Irresponsibility In Oryx And Crake

Scientific discoveries of the last century have become increasingly intricate, allowing humans to do what was widely considered impossible. However, when the impossible is reached, it comes into question the ethics of the technologies these advances bring about. Through these developments, are humans losing the simplest aspects of humanity? This is the dilemma portrayed throughout Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake. Firstly, both texts have similar portrayals of the theme of the dangerous nature of irresponsibility in a scientific and moral sense, with Victor indirectly causing the deaths of his loved ones, while scientists featured in Oryx and Crake create transgenic animals just because they can. Additionally, …show more content…
Firstly, Victor shows a lack of scientific responsibility throughout his creation of the monster, and his subsequent abandonment of the experiment. During the process of building the creature, Victor is obsessed with the idea of discovering the path of immortality and being hailed by a population of creatures of his own invention. This clouds his judgement to the point he does not realize his own horrified feelings for the being. Only upon the experiments success, “…the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (Shelley 59). As the result of his obsession with stopping death, Victor fails to realize the magnitude of what he is doing; creating a new life. He is unable to cope with the emotional weight of being a father figure to this new species, in contrast of his fantasy of being hailed as their great creator. Moreover, Victor is unable to stand the sight of the creature, revealing truly how unsympathetic he is to his own being’s plight, unable to see the intelligent being within his frightening appearance. Then, Victor exhibits a new degree of irresponsibility by choosing to run away from his experiment, instead of facing the dilemma. Additionally, Victor exhibits a lack of moral responsibility by endangering his friends and family with his silence of the monster, therefore indirectly causing their deaths. “I have one secret, Elizabeth… I will confide this tale of misery and terror after our marriage shall take place, for… there must be perfect confidence between us” (233). Victor does not warn Elizabeth of the Creature’s deliberate threat towards her, not wanting to ruin their relationship. Even with a deliberate threat towards her: “I shall be with you on your wedding night” (173), Victor fails to have the common decency to alert Elizabeth of her incoming demise. However, this