Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein as a [new]
author heavily influenced by Romantic writers (Byron, Shelley—her husband, and Keats, as well as
Wordsworth and Coleridge) whose focus deals a great deal with nature; e.g., Victor spends a
great deal of time praising the landscape , and even the monster notices the
beauty of nature when he hears birdsong.
There are many
characteristics of Romantic writing, but a return to— and respect for—nature (e.g., Coleridge's
somber epic poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner) is a classic feature of
Romanticism. The scientist would have been an unwelcome addition to
the Romantics' world, as man began to look to what he
could control and began to lose sight of what could and should be
left to nature...and God.
In Frankenstein, Mary
Shelley focuses on, among other things, the Industrial Revolution starting in the late 18th
Century. Industry has taken off with technology (e.g., electricity), and machinery (e.g., cotton
spinners). Science is garnering great interest; e.g., the Shelleys attended a lecture by Charles
Darwin's grandfather, Erasmus, regarding biological evolution, something that would have been in
the author's mind as she wrote. However, Shelley believes there is a danger in embracing these
developments without proper href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/vigilant">vigilance.
Early
fans of the Frankenstein were captivated with this cautionary
tale...
...about the destructive power that can
result when human creativity is href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/unfetter">unfettered by moral and
social concerns.
And
Frankenstein...
seems to lean towards the idea that "man cannot completely
control nature, and should not even attempt to". Instead, man should let nature take its course
and not try to change the natural order of
things.
Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein becomes a warning (almost like a parable or lesson) to those
who are too quick to embrace new sciences and technologies, as well as adopting a reversal of
ethics and moral positions of that era (though the message is still relevant
today).
Victor represents the scientist
who, in the face of personal obsession, turns his back on what he knows is morally and ethically
correct, and throws himself—without thought of consequence—into experiments to create new life,
something no human should do. Victor sins against God also when he raids graveyards for body
parts, disturbing consecrated ground. Victor loses sight of
his place in the
universe.
Shelley's warning provides examples of what happens when
someone abandons caution and conscience: Victor builds a creature and abandons it, with no regard
of his responsibility to either destroy it or teach it—or even see
if this can be done. The creature's experiences are horrific: he is first
rejected by his creator, and then by humanity—beaten and shot. He is alone in the world. With
this negative "nurturing" the creature's "nature" becomes that of a monster—who
believes he was made for love. In response to his experiences, the creature
becomes a monster—a result of a scientist's desire to create new life—even
though Victor's wish is href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/philanthropy">philanthropic, his
the death of almost everyone he loves.
I have found over the years,
that there is a paradox here: who is truly the monster, or are both "men"
monsters?
The scientist (Victor) is an
incautious, thoughtless, morally-shallow man who blindly pursues his scientific goals without
thought to the ramifications of his actions on the rest of the
world.
Additional
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution
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