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The Cost of Playing God in Frankenstein “What can stop the determined heart and the resolved will of man?”
Mary Shelley posed this rhetorical question through the character of Robert Walton in her novel Frankenstein (Shelley, 24). In this day and age, almost 200 years after Shelley published Frankenstein, anything seems to be possible, with advances and discoveries in the fields of science, technology, and medicine breaking new ground every day. From the invention of the computer to stem cell research, the human race has become more and more aware of ways in which it can improve the way of life and, in some cases, expand the average life span. As a species, humans strive to move forward, to keep progressing and pushing boundaries previously
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For practically all of her life, powerful and knowledgeable figures surrounded Shelley. William Godwin, Shelley’s father, made a name for himself with his political and moral ramblings, however the passion he found in academic pursuits lacked in other areas, such as raising his own children. In her introduction to the novel, Maurice Hindle noted that Godwin preferred to provide “life proposals and solutions in the abstract” rather than actual hands on experience with the children (xv). Despite this, Shelley still held her father on a pedestal, even going so far as to write to friends and admit that Godwin “was her God” until she met her husband, Percy (xvi). In addition to his brilliant philosophical mind, which was not unlike Godwin’s, Percy also thrived in the field of science, particularly fascinated with experimenting with electric currents (xxv). Shelley goes on to say that although her father held high expectations for her to “be something great and good” when she was younger, Percy reiterated this decree after she met him (xvi). In a cruel bit of irony, Percy died while sailing his boat during a storm; essentially losing his life to the power of nature well beyond man’s control. Between these two men, Shelley had the perfect inspiration for both Walton and Victor’s defining characteristic: a desire to become legends, no matter what the
Crisman argues that Mary Shelley is constantly emphasizing the “emotion surrounding the parent-child relationship”. In Victor’s early life he feel...
If you create something should you be able to kill it? The notion of playing god like Victor did with the creatures in Frankenstein is comparative to the same issue the courts have with abortion laws. Various angles of abortion can be quite overwhelming as well as who makes the final decision. Many governments have struggled to strike what they believe to be a balance between the rights of pregnant women and the rights of fetuses. Before life is started, generally, an individual has thought about whether or not they want to create life. All life is created whether it is the creatures in Frankenstein or development of a fetus. Once life has been created choosing to end that life can cause many issues. The struggle of choosing between life and death could be avoided by an individual evaluating the results of creating a life before starting the process.
“I do know that for the sympathy of one living being, I would make peace with all. I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other.”
Walton's letters play an important role for the reader may find many foreshadowed themes. As the novel progresses, the reader will realize how Walton and Victor Frankenstein share similar views on their life's roles. Both men are driven by an excessive ambition, as they desire to accomplish great things for the humankind. Walton is an explorer who wants to discover a new passage to the Pacific and therefore conjures "inestimable benefit on all mankind to the last generation" (16). Victor's purpose is to "pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation" (49). These explorers will demonstrate that such pursuit can prove to be very dangerous in quest for knowledge. Walton's ship becomes stuck in the ice and Victor's creation finally kills everyone dear to him. However, this parallel is not the only one: we can easily compare Walton's search for a friend ("I have no friend, Margaret" (19)) with the monster's request for a female because he feels alone ("I desired love and fellowship" (224)). This similarity between man and monster suggests that the monster perhaps is more similar to men than what we may perceive. If it is assumed that Shelley also shared this view when she wrote the novel, maybe she meant that the real monster manifests itself differently tha...
Upon completion of this novel, a clearly prevalent and outstanding motif is that of religion and biblical reference. The frequent references to religion come in varied forms from that of biblical role-playing, to that of the fate of our current society. Another related argument that occurs can be the relationship of biblical role-playing and character domination. When all are combined appropriately, a very strong and prominent key motif in this novel is produced. Mary Shelley might have used religion reference as a method of showing us how something that happened during the creation of the earth can be related and brought to us via modern day fantasy creations. It is important for us to realize this connection because it will help us to understand an important deeper meaning of this work.
