The Island Vs Frankenstein

Comparative essay of Frankenstein and The Island

In two pieces of works, there is one subject where the both align: creating artificial life. Frankenstein, novel by author Mary Shelley, is about the main character Victor Frankenstein playing God by creating a non human creature that all living sees as a monster including himself. Meanwhile in the film The Island directed by Michael Bay there is instead a company that plays God, where they illegally create clones to prolong the lives of the rich. Overall the movie and the book both shine the spotlight on the ethics of creating artificial life while also discussing whether or not these creations are “human”. One of the points brought forward in both the book and the film is about the ethics

To answer that, we firstly need to define what makes someone human. According to http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ a human is someone that is “subject to or indicative of the weaknesses, imperfections, and fragility associated with humans”. Mary Shelley makes it very clear that the monster possess the same traits as a human. The monster feels, talks and acts as a human regardless of the fact that it does not obtain the looks of one. Since he is artificially created and does not look like a human, his creator Victor Frankenstein is repulsed by it and shuns him. This makes the monster feel unwanted, which is a very human response. In all efforts to reach his creator, the monster fails and to illustrate his anger, he starts his revenge by taking the lives of the relatives of Victor but also the people that fear

In the bunker the clones communicate and bond with one another. Some bonds stronger than others, like Lincoln 6 Echo’s and Jordan 2 Delta’s friendship that later on evolves into a relationship between two people that connects and falls in love. Likewise the clones possesses the human qualities like curiosity and observantness. Early in the movie we see one of the clones in the bunker, Jones Three Echo, already criticizing the facility and the system they all live in which leads to Lincoln 6 Echo finding out the truth. This by following his “human instinct” of curiosity to the uncontaminated section. Although the clones are artificially created, they are still human and the company is well aware that they act, talk and feel like humans do. The company controls everything from what they eat to who they are allowed to communicate with. For example, around the beginning of the movie Lincoln 6 Echo and Jordan 2 Delta are talking and have a romantic “moment”. As soon as the head of the company Dr. Bernard Merrick, sees this from the hidden cameras his first move is to try to dismiss it. Thus, the company are aware of the fact that the clones function much like humans do but refuses to look at the