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Ethical And Scientific Issues In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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In her work Frankenstein, Mary Shelley discusses and criticizes both scientific issues and moral attitudes of the time. Shelley uses Frankenstein as a platform for taking a side on issues, in part by speculating on what might happen if current boundaries were breached and norms challenged. Scientifically, Shelley takes on the good versus evil debate, giving views from both sides through her characters. Morally, Shelley examines the amount of responsibility one must take for their actions. In addition, Shelley examines the possibility and consequences of “playing God,” a moral and scientific issue. Shelley first explores the good versus evil debate. Shelley examines both views on this issue. The creature believes himself inherently good. The …show more content…

Victor makes a creature that he believes evil, and leaves it alone for an unnecessarily extended amount of time. Shelley criticizes this lack of responsibility. During the time that Frankenstein does not attend to the creature, the creature kills William. Victor realizes that he could have prevented this death if he would have controlled his creature. After this epiphany, Victor tries to take more responsibility for the creature’s actions, to the point, that he eventually becomes intent on destroying his own creation. Shelley, thus takes a stand on the importance of responsibility, by showing her reader the consequences of irresponsibility. The third issue, the question of “playing God” encompasses both moral and scientific issues. When Victor creates life, he crosses a line scientifically. No man has ever created life where none existed. Furthermore, Victor crosses a line morally. Victor elevates himself to a platform above the human race by taking both life and death into his hands. Shelley criticizes the idea of creating life through everything that goes wrong. Victor’s greatest accomplishment becomes his biggest failure and his demise. This paradox aids Shelley in warning against crossing boundaries that should not be

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Shelley's genius is presenting the idea that human beings are capable of accomplishing extraordinary feats. However, there are natural limitations and in ignoring them, bad things tend to happen. Victor exceeded these parameters in creating life. Sure enough, when he realized the folly of his action, it was too late.

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These actions show more responsibility than before, but still not full responsibility. As a result, even more catastrophe is brought upon Victor: Elizabeth dies, and Victor’s father dies. These deaths show how Victor isn’t yet living up to Mary Shelley’s standards for a responsible

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Throughout Frankenstein, Shelley uses Victor to warn the reader of the dangers of aspiring to godliness, and the consequences one faces in the aftermath doing so, even going as far as to compare Victor to Satan, tempting the crew of Walton’s ship, in the book’s final pages. The Victor Shelley creates is very similar to the Satan created by Milton in his book, Paradise Lost, which explores the biblical tale of Adam and Eve. In Frankenstein, Victor speaks of his desire to create the Creature, saying, “I deemed it criminal to throw away in useless grief those talents that might be useful to my fellow-creatures.” (152). Shelley’s diction choices, such as the word “useless” exemplify Victor’s excessive hubris, portraying him as a man who creates his Creature for, in his mind, the good of society.

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(Shelley) If Victor had thought about what he was creating, he could have used his understanding for the benefit of humanity, rather than self gain. Today, our species is creating androids, someday, it could be human beings. It is crucial for humans and our advancement that we know the consequences our actions could bring because abusing the awareness we have can have

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Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is the story of a young man named Victor Frankenstein who does the unthinkable, creates life from dead flesh. Victor is a young, educated and wealthy member of society who grows up in a loving home with high standards of ethics and morality. He creates a creature out of impulse with little thought of its future well-being and abandons it carelessly. The creature is left to discover life without teaching or direction. Only when the creature impacts Victor’s life, by taking away his loved ones, is Victor forced to deal with the consequences of his own actions.

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796 Words | 4 Pages

Using this creation as a symbol of his obsession, Shelley portrays the importance of how knowledge is handled, and the dangers that can come if it is handled incorrectly. Since Victor’s “quest” to create life is mainly based on gaining knowledge and thus power and since, “Systems based on power are imbued with a fundamental expectation of danger and attack, which leads to a prevalent fear of the ‘other’” (Bennett 111), Shelley foreshadows that Victor’s quest is destined to be full of these “dangers.” In order to personify the dangers, Shelley uses the creation of the monster.

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1023 Words | 5 Pages

Since Victor did not claim responsibility for the creation of the creature, it led to the creature losing rationality and framing Justine for the murder of William Frankenstein and killing Hector Clerval and Elizabeth Lavenza (Shelley). Victor not taking responsibility for the creature led the creature to wreak havoc on society and shows that if scientists do not take proper care of their creations consequences will occur. If scientists today it can cause major harm to society because it can be harmed or become infected by the creation. Scientists have to take responsibility because their creations will not just come back to harm them, they can come back and hurt others, such as how the creature killed Victor’s loved ones. Throughout the novel Shelley used nature to set the moods for the scenes and with this she also showed the power of nature.

