Morality In Frankenstein

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Dr. Frankenstein’s obsession with proving his superior intelligence leads him to violate the laws of nature, and create the creature. When Dr. Frankenstein discovers the secret of life, he is delighted because he thinks he has become “greater than his nature will allow” (43); he enjoys having this “god like” ability. At first, he hesitates with his project of creating life, but he cannot control his desire for success so he begins to create a creature. He states, “I doubted at first whether I should attempt the creation of a being like myself … but my imagination was too exalted by my first success to permit me to doubt of my ability to give life to an animal as complex and wonderful as man” (42). Because Dr. Frankenstein is such a young scientist, …show more content…
Frankenstein tries to give life to a creature by combining corpses’ body parts. He collects these parts deviously without having the approval of the dead’s’ families, which is immoral. As the verification of this, in the article “The Rights of the Corpses”, John Sutton Baglow argues, “If rights consist of the obverse of obligations, it is clear that corpses have their rights, because the living, across cultures, observe the obligations of their culture and society to the corpse” (236). Thus, even though after people die, they should be properly placed to rest and respected. Nevertheless, Dr. Frankenstein abuses the corpses without respect. He secretly accesses and uses the corpses because in his heart, he understands that it is illegal to use dead people’s bodies. Moreover, Dr. Frankenstein dares to break the cycle-of-life by creating life himself. All creatures on the earth have their own ways of giving birth, and this is an unspoken “law”. Dr. Frankenstein undermines this law of nature, and plays “god” by fostering the “birth” of the creature. The novel confirms that the consequence of playing “god” is a disaster: Dr. Frankenstein eventually loses not only his family and best friend, but also his …show more content…
Frankenstein never considers the consequences of his acts as he creates the creature, thus he is selfish and irresponsible. Before Dr. Frankenstein creates the creature, he admits he may not fully succeed, but he hopes to provide foundations for the future successes of other scientists (43). It seems Dr. Frankenstein is a great scientist since he is willing to devote his failure to other people’s success. However, this is not the truth. This is only an excuse to continue his experiment. He actually tries to grasp every opportunity to become “god”, which can be validated by his comments, “A new species who would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me” (43). In short, it is selfish that Dr. Frankenstein only thinks of his own good, and disregards that of other people: in the novel, he never shows any concern for society when he decides to begin his experiment. He never considers if this new species will get along with humans, or the possibility of his project becoming a failure. What he has in mind is only the enthusiasm of discovering the secret of life. Also, he was mentally ill while he devoted himself to the experiment: in the article “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the Fate of Modern Scientific Psychology”, Bernd Jager explains, “Dr. Frankenstein’s madness arose from his naive and messianic belief in natural scientific and his subsequent failure to remain grounded in a rhythmic, inhabitable, familial and

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