How Does Mary Shelly Use Abortion In Frankenstein

Mary Shelly uses fire and abortion in Frankenstein to support the dangers that occur when science is inhumanely pursued. For the monster, fire is good until he gets too close; for Frankenstein, science is good until he gets too close. Abortion shows the negative effects that come with pursuing science past what is natural, like creating life.

Victor Frankenstein’s monster first encounters fire when the monster enters a small town at night after his creation. He recalls the experience “[I] was overcome with delight at the warmth I experienced from it. In my joy I thrust my hand into the live embers, but quickly drew it out again with a cry of pain. How strange […] that the same cause could produce such opposite effects!” (Shelley 103). The

Around others the light from fire exposes his face and turns them against him. The monster also uses fire for its negative effects when he burns down the De Lacey’s house. Similarly, Frankenstein sees the good and the bad in science but still continues to pursue it. Science is his life giver. Nearing the completion Victor states “I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the soul purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this I has deprived myself of rest and health” (Shelley 34). His life essentials were replaced by the energy he received upon pursuing unnatural science. As the monster had a disregard for barriers, Frankenstein disregarded the barriers of nature in his scientific pursuits. He reached into the fire and only got burned. Upon completion of the monster Frankenstein states “now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (Shelley 35). Upon crossing a barrier that was not meant to be crossed, Victor now sees the bad in what comes of it and learns his lesson. When asked by the monster to create a companion for him, Victor starts but is unable to again cross the boundary. He now thinks about the effects his actions will have on others rather than what his personal wants are. He questions “Had I

Since Victor left the monster he struggled through the beginning stages of his life and learned how to survive on his own. The monster eventually settles down in an abandoned house next to the De Lacey family where he finds books. Through this discovery and the observation of the De Lacey family he is able to teach himself how to read. Conveniently, Frankenstein’s accounts of the monsters creation are left in the robe the monster decides to wear before he leaves Frankenstein’s quarters, and from them the monster learns about his creation and that Victor is his father. The monster is quickly enraged by Victor’s statements exclaiming “Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even YOU turned from me in disgust?” (Shelley 128). Victor’s selfish pursuit of inhuman science led without regarding what he would create led to the birth of a cruel creature. Being aborted, the monster had no companionship and no one to teach him right form wrong. What the monster learned was from watching others, whether it led to good as being able to read or bad as he pick up the hatred people had for him and gave it back out. Victor’s past treatment and ideas of Elizabeth being more of an object than a human in addition to only having concern for creating life, Victor disregarded what would become of that life. In turn the life he created had no real life at all. His heart beat but he was isolated from