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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.
Shelley wrote the scene of his discovery in a single sentence that takes up the space of one regular sized paragraph coupled with a rhetorical question to emphasize the lengths that Victor went through to finally reach his glorifying moment of enlightenment and to question what he is striving for. To further elaborate on Victor’s journey to his discovery, Shelley juxtaposes his childhood education to his current endeavors that follow a completely opposite path; “In my education my father had taken the greatest precautions that my mind should be impressed with no supernatural horrors. I do not ever remember to have trembled at a tale of superstition, or to have feared the apparition of a spirit.” The juxtaposition enhances the contrast of the ideas Victor was raised upon, and the ideas he holds deep within himself during the present. Victor’s unconforming ideas and predilection for the mysterious reveal Shelley’s background in Romanticism and the effects that the era holds on her
Within Mary Shelley’s work Frankenstein, Victor cautions Walton’s men on the vessel from abandoning their pursuit of exploring the arctic and its mysteries and dissuades them from returning home to their families by ridiculing them for not having the determination and will to see through their endeavor. This seems like quite a contradiction to Victor’s message he expresses throughout his tale, where he asserts that it is dangerous to pursue ambitions/discoveries of the unknown in the name of science or personal satisfaction. However, when considering why he has such a message to convey to the equally ambitious Walton, his seemingly opposite words/actions make sense. After all, the reason why Victor feels that science/knowledge is inherently
This quote can also a call back to when he harnessed the lightning to shock his monster to life. By doing so, she emphasizes Victor's desire to be God and to manipulate nature. The depiction of nature as a source of the sublime reinforces the idea that humans are small and insignificant in comparison to the magnificence of the natural world. Shelley suggests that humanity should strive to live in harmony with nature rather than trying to manipulate
Lightning strikes the iron rods that surround the scientist's latest creation, and it awakens to life. This image is the essence of Gothic literature, a genre of literature that employs the writing of different sorts of dark picturesque scenery, dramatic plots, different literary devices, and other themes to exemplify the gothic aspect of the plot or story. Many well-known books employ different techniques to make a book a type of Gothic literature. Almost all of them have medieval structures, gloomy or dark settings, and themes such as horror, mystery, or some sort of romance within those gothic stories. A prime example of this is Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which was originally written in the early 19th century, tackles many themes. The story follows Victor Frankenstein on his journey of scientific advancement through creating life from dead beings. Something we see pictured all throughout the book is the questioning of the morality of advancements in science. I believe Mary Shelley is attempting to instill a warning into the minds of curious people. She is not only trying to warn that scientific advancements can be harmful, but also that everything under the scope of influence that humanity has is consequently subject to this harm.
Christianity in Frankenstein Throughout the novel, there were many biblical allusions. Christianity play into novel by comparing the creation of Frankenstein's monster to the creation of Adam and Eve. Mary Shelley incorporating this into the novel to show that no one should ever come close as Frankenstein was to receiving "God" status because it will ultimately drive them to destruction. The purpose of these connection is that no one should not play God.
Gothic Literature is a genre that was popular between 18th to 19th centuries in North Germany. It is always being associated with Dark Romanticism which the emphasize was more on nature, terror and death, horror and many more. It involves dark and gloomy setting and also unexplainable things that are beyond human senses and reason such as ghosts and monsters. The main characters, on the other hand, are always ineffectual which they do not give much effect on the story plot. This can be seen through Washington Irving’s “Rip van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” which can be considered as American gothic work in terms of its description of setting, the involvement of supernatural element in the story and also the characteristics of the main character.
When Victor grows up and learns about his passion, he describes science’s effect on him, “...like a mountain river, from ignoble and almost forgotten sources; but, swelling as it proceeded, it became the torrent which, in its course, has swept away all my hopes and joys” (Shelley 20). Imagery describes a river, which is “swelling”, and able to “sweep” things away. These words provoke feelings of disruption and that nature is a great power able to control how life progresses. Here Frankenstein starts to develop ideas of what science can be used for and nature warns him that when he continues with his new found passion, all other positive things in his life will be compromised. The setting is described just moments prior to Frankenstein’s monster coming to life; “It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes…”
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.
Therefore, Shelley’s critique of Romantic science extends to older scientific eras as well. When Victor reflects on his journey as a scientist upon choosing to study the ancients over modern science, he narrates, “The train of my ideas would never have received the fatal impulse that led to my ruin” (Shelley 24). From the beginning of his education, Victor views science through a historical lens and believes that adapting older techniques will foster scientific progress. Yet, in his narrative to Walton, he cautions against the ancients and labels this method as flawed. Shelley traces the flaws of the Romantic movement back to this reliance on older iterations of
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.
Through this Shelley is demonstrating that humans may never have the capability to fully understand the things they create through scientific endeavours, therefore reinforcing her concept that too much knowledge can only lead to downfall. Frankenstein had a wonderful life and in creating then abandoning his monster he destroyed that. The bitter link is the fact that Frankenstein, in leaving his monster, in making his creation go into the world alone, sealed his fate to die alone on the sea, the majority of his loved ones dead at his
Human cloning is also applied by Shelley’s story in that the cloning human will inadvertently led to destruction and suffering of the human life which jurisdiction laws can apply. From these examples, the suffering that the clones may face connect to Shelley’s idea of the unintended results of science and progress. In the scene with Captain Walton, Shelley told a story of Walton’s decision to sacrifice his ambitions for science and discovery for the safety of his crew and himself. The motive of Shelley’s story was to explain how Walton made the right decision by not endangering himself and others around him.
Mary Shelley the author of the book Frankenstein completed the book in April/May 1817. The novel frankenstein has many gothic features in it to make you look at it in a different way. The supernatural and gloomy feeling you get from frankenstein is a way that Mary uses a gothic theme in her book to show mysteriousness in different ways. A gothic novel usually entails that the book will mostly be about mysterious and horrific settings.
