Mary Shelley's Frankenstein - Victor Paid for his Sins

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Victor Paid for his Sins in Frankenstein The setting for Mary Shelly's Frankenstein plays a very important role on both the significance and realism of the story. By the end of the 18th century, smallpox and cholera epidemics throughout Europe had claimed millions of lives and brought about a crisis of faith within both the Catholic and Protestant churches. The formerly profane practices of medicinal healing were only beginning to gain acceptance in major universities as hundreds of cities were put under quarantine for their diseases and high mortality rates. Interdisciplinary learning within the scientific community was unheard of. Had Victor Frankenstein been alive during this period, his practices would have been considered blasphemous. Much more so than Edward Jenner's research on smallpox during the same time, which would eventually save millions of lives in 1796. Frankenstein's intentions were good, but even during this modern age of genetic engineering and cloning, the story of his creation remains entirely evil. Contemporary thought has allowed for tremendous growth in genetic engineering in recent years; the evolution of science from the analytical engine to the modern PC has occurred thousands of times faster than the evolution of our own species, from ape to human. New medications are discovered daily. However, had Mary Shelly's proposition of "playing god" been a reality in the late 18th century, and had Victor Frankenstein been able to take this dramatic shortcut in the slow process of evolution by creating life from death, the crisis between the church and science would have been decidedly against science. Such were the sentiments of Victor's headmaster at Ingolstadt, as well as the rest of the European scientific community. Frankenstein's intentions were good. He had wanted to rid the world of genetic defects and bacterial disease by creating the perfect man. He would do so by applying electricity to the polar regions of a body, which he had constructed from pieces of freshly executed villains, while submerging them in an elemental pool of life. However, he was so driven towards his goal that he never considered the consequences of his actions. He was in many ways acting like the benefactor of Jurassic Park, hastily creating a life form without consideration of possible detriments. When Frankenstein had created his monster, he didn't know what to do with it and immediately wished it dead, but ironically he had made it so strong that it would not die.

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