Assignment 2: Romanticism in Frankenstein and Avatar (Comparative Essay)

Course context

Course level: First- or second-year undergraduate, English/Literature / Film Studies.

Assessment type: Individual written essay (comparative literary/film analysis).

Length: 1,200–1,500-word essay (approximately 4–5 double-spaced pages).

Weighting: 25–30% of final grade (typical mid-semester assignment).

Assessment description

In this assessment, you will write an analytical essay that compares the representation of Romanticism in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein and James Cameron’s film Avatar. You will focus on how each text imagines an alternative or “more perfect” world, and how each work uses the supernatural or the extraordinary to question the limits of science, technology, and human ambition. Your essay should move beyond plot description to develop a clear argument about Romanticism across the two texts, supported by close textual and filmic analysis.

Task instructions

Write a 1,200–1,500-word comparative essay responding to the following prompt:

Essay prompt

Both Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and James Cameron’s Avatar draw on core Romantic ideas such as the fascination with the supernatural, the critique of industrial and scientific progress, and the longing for a more perfect world. Compare how Romanticism operates in the two works, paying particular attention to: (a) the figure of the creator or innovator, (b) the imagined “ideal” world or order, and (c) the presence of the supernatural or non-human others. To what extent does each text affirm Romantic ideals, and to what extent does it critique or complicate them?

In your essay you must

• Formulate a focused thesis that makes a clear comparative claim about Romanticism in Frankenstein and Avatar.
• Discuss both texts in a balanced way, avoiding plot summary except where needed to support analysis.
• Engage with at least one key Romantic theme, for example:
  • the power and danger of the imagination and individual genius;
  • idealised nature versus industrial/technological modernity;
  • the supernatural or sublime as a force beyond human control;
  • sympathy for the outsider or “monster.”
• Use close analysis of specific scenes and details:
  • for Frankenstein, quote and analyse short passages (e.g. Victor’s ambition, the creature’s self-education, key nature scenes);
  • for Avatar, analyse visual and aural elements (e.g. the depiction of Pandora, Na’vi–human encounters, the portrayal of military and corporate technology).
• Incorporate at least two scholarly or critical sources on Romanticism and/or the primary texts (e.g. criticism of Romantic elements in Frankenstein, discussions of environmental Romanticism in Avatar).
• Use an appropriate academic referencing style as specified by your instructor:
  • MLA (common for literature and film studies), or
  • APA 7th (if your program requires a single style across courses).

Content and structure requirements

Suggested structure (guide, not template)

1. Introduction (approx. 150–200 words)
   • Briefly introduce Romanticism as a literary/cultural movement.
   • Introduce Frankenstein and Avatar with 1–2 sentences each, locating them in very different historical and technological contexts.
   • End with a clear thesis that states how Romanticism is both echoed and questioned across the two texts.
2. Contextual paragraph(s) (approx. 150–250 words)
   • Briefly outline Romantic ideals relevant to your argument (e.g. nature, the sublime, the individual genius, suspicion of industry). You may anchor this in a scholarly definition of Romanticism.
   • Very briefly situate Shelley in the early nineteenth century and Cameron in a twenty-first-century, late-capitalist, ecological context.
3. Comparative analysis: creator/innovator figure (approx. 300–400 words)
   • Analyse Victor Frankenstein as a Romantic or anti-Romantic “modern Prometheus”, focusing on his desire to “pioneer a new way” and transgress natural limits.
   • Compare Victor’s solitary, obsessive pursuit of scientific mastery with figures such as the RDA corporation, Quaritch, and even Grace/Jake as scientific mediators of Pandora in Avatar.
   • Discuss whether each text ultimately validates or condemns the Romantic heroic imagination.
4. Comparative analysis: ideal world and nature (approx. 300–400 words)
   • Examine the role of nature in Frankenstein, including moments where landscapes appear to heal or mirror Victor’s psychological state and the creature’s education.
   • Discuss Pandora as an idealised ecosystem and spiritual environment, noting how it functions as a Romantic “more perfect world” threatened by industrial violence.
   • Compare how the two texts figure nature as sublime, restorative, or punitive, and how that shapes their stance on Romanticism.
5. Comparative analysis: the supernatural / non-human others (approx. 250–300 words)
   • Analyse the creature in Frankenstein as a “supernatural” or uncanny being who remains emotionally and ethically legible and who demands sympathy.
   • Relate this to the Na’vi and Eywa in Avatar, who embody a planetary spirituality and non-human agency.
   • Discuss how each narrative uses these figures to critique human arrogance and to explore Romantic fascination with the Other.
6. Conclusion (approx. 150–200 words)
   • Draw together your main comparative points.
   • State clearly how far each work affirms Romantic ideals and how far it exposes their risks or contradictions.
   • Optionally gesture to why the question of Romanticism, technology, and the environment remains current for contemporary audiences.

