TO PLAY WITH FIRE Introduction Countless scientific explorations and experimentations had been conducted and were continuing to be conducted up to and during the time Frankenstein was written in. Directly and indirectly through these explorations and experimentations living conditions of humanity changed drastically and rapidly especially -unincidentally- (In relation to the period in which Marry Shelley lived.) during the 18th and 19th centuries. Human societies experienced dramatic changes in almost all areas of life in ways never like before and in an extremely brief time span compared to the rest of the human history. Home country of Mary Shelley, England was not an exception to this phenomenon. In fact, it can be said that England experienced this phenomenon more intensely than the rest of the world. The irrefutable proof of this is the Industrial Revolution which started in England. The Age of Reason or Enlightenment had given birth to the Industrial Revolution. Society changed with it and numerous people including Mary W. Shelley, looked upon these changes in a negative light, therefore a distinctive view was born as a reaction against the Enlightenment itself and its values of rationalism and classicism. …show more content…
Men in the novel pursue science to achieve greatness and acquire divine powers. “I entered greatest diligence into the search of the philosopher’s stone and elixir of life… -but what glory would attend the discovery if I could banish disease from the human frame and render man invulnerable to any but a violent death! Nor were these my only visions. The raisin of ghosts or devils was a promise…” (Shelley, Frankenstein