The Enlightenment encouraged everyone to use reason and science to free the world from barbarism and superstition. In fact, Kant maintained that "the public use of one's reason must always be free, and only it can bring enlightenment among men" (Kant 3). Enlightenment thought influenced not only philosophy and science, but also literature (especially in Pope's Essay on Man). In reaction to the rigid empiricism of the Enlightenment, Romanticism was born. In Frankenstein, Shelley argues (1) that Victor Frankenstein's role as the hero of the Enlightenment not only took him out of nature, but made him a slave to his creation; (2) that Frankenstein's role as a rebellious romantic failed because he did not take responsibility for his creation; and (3) humanity must find a balance between the Enlightenment and Romantic ideologies. In his youth Victor spent his time secluded from nature, studying books. Victor spent every hour trying to learn how to “banish disease from the human frame, and render man invulnerable to all but violent death” (Shelley, 26). He was the perfect hero of the Enlightenment, as he pursued education above all else. I declared to Captain Walton that the world was a secret to me which I wished to divine. Curiosity, serious search to learn the hidden laws of nature, joy similar to ecstasy, as they were revealed to me, are among the first sensations I can remember (22). His pursuit of knowledge became even more important when he entered Ingolstadt University. He “read ardorously” (35) and soon became “so ardent and eager that the stars often disappeared in the morning light while I was still busy in my laboratory” (35). He was a proud product of the Enlightenment… middle of the paper… or Frankenstein, he doesn't live up to his role model. He lacks compassion for his creation (perhaps a reflection on Mary's lack of faith in a benevolent deity) and shirks his moral responsibility by refusing to reveal his experiments to the community around him." (Madigan 3) Works cite “Condorcet, Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind.” The Guide to History: Lectures on Modern European Intellectual History Steven Kreis, 3 December 2006. 12 October 2014. Kant, Immanuel Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals New York: Macmillan Publishing Company 1990. Madigan, P. The Modern Project Rigor: From Descartes to Nietzsche: UP of America, 1986. Shelley, Mary or the Modern Prometheus Edited by: D. L. Macdonald and Kathleen Scherf, 3rd June edition 20, 2012