The Story of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

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The story of Frankenstein is a warning to the discovery of science. Mary Shelley was interested in science and she did lots of researches in the 19 the century to create this novel “Frankenstein”. Shelley shows the reader, how the desire to learn and utilize knowledge and technology to help mankind and if not utilized carefully can harm and destroy mankind.

In Frankenstein, Shelley relays the role of science through Victor, an isolated scientist. “Her vision of the isolated scientist discovering the secrets of life is no mere fantasy but a plausible prediction of what science might accomplish.” (Mellor,1988:89). Shelley introduces Victor Frankenstein story and the discovery of the creature by the use of science and technology. This is a perfect example of incomplete scientific knowledge that led to a burden on one’s life. Shelley points out that Victor has a good knowledge of physical world but not about the emotional world. Shelley also conveys the nature of humanity through Victor and the creature he created.

Victor Frankenstein,due to his love for science created a creature with human qualities, but larger in size. The creature has emotions, feelings of joy, sorrow and happiness. The creature is rejected by humankind due to his large appearance. The creature lacked companionship. The creature transforms into a monster, Victor then decides to destroy monster, but in turn, monster threatened Victor to create companion for him. Victor is between two responsibilities. The first responsibility is towards his creation and the second responsibility towards mankind, who is now frightened. At last Victor decided not to create another creature as a companion. The monster finds himself isolated due to large appearance, but he tries to interact with DeLacey’s family. The monster educates himself but he still feels neglected. By this time, monster brought misery to the creator Victor. Shelley uses Victor to show that science is good to know, but the consequences are uncontrollable. It is obvious that the story is a rejection to Romantic literature. Shelly used the monster to warn the rest of the world of the problems created with the evils of science and its developments. Science is an important subject in Shelley’s time period, but she thinks it creates evil and not important in day to day life.

“She used this knowledge both to analyse and to criticize the more dangerous implications of the scientific method and its practical results”(Mellor, 1988:89).

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