Shelley's use of Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey"

In her most famous work Frankenstein, Mary Shelley directly quoted Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey", a poem depicting the changing effects that nature has on Wordsworth and how Wordsworth himself changes.  Wordsworth begins by describing his first experience with nature.  He talks about the overwhelming joy that he felt being with nature in his youth and how the physical beauty of nature gave him that joy.  He then transitions from this state of overwhelming emotion and talks about his time away from nature, and how from time to time, the memory of nature and the  feelings nature gave him gives him comfort and allows him to understand nature in a deeper sense.  When he returns to nature, he knows that he will never again experience the joy that characterized his youthful days but he appreciates his new found understanding and looks hopefully to his sister to, when he is gone, experience the same joy and enlightenment he did and remembers him through it.

 Shelley included lines from the poem while telling the story of Victor's and Clerval's travels in Europe when they themselves were heavily impacted by nature.  Shelley alluded to Wordsworth's poem here because at this point in the story, the state of mind of both Victor and Clerval can be perfectly described by the multiple selves of Wordsworth in Tintern Abbey.  In the poem, Wordsworth first describes his first encounters with nature in his "boyish days" and how the encounter is almost emotionally overwhelming.  The ecstasy instilled into Wordsworth's first 'self' by nature can also be seen in Clerval as the duo travel through Europe.  Before she quoted the poem, Shelley described Clerval's state of mind: "His soul overflowed with ardent affects, and his friendship was of that devoted and wondrous nature that the worldly minded teach us to look for only in imagination" (Shelley 139).  Like Wordsworth was during his first encounter with nature, Clerval is overwhelmed with joy as he allows his emotions to run wild and free, unlike Victor.

The reason Victor accompanies Clerval on his journey is promise to create, for the creature, a female companion.  Victor needs to escape from society to begin his work.  Throughout the entire trip, while Clerval is left to freely enjoy the scenery and landscape, Victor has the weight of his conscience on his shoulder.  The effects nature has on Victor differs greatly from its effects on Clerval.  While Clerval "observed the scenery with an eye of feeling and delight" (138) in his journal, Victor is "haunted by a curse that shut up ever avenue to enjoyment".  Victor seems to be more disconnected from nature than Clerval is as instead of engrossing himself in all the beauties of nature, he worries about the task at hand.  Like Wordsworth's more transcended self, however, Victor does not dismiss the beauties that are in front of him.  While he knows that he himself will never enjoy nature the same way Clerval does, Victor looks onto Clerval with hope, just as Wordsworth did to his sister.