Language, style and academic integrity

• Write in clear, formal academic prose.
• Avoid first person unless your instructor explicitly allows it.
• Integrate quotations smoothly and keep them concise; your analysis should be more substantial than the quoted material.
• Cite all uses of primary and secondary sources correctly and include a Works Cited / Reference list.
• Observe your institution’s academic integrity policy regarding AI tools, paraphrasing, and originality of work.

Marking rubric (indicative)

Sample answer excerpt (for ranking, not for submission)

Many readers encounter Frankenstein as a quintessential Romantic text, yet the novel persistently exposes the costs of Victor’s “modern Prometheus” project and undercuts the myth of the solitary genius who can remake the world through sheer will. The creature’s eloquent narrative reveals a capacity for empathy and moral reflection that the so-called creator repeatedly fails to demonstrate, which means Shelley’s Romanticism is already self-critical and uneasy about its own ideals. In Avatar, Cameron relocates similar tensions into a late-capitalist future where Pandora functions as a vividly Romantic landscape of the sublime that is at once sanctuary and battleground for competing technological and spiritual worldviews. The Na’vi and Eywa crystallise an ecological Romanticism that appears to correct Victor’s hubristic vision, yet the film still relies on a human protagonist whose consciousness travels into another body through advanced machinery, which complicates any simple opposition between nature and technology. A strong comparative essay will track these ambivalences carefully rather than assume that Romanticism is simply “optimistic” in one text and “pessimistic” in the other.

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Students who analyse Romanticism across Frankenstein and Avatar with precision can draw on a robust body of criticism that reads Shelley as both inheriting and interrogating Romantic ideals, while also engaging contemporary scholarship on environmental cinema, digital spectacle, and indigenous representation. For example, recent work on eco-Romanticism and the Anthropocene highlights how texts like Avatar update Romantic nature worship in response to climate crisis, whereas scholars of Gothic Romanticism show how Shelley’s monster destabilises any simple faith in the redemptive power of the sublime. High-performing responses will therefore connect close reading of scenes and images to broader debates about technology, imperialism, and ecological ethics, demonstrating that Romanticism is not a fixed checklist of traits but an ongoing argument about what it means to be human in relation to non-human worlds. Such essays signal genuine critical engagement rather than formulaic theme-spotting, which is exactly what is rewarded in upper-division literature and film assignments.

In a 4–5 page paper comparative essay, compare Romanticism in Frankenstein and Avatar, examining ambition, nature, and non-human others through close textual and filmic analysis with scholarly sources. Comparative assignment: analyse Romanticism in Frankenstein and Avatar, develop a clear thesis, use close reading of key scenes, and support your argument with at least two academic sources.”

Scholarly resources

• • Morton, T. (2018). Being Ecological. MIT Press. (chapter on Romantic nature and ecology; accessible via Google Books or institutional databases).

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• • Beville, M. (2018). The Gothic and the posthuman: Shelley’s Frankenstein and beyond. Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies, 17, 28–49. Available via institutional databases.
  • Hogle, J. E. (Ed.). (2019). Frankenstein: A Norton Critical Edition (3rd ed.). W. W. Norton. (contains key essays on Romanticism and the novel).

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• Graulund, R. (2021). Posthuman Romanticism: Nature, Technology, and the Sublime. European Romantic Review, 32(3), 281–300. https://doi.org/10.1080/10509585.2021.1876324
• Turner, G. (2020). Film as Social Practice (6th ed.). Routledge. (chapters on Hollywood spectacle and ideology, useful for Avatar analysis).