Moral Issues in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Frankenstein or, the Modern Prometheus is a famous gothic novel written by Mary Shelley in 1818. The story revolves around a young scientist, Victor Frankenstein, who creates a monstrous being in an unorthodox experiment and has to deal with the traumatic repercussions of his creation. For this essay, I will be using the Moral and Philosophical Approach to Criticism to analyze this novel. This school was evident in the novel as it offers many interesting avenues of philosophical exploration in regards to religion and the creation of life. Through the use of literary devices such as archetypes, symbolism, and hamartia, the author raises important philosophical questions about morality and the inevitable …show more content…
Frankenstein embodies the archetype of the mad scientist. As a scientist, his ambition and desire for knowledge propel him to find the source to create life. Ironically, because of his thirst for knowledge, he struggles with mental sanity. An example would be during his process of creating life found in Chapter 4 as he recollects his memory and states, "My limbs now tremble and my eyes swim with the remembrance; but then a resistless, and almost frantic, impulse urged me forward; I seemed to have lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit" (Shelley, Chapter 4). This quote explains to readers that through Frankenstein's memory, he was able to identify that he was drawn by his desires to the task of creating life; proving his mental and physical instability. Furthermore, a mad scientist is defined as, "An individual who conducts scientific experiments, invents something scientific, or does original scientific research, all while suffering from both psychological and moral insanity " (Nevins). Dr. Frankenstein exhibits all the characteristics described in the above quotation. Due to his unfaltering ambition to create the monster in secrecy out of the intentions to acquire knowledge, the monster became a villainous being causing major …show more content…
The device was used to demonstrate Dr. Frankenstein's flaws leading to his tragic downfall in the story. Dr. Frankenstein's hamartia is his uncontrollable ambition and his need to imitate God. His ambitions to create life eventually turned him into a form of God, which he later regretted as his creation destroyed everything dear to him. Dr. Frankenstein states, "Great God! ... I would rather have banished myself forever from my native country and wandered a friendless outcast over the earth... the monster had blinded me to his real intentions; and when I thought that I had prepared only my own death, I hastened that of a far dearer victim" (Shelley, Chapter 22). From this quote, readers learn that Dr. Frankenstein's act of playing God became a torturous outcome for him as beholds the many tragedies his creation has made and wishes that he would not have created him in the first place. Dr. Frankenstein's actions have raised an important question, still relevant today, about the morality of imitating God. A scientist, Dr. Ventor, have been accused of playing God as he created a lifeform by synthesising a DNA code. Critics like, Michael Hanlon has stated "His bacterium is likely to be weak and feeble... But it is hard to escape the feeling that a boundary has been crossed. The problem is, it is far from clear where we go from here" (Macrae). Hence, this proves that although future artificial developments are a
Frankenstein or, the Modern Prometheus is a famous gothic novel written by Mary Shelley in 1818. The story revolves around a young scientist, Victor Frankenstein, who creates a monstrous being in an unorthodox experiment and has to deal with the traumatic repercussions of his creation. For this essay, I will be using the Moral and Philosophical Approach to Criticism to analyze this novel. This school was evident in the novel as it offers many interesting avenues of philosophical exploration in regards to religion and the creation of life. Through the use of literary devices such as archetypes, symbolism, and hamartia, the author raises important philosophical questions about morality and the inevitable …show more content…
Frankenstein embodies the archetype of the mad scientist. As a scientist, his ambition and desire for knowledge propel him to find the source to create life. Ironically, because of his thirst for knowledge, he struggles with mental sanity. An example would be during his process of creating life found in Chapter 4 as he recollects his memory and states, "My limbs now tremble and my eyes swim with the remembrance; but then a resistless, and almost frantic, impulse urged me forward; I seemed to have lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit" (Shelley, Chapter 4). This quote explains to readers that through Frankenstein's memory, he was able to identify that he was drawn by his desires to the task of creating life; proving his mental and physical instability. Furthermore, a mad scientist is defined as, "An individual who conducts scientific experiments, invents something scientific, or does original scientific research, all while suffering from both psychological and moral insanity " (Nevins). Dr. Frankenstein exhibits all the characteristics described in the above quotation. Due to his unfaltering ambition to create the monster in secrecy out of the intentions to acquire knowledge, the monster became a villainous being causing major …show more content…
The device was used to demonstrate Dr. Frankenstein's flaws leading to his tragic downfall in the story. Dr. Frankenstein's hamartia is his uncontrollable ambition and his need to imitate God. His ambitions to create life eventually turned him into a form of God, which he later regretted as his creation destroyed everything dear to him. Dr. Frankenstein states, "Great God! ... I would rather have banished myself forever from my native country and wandered a friendless outcast over the earth... the monster had blinded me to his real intentions; and when I thought that I had prepared only my own death, I hastened that of a far dearer victim" (Shelley, Chapter 22). From this quote, readers learn that Dr. Frankenstein's act of playing God became a torturous outcome for him as beholds the many tragedies his creation has made and wishes that he would not have created him in the first place. Dr. Frankenstein's actions have raised an important question, still relevant today, about the morality of imitating God. A scientist, Dr. Ventor, have been accused of playing God as he created a lifeform by synthesising a DNA code. Critics like, Michael Hanlon has stated "His bacterium is likely to be weak and feeble... But it is hard to escape the feeling that a boundary has been crossed. The problem is, it is far from clear where we go from here" (Macrae). Hence, this proves that although future artificial developments are a