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Frankenstein: Relationship Between Humanity And Nature

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Humanity and Nature Can humans control nature? Should we? Is it in human nature to attempt to do this? What is our relationship with nature? These are the types of questions I am probed to answer when it comes to the topic of humanity and nature because they are just as pertinent today as they were three hundred years ago. Even just this year there are debates whether or not man has the authority to exploit nature to create the Keystone Pipeline, just as we questioned manipulating electricity as playing God in the 19th century. Mary Shelley touched upon this topic in her novel, Frankenstein, along with Nathaniel Hawthorne in “Birthmark” and Campbell in “Myths and the Modern World. The consequences of attempting to control nature is clearly evident in Frankenstein by Shelley. Victor Frankenstein is a brilliant scientist who endeavors to bring the dead back to life through electricity. Just through making electricity he is …show more content…

In “Myth and Modern World” Campbell offers multiple relationships humans have with nature. He cites Chief Seattle stating “We are part of the earth and it is part of us.” (42), highly contrasting the adversarial relationship between humanity and nature defined by Frankenstein and “The Birthmark.” Campbell also mentions two other points of view that contrast the antagonistic relationship supported by Frankenstein and “The Birthmark.” In the Christian religion it is believed that nature is condemned and that humans have every right to manipulate nature as freely as humanity wishes because gave nature to them, giving humans, in this dynamic, full control over nature without consequences. While the Japanese hold the belief that, “natural impulse is not to be corrected but to be sublimated”(29), meaning they believe that nature can be modified to please humans, but can never be

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Bruce Springstein’s song Ghost of Tom Joad has a focus of storytelling. The storyline triggers a meaningful and emotional reflection amongst the audience as it pertains to the societal issues which surround us. The exposure of these realities is outlined by addressing topics regarding economic corruption, hunger, and police brutality. Economic corruption is a primary theme portrayed in this song as Springstein provides numerous examples of the hardships of poverty. Beginning with the topic of migration gives an indication that households can’t maintain a sufficient income to meet their current necessity expenses of shelter, food, and water.

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The struggle of man versus nature long has dwelt on the consciousness of humanity. Is man an equal to his environment? Can the elements be conquered, or only endured? We constantly find ourselves facing these questions along with a myriad of others that cause us to think, where do we fit? These questions, crying for a response, are debated, studied, and portrayed in both Jack London’s “

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However there are dangerous things about nature even if humans need nature. The inclusion of nature in the good mind’s creation suggests that humans want a simplistic life in unity with nature, but without the chaos of nature in its purest

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One of the strongest human drives comes from the human desire of power, and we see this theme occur a lot throughout the book Frankenstein. “I succeeded in discovering the cause of generation and life, nay more, I became myself more capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter.” (Shelley 37). This quote explains how Victor Frankenstein wants to turn something that is lifeless into a living thing once again. He wanted to have the power of having life in his own hands.

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A Human Monster Although humans are similar to other mammals around the world, the thing that most elevates them above these other creatures is human nature. Human nature is something that we all understand and experience, but is difficult to truly define. Our human nature is essentially centered around our want for social interaction, capacity for emotions, creative and higher level of thinking.

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In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein brings his creation to life and has to endure the repercussions of his actions. While Victor is in fact human, the question of whether the creature or Victor is more human still stands. Humanity is demonstrated as compassionate in the book and monstrosity is the opposite. The creature is more human because of his developed personality and desire to be human. Victor, although born into a humane family, evolved into everything bad about humanity; he developed obsession, resentment, and manipulated life to conform to his idealities.

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We could use the novel, Frankenstein, as an argument against scientific technology that creates life forms or argue that it is not technology itself but the use to which it is put that presents an ethical problem. What is Shelley’s position? What is your position? Are we currently using or abusing nature for our benefit? Can we develop a “symbiotic” relationship with nature?

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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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Numerous research has concluded that several emotional bonds exist between humanity and nature that can impact everything from attitude to anxiety. Novels of the romanticism period, a significant literary era that encompassed most European works written in the early 1800’s, are most known for describing the impacts that nature has on people and implying that unexpected consequences can arise out of this relationship; Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a prime example of such a novel. The prime conflict of this 1818 science-fiction story occurs between the titular character, Victor Frankenstein, and a monster he creates through his own scientific innovations. Because of Victor’s abandonment of the monster, it becomes intent on destroying the scientist’s

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Thomas Hobbes’s ideology of what human nature without rule is chaos, anger, and selfishness. That idea is conveyed in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein (1616), the novel is about a scientist, Victor Frankenstein, trying to reanimate life, but the monster that was created went rouge and killed his loved ones. Although the monster was practically a toddler in a man’s body, Frankenstein was horrified with his creation thus he leaves the monster on his own. For this reason, the monster used only his emotions and strength to resolve issues, if Frankenstein had nurtured the monster as a baby and taught him to control his emotions and resolve issues in a professional manor instead of murder, Frankenstein could’ve saved so many lives. Human interaction in

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The influencing power of nature is somewhat withdrawn at major points in the book, mainly due to its connection with the Byronic hero, Victor Frankenstein. Towards the beginning of the novel, Frankenstein is shown to be both an

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The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a science fiction story about a creature created from non-living matter, by a young scientist, Victor Frankenstein. The conflict between society and Frankenstein’s creature is largely perpetuated by a split between those considered attractive, and those who are not. The conflict and language use in Frankenstein demonstrate that most of society judges others based on their physical appearance, which leads to excluding those who fall outside the accepted definition of beauty and sometimes life-threatening consequences for both groups. Frankenstein and his parents demonstrate that they also fall victim to the habit of judging others initially based off of their appearance. The Frankenstein parents first

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Nature and Frankenstein compare in their understanding of the relationship between human beings and the natural world because the natural world is an emotional experience and the influence of nature changes the mood drastically. The natural world is an emotional experience for Victor because he got depressed about the death of Justine and William. To cope with his feelings he decided to escape to the hills. Victor struggles to cope with the deaths: The sceneries help Victor out by cheering him up and acting as a sense of relief.

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Nature is one of the most powerful and mysterious forces of the universe that influences man greatly. Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of nature and soul. It controls all the living, non-living, human, non-human, organic, inorganic and visible, invisible things. It rules over the universe like a monarch and man can’t escape from the influence of nature; he is influenced by both nature and culture. To man nature is the pure and original source of happiness.

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