Although technology seems like the solution to creating the perfect being, the consequence of going against nature is something humans are not ready to handle ethically or morally. I will be using evidence from Jonathan Padley to introduce the idea of the sublime: how something so perfect and beautiful crosses the line into something ugly and detestable. I will then use Thomas Vargish to show how the monster is out of control ethically. The next thing that I will demonstrate is the creators/parents coming to terms as being morally responsible for their creations. I will then demonstrate how the scientist taking a step back and reflecting on how his creation means his downfall. Jonathan Padley, author of “Frankenstein and (Sublime) Creation, utilizes the discourses of sublimity to explicate what is so uniquely horrifying about such imaginative interferences as Victor Frankenstein’s monster. He …show more content…
expresses how aesthetics become more important than the scientific achievement in the novel and thusly ponders why the name Frankenstein is associated with those who carry out “aesthetic transgressions using scientific creative methods” (Padley 198). Padley continues his contentions in defining and detailing sublime, natural, and unnatural. For example, he states, “the sublime is incomparable, it is of a greatness with relation to which all others are “small,” that is, are not of the same order whatsoever, and are therefore no longer comparable” (qtd. in Padley 199). In other words, once an item, person, or “creature” has surpassed the level on which to compare, then that person, thing, or creature has reached the level of sublimity. (Add the quote of when he calls the pieces beautiful) Thomas Vargish, author of “Technology and Impotence in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein”, complicates matters further when he writes that technology essentially interferes with ethics, values, morals, and human freedom. He analyses Frankenstein in terms of how our technology dictates our lives, in some cases, leading us far beyond ethical considerations. Vargish states that “the effect of technology on human action, its influences on individual choice and institutional change, is the knotty center of its relation to our freedom, to our autonomy” (Vargish 323). He claims that technology poses a threat to our independence and it is at the center of our fears. From this assertion, he goes on to explore, at length, how the Frankenstein myth contributed to “the myth of technological abortion or “monster” ranging out of ethical control” and it “has continued to grow” (Vargish 324). Vargish’s point is that the “monster” learns what is right and wrong, and he commits first to doing what is right as observed in his assisting the cottagers, but once he is shunned and abhorred he resigns himself to do wrong or that which is deemed unethical. In his recollections of his parents Victor Frankenstein recalls: “I was their child, the innocent and helpless creature bestowed on them by Heaven, whom to bring up to good, and whose future lot it was in their hands to direct to happiness or misery. With this deep consciousness of what they owed towards the being to which they had given life” (Shelly 29). Frankenstein regales the Captain with his humble beginnings in Naples and presents their bond through his eyes in which he refers to himself as an “innocent and helpless creature;” he notes that they were the ones responsible for bringing him up “good” and directing his future to “happiness or misery.” Frankenstein began life as a natural, untouched, organic being who had not been contaminated by the pursuit of knowledge and technology; and he was good. However, Frankenstein’s obsession with and addition of technology ruined his “happiness” and transformed his life to one filled with misery. Shortly after making the statements of his being a creature, Frankenstein refers to his parents as being “agents and creators” (Shelly 33). The way that he speaks of his parents is stale, disconnected, and mechanical; he does not refer to them in a loving manner as father and mother. Frankenstein’s feelings of otherness are apparent in his marveling at his own resilience which he does throughout the novel: “Of what materials was I made, that I could thus resist so many shocks, which like the turning of the wheel, continually renewed the torture” (Shelly 157). Here, Frankenstein complicates to the idea of his being “created” and something other than a natural human being. One might deduce that he was more like his creature/child than not because Frankenstein refers to himself as “creature,” to his parents as “creators,” and questions the “materials” with which he was “made.” In being the creature of his creators or parents, Frankenstein sympathizes with his own creature/child/; he even begins to take on responsibility for the acts that his creature/child has committed. To begin, Dr. Frankenstein ponders whether he should be the type of creator his parents were to him: “ . . . did I not as his maker owe him all the portion of happiness that it was in my power to bestow” (Shelly 130)? He moves from asking the question of himself to making the assertion that “[he] had no right to withhold from [his creature/child] the small portion of happiness which was yet in [his] power to bestow” (Shelly 131). Dr. Frankenstein appears to have a change of heart, upon hearing of his creations suffering and misfortune; Dr. Frankenstein believes that he should use his “technological” powers to “direct” his creature/child’s future to happiness and not misery, like his parents/creators had done for him. From experiencing a change of heart, Dr. Frankenstein moves to inhabiting the “body” as his creature/child when he labels himself a murderer uttering: “I, the true murderer” (Shelly 79), “I, not in deed, but in effect, was