The Reimagining of Classical Tropes: Isolation, Identity, and Societal Judgment in Romantic Literature and Historical Fiction

This article compares the representation of isolation, identity, and societal judgment in Romantic literature and historical fiction. It uses qualitative close reading to examine Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818), Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights (1847), and Walter Scott's Waverley (1814), supported by scholarship on Romantic affect and the historical novel. The analysis argues that these themes are shared across the selected works but are shaped by different narrative emphases. In Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights, isolation is closely associated with emotional alienation, disrupted relationships, and the struggle for recognition. In Waverley, identity and belonging are negotiated within competing political loyalties and the historical divisions surrounding the Jacobite rising of 1745. The article also shows that societal judgment operates through appearance, class, gender expectations, and political affiliation. Rather than treating Romantic literature and historical fiction as mutually exclusive categories, the study highlights their overlap and argues that both genres expose the tension between individual self-understanding and collective norms.