The Destruction Of The Evil In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Confucius, an influential Chinese philosopher, once famously stated "Attack the evil that is within yourself, rather than attacking the evil that is in others"(Attack the Evil...). In the book of Frankenstein, the author Mary Shelley expresses a contrary idea for the protagonist Victor Frankenstein. Instead of ¨attacking the evil that is within yourself”, Victor Frankenstein, a mad scientist, creates the evil of himself, and leads to a series of consequences for the society, his family as well as friends. An individual's excessive passion for scientific invention and the blind pursuit of reputation as well as the parental-child tensions may result in the failure of responsibility toward one's self, family, a disrespect to nature, and eventually

Mary Shelley, author of the book of Frankenstein, she writes “Yet, when I considered the improvement which every day takes place in science and mechanics, I was encouraged to hope my present attempts would at least lay the foundations of future success”(Shelley 73). The goal for Frankenstein to work hard in science is to gain “future success” and glory instead of doing this for the purpose of benefiting the society. In addition, Alan Rauch, professor of English at the University of North Carolina, he states that “Haraway's advocacy for ‘situated knowledges,’ which ‘are about communities, not about isolated individuals’(590)” (Rauch 236). Frankenstein’s creation of the creature does not give any value to the society, but more destructions to the society. Frankenstein’s scientific discoveries mislead him to the blind pursuit of self-glory, and ignorance of the meaning of the inventions. Eventually, Gary Wiener, author of Bioethics in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, he comments in the book: ¨It is science which gives him his success, and that success gives him power over life¨ (Wiener 89). Frankenstein desires to obtain glory and power from finding a way to deny disease by creating a creature from lifeless to an animate living thing, however, he does not consider the consequence of pursuing his personal glory. For instance, distribution of natural

Claridge demonstrates that “In reality, however, his parents had regarded him as a plaything, a bauble (p. 33); and so Frankenstein views his creation as an object of his pleasure, until the "newborn" forces his way into his parent's consciousness” (Claridge). The actions of Frankenstein’s parents toward their son have deeply influenced on him. As the result, he does the same actions to his creature, so that he has never thought that the creature as an innocent life, but as an ugly monster. Furthermore, Laura P. Claridge notes the realization from the Creature: “He quickly becomes aware that there is no place for him, that he has been forbidden all that society holds dear: wealth and connections. If his own creator withholds from him human contact, he can expect nothing more from the rest of his world” (Claridge). Frankenstein abandons his creature, and the Creature does not have any money or connections in the earth. He notices that he is isolated from the society, nobody is going to accept him, even his creator. This shows Frankenstein absence of responsibility toward the creature, he is the one who creates the creature, in the contrast, he neither treats him as his own child nor even listens to a single word that the creature says. Lastly, Harold Bloom, professor of Humanity at Yale University, he implies that "Frankenstein's initial reaction to the encounter with the Monster consists in curses and an abortive attempt to do battle with him" (Bloom