After learning about the life of Mary Shelley, I have grown to appreciate the novel, Frankenstein, even more since the first time I read it. She led a life nearly, as tragic as the monster she created through her writing. Mary seems to pull some of her own life experiences in Victor’s background, as in both mothers died during or after childbirth. Learning about Mary’s personal losses, I have gained a better appreciation of her as an author and a woman of the 17th century. She had association with some the most influential minds of that
As Victor Frankenstein recounts his informative tale to a seafaring Robert Walton, he makes it known that he was a child of nobility; however it is sadly transparent that, combined with insufficient parenting, Victor’s rare perspective on life pushes him towards a lifestyle of conditional love. Children are considered symbolic of innocence, but as a child Victor’s arrogance was fueled by his parents. With his family being “one of the most distinguished of the republic,”(Shelley 17), Victor’s parents saw him as their “plaything and their idol, and something better-their child, the innocent and helpless Creature bestowed on them by Heaven, whom to bring up to good, and whose future lot was in their hands to direct to happiness or misery, according as they fulfilled their duties towards me,”(19). “The Social Order vs. the Wretch: Mary Shelley's Contradictory-Mindedness in Frankenstein Sylvia Bowerbank.” Bowerbank, "The Social Order vs. the Wretch", knarf.english.upenn.edu/Articles/bower.html.
Romanticism deals a lot with elements and how they affect human beings. In the very beginning of the story, Captain Walton finds Victor nearly dead after his ship is stuck in a sea of ice, where he says, "...and we beheld, stretched out in every direction, vast and irregular plains of ice, which seemed to have no end." (12). Ice symbolizes death and pain or illness in Romantic novels. This shows there is no coincidence in Victor's state of being and the environment they are in at the time. This is also one of those subtle nods towards former works Shelley had read. For anyone who has read "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (another Romantic work), his ship
In his Poetics, Aristotle defines the tragic hero as a man of high social status who invites
The idea for the novel of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein came to her one night when she was staying in the company of what has been called ‘her male coterie’, including Lord Byron and her husband, Percy Shelley. Mary Shelley’s whole life seems to have been heavily influenced by men. She idolised her father, William Godwyn, and appears to have spent a good part of her life trying very hard to impress both him and her husband. There seems to have been a distinct lack of female influence, her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, having died weeks after her birth, being replaced by a neglectful step-mother. These aspects of her life are perhaps evident in her novel. The characters and plot of Frankenstein were perhaps influenced by Shelley’s conflicting feelings about the predominately masculine circle which surrounded her, and perhaps the many masculine traits that we see in novel were based upon those of the male figures in Shelley’s own life. In this essay I will attempt to show some of these traits.
She was an avid reader from a young age, therefore quite smart and literate. Young Victor was evidently a bright person, as he went on to University, and developed into an extremely enthused scientist. Many things in Shelley’s life seemed to be prefigurations to events which were to be later written in Frankenstein, as did, also, events in the novel seem to occur later to Shelley in life. In the Frankenstein novel a young girl drowns, due to the appearance of the monster.
With the advancement of technology and science, we are now able to genetically modify animals. Mary Shelley found a way to make science an epitome, and confirms what could happen if science is taken too far. In conclusion, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is considered to be a historical novel, based on scientific advancements. In this novel Shelley depicts her own definition of human nature, by showing the creature and the ways that humans react to him. The novel also showed the differences between morality and science.
Mary Shelley was born in 1797 to Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, two of the greatest liberal thinkers of the time. Her mother died after two weeks of giving birth to her, leaving Shelley feeling both abandoned by and guilty of her mother’s death. Her father was left with the responsibility of raising her; however, he did not fulfill his duties to her as a father. He gave her only a haphazard education, and largely ignored her emotional needs. She met Percy Shelley when she was only fifteen, and when they ran away together two years later, her father disowned her (Duncan, Greg. "Frankenstein: The Historical Context."). Percy was married at the time, but left his first wife when Shelley was pregnant with their first child. His first wife, Harriet, killed herself s...
Mary Shelley posed this rhetorical question through the character of Robert Walton in her novel Frankenstein (Shelley, 24). In this day and age, almost 200 years after Shelley published Frankenstein, anything seems to be possible, with advances and discoveries in the fields of science, technology, and medicine breaking new ground every day. From the invention of the computer to stem cell research, the human race has become more and more aware of ways in which it can improve the way of life and, in some cases, expand the average life span. As a species, humans strive to move forward, to keep progressing and pushing boundaries previously
... provide us with the capacity for disaster. Shelley demonstrates this trend in Frankenstein, through the consequences of a scientist’s ambitious pursuit to create life, and raises the ever prevalent concerns with progression in science. However, she does this in a way that does not condemn the pursuit of knowledge or progress in science, but rather cautions us to take great care when exploring into new and untouched territories of nature. It's important that this warning is considered, with the progress of things like cloning, genetic engineering and countless other developments today that hold potential issues never imagined by those of Shelley's generation. Before we find ourselves mired in horrors generated by lack of scientific foresight, we need to ask ourselves, as Walton does: "What can stop the determined heart and resolved will of man?" (Shelley, 23).