the murderer” (Shelly 82), “Have my murderous machinations deprived you also, my dearest Henry, or life” (Shelly 157)? And “I called myself the murderer of William, of Justine, and of Clerval” (Shelly 157). Dr. Frankenstein takes responsibility for the actions of his creature/child because he knows had he not released his creation upon the world, then William, Justine, and Clerval would still be alive. Furthermore, Dr. Frankenstein inhabits the “body” as his creature/child because he is connected to it/him through the unnatural consummation of the natural and technical, which gave birth to the creature/child who is “both mechanism and organism” (Padley 203). Frankenstein speaks of the murders as if he committed them with his own two hands, which he does through the creation of his creature/child. Dr. Frankenstein believes that an “…evil influence asserted omnipotent sway over [him] from the moment [he] turned [his] reluctant steps from [his] father’s door” (Shelly 40). The fact that Frankenstein makes this statement is important to note because the reader can observe the same occurrence when the creature/child is turned away from his father’s door; he is left to fend for himself being thus abandoned, abhorred, and denied by his father/creator. The creature did not, however, choose to leave his father’s “door,” but rather is cast out and made to hide away from the world because his creator damned him for being an imperfect, unnatural being. The technology used to create the creature/child was “ . . . incessantly baffled and imperfect” (Shelly 48). Frankenstein knew that his creature/child was not going to be the beautiful creature he wanted it to be, but he “considered the improvement which everyday takes place in science and mechanics, [and he] was encouraged to hope [his] present attempts would at least lay the foundations of future success” (Shelly 48). In making this comment, Frankenstein was painstakingly aware of the recklessness of his actions. He also admitted that his work would be imperfect at best, but he did not let this very important fact stop him from progressing his work. Frankenstein was satisfied in hoping that future generations would work out the bugs, run the tests, and perfect the technology and, subsequently, his creature/child. Frankenstein is not concerned with the aesthetics of science or happens in the future: only that his name receives top billing. Furthermore, Frankenstein throws all caution to the wind and says “This discovery was great and overwhelming that all the steps by which I had been progressively led to it were obliterated and I beheld only the result” (Shelly 47). This statement is Frankenstein saying that he decided not to go through the minutiae of continuing through the appropriate steps of conducting this experiment properly and fixed his eyes only on the end result; “[his] creation is beyond his comprehension: limitlessness is represented in it” (qtd. in Padley 204-205). Frankenstein wished to be the first man to ever take nature and the unnatural into his hands and traverse the unmentionable places nature holds that have yet to be palpated or violated by man. Frankenstein decides he will be the first man to ever taste of her forbidden fruits and create a creature/child from the subsequent intercourse of man and nature. According to Padley, “Frankenstein invents himself as a literal (and twisted) model of single parenthood” (Padley 205); Vargish agrees when he writes, “Frankenstein sees himself as a kind of surrogate providence” (Vargish 328).
Both Padley and Vargish’s point is that Frankenstein vied to be the father/creator of technological advance in reanimation or the creature/child. “No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs” (Shelly 48). Frankenstein declares that he will be the father/creator who is deserving of his creature/child’s gratitude, more than ever has been deserved before. Unfortunately, he does not succeed in gaining his creature/child’s gratitude; instead, the creature/child “vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind” (Shelly 125), because of the detestation it/he had received at the hands of man as well as his father/creator for sending forth into the world alone. As a result of his blind determination, Frankenstein loses control over his own will and succumbs to the power and usurpation of
technology. With Frankenstein throwing caution to the wind, neglecting normal scientific practices, and being blinded by his future gains; the power of technology becomes apparent it “influences the content by altering the possibilities of action [and] the technology usurp[s] power traditionally reserved to human will” (Vargish 323). Frankenstein is so taken with the possibility of making a brighter future using technology; he does not stop to think what his improper use of technology will yield, nor the “unnatural manner in which the monster was created” (Padley 203). Moreover, Frankenstein admits that “during [his] first experiment, a kind of enthusiastic frenzy had blinded [him] to the horror of [his] employment; [his] mind was intently fixed on the consummation of [his] labour, and [his] eyes were shut to the horror of [his] proceedings” (Shelly 146). In other words, at the moment Frankenstein decides to haphazardly complete his project he becomes a slave to technology operating automatically according to the will of technology and not his own. Frankenstein’s last reflection upon his actions, “proposes an amalgamation of identity that connects the father/creator in his creature/child: there is an awareness in which the creature/child reflects the father/creator and possibly an instance in which the creature/child is the technological achievement ranging out of control and thus symbolizes an extension of the father/creator of the technology who should in fact be in control (Vargish 327).