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The actions of an individual defines the boundary between sympathy and wickedness. Their behaviors and thoughts change the plot of the story and character identity. Mary Shelley uses moral ambiguity to overlook the unrealistic nature of her story. In Frankenstein, this concept incorporates itself into Mary Shelley’s characters. Ambiguity invokes an attachment between the figures and readers.

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In Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, it scrutinizes the punishments when a man creates life, and plays the role of God. Victor Frankenstein, is at fault for the creature’s actions. Victor was looking for some honor and triumph, but when he accomplished his experiment, not only did it bring terror to Victor, but to the whole world. The monster never learned right from wrong and was never raised correctly, his first moment of life, all he experienced was the fear in Victor's emotion, and was abandoned right from the start. Victor selfishly isolated himself from society and ran away from his responsibilities which caused destruction to the people Victor cared for and loved deeply.

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Mary Shelley shows this burden of responsibility throughout the book by continually showing the reader how much Victor’s unthoughtful actions affect his future, and how he copes with the results. When Victor first gets the idea

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Over the past century, Frankenstein has been analyzed and interpreted in seemingly infinite different forms of literature, film, and television shows. Once solely recognized as the story about a brilliant scientist who creates a creature in whom he regrets making after the creature turns out ugly, Frankenstein now represents an internationally recognized and commercialized pop culture symbol for Halloween decorations and costumes. When analyzing and appreciating the true literary essence behind Mary Shelley’s original Frankenstein, one of the most important comparisons to consider remains the underlying influences behind the Creature’s immoral actions and whether or not the blame for these actions belong to Victor or the Creature. When exploring the dichotomy of the Creature versus Victor Frankenstein, one of the biggest and most widely debated questions remains whether Victor should be blamed for the Creature’s destructive actions or if the Creature should be considered guilty for his actions based off of his own free will. Many consider Victor Frankenstein the villain of the story due to his repetitive decisions to abandon and avoid his own “mistake,” the irresponsible choice of creating the monster in the first place, and his obvious negligence of the Creature’s feelings.

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819 Words | 4 Pages

Duality is shown in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, a gothic tale of a scientist whom looks to advance the life-giving qualities of mother nature. Through this novel, Shelley proves that good and evil in human nature is not always simple to define, and that everyone has both of these qualities within them. The duality of human nature is shown through the characters of Victor Frankenstein and his monster, who are both heroes in the novel while simultaneously displaying anti-hero qualities. Shelley forces the reader to sympathize with them both but also creates gruesome ideas of the two. Frankenstein’s creature places himself in a submissive position when he begs his creator to have mercy on him and asking the creator to “create a female for [him] with whom [he] can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for [his] being.”

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1000 Words | 4 Pages

Victor questions why men so instinctively attempt to become superior to nature when men are also a product of nature. He criticizes that if humans reverted to our primal instincts, “hunger, thirst, and desire” (67) that we’d be free, or content with our lives. This is his subliminal self-reflection as he understands that seeking the secret to life, by creating the monster, did not bring him happiness but rather brought him misery and self-loathing. In this last line of the passage, Shelley highlights a major morale and theme of the story which is using science to tamper with nature, a critique against the enlightenment period. The consequences of Frankenstein’s creation have not only caused the death of William and Justine but will also become the reason for his own inevitable doom

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1605 Words | 7 Pages

People today are so concerned with how they can better their life by speeding up the natural process of things. Victor also wishes to see modifications in lifestyle, by creating life himself. He becomes obsessed with the idea of being a human creator of life that it leads to corruption. One of shelley’s arguments goes along with how modifying the natural process of some things can lead to monstrous actions. The life that Victor created was not able to fit into society correctly, but was also too powerful to be destroyed.

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1921 Words | 8 Pages

Shelley’s novel encompasses the unknown and how ambition drove Victor’s passions, ultimately leading him to the tragic end with many other bumps in the road along the way. As Victor had been in the study of life and its cause, the death of his mother had catalyzed a movement of grief which had started, “…depriv[ing him]self of rest and health. [Which he] had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation…” (Shelley 35). Even though he knew that he had been raiding graveyards, Victor believed that he created the body with the ‘finest body parts’ available.

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