#1
When talking about enlightenment, we usually means the time during the 18th century.
the background in the 18th century.
In 18th century, the bourgeois revolution has ended. But there are some remains. So people stand up to strive to bring the revolution to an end by clearing away the feudal remnants and replace them with bourgeois ideology. This is the original purpose of English Enlightenment. After the industry revolution, the economic developed.
People had spare time to do more Social public activity. They went to pubs and clubs to discuss and share their life experience, current affairs, and even gossip. People had spare time to appreciate essays, poems and novels. So the literature developed quickly at this time.
The enlightenment movement started in France. The enlighteners believed that when reason served as the yardstick for the measurement of all human activities and relations. The movement swept through the whole Western Europe. Then it influenced Britain a lot.
So the home and abroad situation stimulates British literature.
And also, the purpose of Enlightenment was to enlighten the whole world with the modern philosophical and artistic ideas. The philosophy of the enlighteners, through rational and materialistic in its essence, include of sentiments as a means of perception and learning.
The last one, the enlighteners believed that human beings were limited, imperfect, and yet capable of rationality and perfection through education. So they advocated universal education.
British author Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" may be the earliest response to this drastic change one of the important literary works. The novel is considered a 'science fiction' of the originator, but also to ghosts, the paranormal theme of the 'Gothic novel' important representative.
In the novel, exploring the mysteries of life and how Doctor Victor Frankenstein a series of research and experiments, and successful use of non-living matter to create life. He has a humanoid body to create a "monster", after the birth of this monster made many terrible things and caused a series of disasters. The content of this novel has to invoke the eighteenth century life on the physiology, said, John Lock and David Hume and other empiricist philosophers philosophy advocated theory of mind, and mapping the anatomy of contemporary flourish and pathological anatomy.
At the turn century " a precognition upon the great enlightenment" of the danger the world was about to face on account of humanity being enslaved by the power of material civilization. people felt that something had to be done to save the world from becoming a Frankenstein's monster.
Book with a distinctive and dramatic way, showing any manipulation of natural science the deep anxiety, and above the traditional statement of the science of strong religious and moral concerns, but also contains the moral responsibility of scientists soul-searching.
Hobbes, from England, wrote the Leviathan.He obeserved that people are generally bad.But in the book Frankenstein, Shelley didn't show this, she shows us that the monster is good at the first.He is just too sad that no one can accept him, because he is too ugly. 