Previously portrayed through Frankenstein’s letters as the sole cause of both his and society’s despair, the monster’s use of the word “abortion” instead demonstrates Victor’s individual contribution towards his creature’s destructive path. Since the definition of abortion serves as the premediated act of terminating life, Frankenstein’s deliberate decision to desert his artificial creature exhibits society’s lack of sympathy for those with uncontrollable differences such as the monster’s physical deformities. Nevertheless, the textual irony of the monster’s frustrations eventually becomes apparent when the creature exclaims “Was there no injustice to this?”. Setting off a chain reaction of several more questions, Shelly’s text further mirrors the monster’s bafflement with the careless actions of Victor Frankenstein. That is, although Frankenstein gave his creation the “gift” of life, the monster has been perpetually denied every chance to live happily because of mankind’s relentless and inescapable hatred. More so, explained as the abandonment or failure of a process, Frankenstein’s ultimate refusal to love his own creation typifies how the creator’s ironic choices remain accountable for failing both the monster and
Frankenstein is the story of an eccentric scientist whose masterful creation, a monster composed of sown together appendages of dead bodies, escapes and is now loose in the country. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelly’s diction enhances fear-provoking imagery in order to induce apprehension and suspense on the reader. Throughout this horrifying account, the reader is almost ‘told’ how to feel – generally a feeling of uneasiness or fright. The author’s diction makes the images throughout the story more vivid and dramatic, so dramatic that it can almost make you shudder.
Frankenstein, speaking of himself as a young man in his father’s home, points out that he is unlike Elizabeth, who would rather follow “the aerial creations of the poets”. Instead he pursues knowledge of the “world” though investigation. As the novel progresses, it becomes clear that the meaning of the word “world” is for Frankenstein, very much biased or limited. He thirsts for knowledge of the tangible world and if he perceives an idea to be as yet unrealised in the material world, he then attempts to work on the idea in order to give it, as it were, a worldly existence. Hence, he creates the creature that he rejects because its worldly form did not reflect the glory and magnificence of his original idea. Thrown, unaided and ignorant, into the world, the creature begins his own journey into the discovery of the strange and hidden meanings encoded in human language and society. In this essay, I will discuss how the creature can be regarded as a foil to Frankenstein through an examination of the schooling, formal and informal, that both of them go through. In some ways, the creature’s gain in knowledge can be seen to parallel Frankenstein’s, such as, when the creature begins to learn from books. Yet, in other ways, their experiences differ greatly, and one of the factors that contribute to these differences is a structured and systematic method of learning, based on philosophical tenets, that is available to Frankenstein but not to the creature.
We again view his ignorance and irresponsibility when after spending two years of work on his creature he disowns and abandons the creature. He runs out of the room after seeing the creature come to life. He fled the room because he thought the creature was so hideous, even though he had chosen all the best body parts for its creation. When Frankenstein returns to the house when he “became assured that my enemy had indeed fled, I clapped my hands for joy”(55). Even after all his work he is ecstatic that this horrible beast has left him.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is ‘one of the pioneering works of modern science fiction’, and is also a frightening story that speaks to the ‘mysterious fears of our nature’. Mary Shelley mocks the idea of “playing God”, the idea that came from the Greek myth of Prometheus, of the Greek titan who stole Zeus’ gift of life. Both the story of Frankenstein and Prometheus reveal the dark side of human nature and the dangerous effects of creating artificial life. Frankenstein reveals the shocking reality of the consequences to prejudging someone. The creature’s first-person narration reveals to us his humanity, and his want to be accepted by others even though he is different. We are shown that this ‘monster’ is a ‘creature’ and more of a human than we think.
Although humans have the tendency to set idealistic goals to better future generations, often the results can prove disastrous, even deadly. The tale of Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, focuses on the outcome of one man's idealistic motives and desires of dabbling with nature, which result in the creation of horrific creature. Victor Frankenstein was not doomed to failure from his initial desire to overstep the natural bounds of human knowledge. Rather, it was his poor parenting of his progeny that lead to his creation's thirst for the vindication of his unjust life. In his idealism, Victor is blinded, and so the creation accuses him for delivering him into a world where he could not ever be entirely received by the people who inhabit it. Not only failing to foresee his faulty idealism, nearing the end of the tale, he embarks upon a final journey, consciously choosing to pursue his creation in vengeance, while admitting he himself that it may result in his own doom. The creation of an unloved being and the quest for the elixir of life holds Victor Frankenstein more accountable for his own death than the creation himself.
in Frankenstein: Contexts, nineteenth century responses, criticism. By Mary Shelley. Ed. J. Paul Hunter. Norton Critical Edition.
