influenced by the Romantics and the Romantic period, and readers can find many examples of Romanticism in this book. Some in fact claim that Frankenstein "initiates a rethinking of Romantic rhetoric"1, or that it is a more cultured novel than the writings of other Romantics. Shelley questions and interacts with classic romantic tropes, prompting this reworking of a novel that delves deeper into societal history than it appears. For example, the introduction of Gothic ideas in Frankenstein challenges the stereotypical assumptions typical of Romanticism, giving new meaning and context to the novel. Mary Shelley challenges Romanticism by highlighting aspects of the movement while also questioning and interacting with the Romantic movement through her writing. The previous period of Enlightenment depended on reason, logic and science to give us knowledge, success and a better society. The romantics challenged this idea and changed the formula...... middle of paper......Mary. Frankenstein. Edited by DL Macdonald and Kathleen Scherf. 3rd ed. Buffalo: Broadview Press, 2010. Print. Shelley, Percy Byshe. A defense of poetry. Sydney: ReadHowYouWant Pty Ltd, 2006. Google Book. Smith, Nicole. “Themes common to Romanticism, the Enlightenment and the Renaissance.” ArticleMyriad.com. December 7, 2011. Accessed October 30, 2013. http://www.articlemyriad.com/common-themes-romanticism-enlightenment-renaissance/Spielvogel, Jackson J. “Chapter 21: Reaction, Revolution, and Romanticism, 1815-1850.” In Western Civilization Volume II: Since 1500, 632-664. Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth, 2009. Print. “Romanticism”. The Literary Network. Accessed November 1, 2013. http://www.online-literature.com/periods/romanticism.php “Characteristics of Romantic Literature.” Odessa. Accessed November 1. http://www.odessa.edu/dept/english/dsmith/rom.lit.char.pdf