Abstract :
|
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein offers an exceptionally
fascinating insight into scientific issues of the day. Though intended
as a ghost story where Mary was commenting on her own experiences
rather than designing a manifesto for the future, it became the
cornerstone of a new genre called “Science Fiction”. In the novel she
employs the concept of science gone mad as well as a crossover theme
of science versus nature. To say, it is the story of a scientist named
Victor Frankenstein who is one of the representative figures of
modern scientists who created monster due to his excess focus in the
quest of scientific knowledge but at last he lost the control over his
own creation. He was over curious to learn the hidden law of nature
due to his fervent love for science. In the novel he seeks to create
something that will address the flaws of the world, and in doing so
makes those flaws even more difficult to overcome. It can be said that
through him Mary presented a critique of the world so much
influenced with science, a world which do not even bother about the
consequences of their aimless desires. It can clearly be stated that
Frankenstein is in a way Mary's question to the thoughtless
development of modern science. Through my paper I will be
discussing that though the result of Victor’s quest symbolized
everything that seems bad or frightening about science but a closer
look at the story shows that it was the not mad technological monster
that was responsible for the upheaval but it was Victor. In other
words, it is not the lifeless technology that is responsible for its
adverse side but it is its very own creator who is responsible for it.
|