Since the beginning of time man has been infatuated with the idea of pushing the human body to its limits by the use of science. The Space program is the best example of science helping humans accomplish things never before thought possible. In the age of technology and scientific advancement ideas that once seemed like science fiction, for example people walking on the moon, are now a reality. In order to push human development, ethics and morals have been pushed to the side. Necessary evils have been accepted as part of science without a second thought. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein a scientist, Victor Frankenstein, plays God by creating a monster out of body parts and bringing it to life. When Frankenstein realizes the full extent to what he’s done, he abandons the monster leaving it confused and lonely. The monster then
Works Cited for: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein: A Norton Critical Edition. ed. a. a. a. a. a J. Paul Hunter. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a nineteenth century literary work that delves into the world of science and the plausible outcomes of morally insensitive technological research. Although the novel brings to the forefront several issues about knowledge and sublime nature, the novel mostly explores the psychological and physical journey of two complex characters. While each character exhibits several interesting traits that range from passive and contemplative to rash and impulsive, their most attractive quality is their monstrosity. Their monstrosities, however, differ in the way each of the character’s act and respond to their environment. Throughout Frankenstein, one assumes that Frankenstein’s creation is the true monster. While the creation’s actions are indeed monstrous, one must also realize that his creator, Victor Frankenstein is also a villain. His inconsiderate and selfish acts as well as his passion for science result in the death of his friend and family members and ultimately in his own demise.
...ce breeching comfortable or natural boundaries is something which still causes instinctive unease in the majority of people. That human instinct is exactly what Shelley demonstrated Frankenstein was lacking. It was his abscission from every natural feeling, the understanding of human emotion on more than just a rational level that allowed Frankenstein to create the monster. This parallel between 19th and 20th Century response gives equal if not greater relevance to the novel's themes to modern day. The arsenal of knowledge now available to mankind to commit moral atrocities is even more extensive than in the era which provoked Mary Shelley's cautioning book. Frankenstein has removed the element of glory from succeeding in pushing the boundaries of science, instilling in the reader a greater respect for the true power of nature and for man?s inability to control it.
"Frankenstein By Mary Shelley Critical Essays Major Themes." Major Themes. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 May 2014. .
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, explores the monstrous and destructive affects of obsession, guilt, fate, and man’s attempt to control nature. Victor Frankenstein, the novel’s protagonist and antihero, attempts to transcend the barriers of scientific knowledge and application in creating a life. His determination in bringing to life a dead body consequently renders him ill, both mentally and physically. His endeavors alone consume all his time and effort until he becomes fixated on his success. The reason for his success is perhaps to be considered the greatest scientist ever known, but in his obsessive toil, he loses sight of the ethical motivation of science. His production would ultimately grieve him throughout his life, and the consequences of his undertaking would prove disastrous and deadly. Frankenstein illustrates the creation of a monster both literally and figuratively, and sheds light on the dangers of man’s desire to play God.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or; The Modern Prometheus, published in 1818, is a product of its time. Written in a world of social, political, scientific and economic upheaval it highlights human desire to uncover the scientific secrets of our universe, yet also confirms the importance of emotions and individual relationships that define us as human, in contrast to the monstrous. Here we question what is meant by the terms ‘human’ and ‘monstrous’ as defined by the novel. Yet to fully understand how Frankenstein defines these terms we must look to the etymology of them. The novel however, defines the terms through its main characters, through the themes of language, nature versus nurture, forbidden knowledge, and the doppelganger motif. Shelley also shows us, in Frankenstein, that although juxtaposing terms, the monstrous being everything human is not, they are also intertwined, in that you can not have one without the other. There is also an overwhelming desire to know the monstrous, if only temporarily and this calls into question the influence the monstrous has on the human definition.
The human race’s complexity is so muddled with various desires, styles, and actions that even a substantial response could only explain a fragment of human nature, but, even with the intricacy of humanity, there is a barrier an ethical conscience held by the human race as a whole that separates actions human and inhuman. In Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein, the characters Dr. Frankenstein and the creature he reanimates walk along the separation line between human and inhuman. Shelly uses the idealisms like Promethean desire and existential questions to exemplify the natural yearnings that humans strive for as they search for their purpose and aspire for something greater. Frankenstein’s creature and Frankenstein illustrate both human and inhuman qualities as they exemplify natural human desires, but also simultaneously act in eerie and coldhearted ways that separate them from natural human society.