Playing God In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Dipped in the fear of mass human extinction and dragged through discussions and debates on artificial life, there is one name that scientists, who are presumably have gall to play God, are very familiar with: Frankenstein. So closely associated with the motif of playing God, Frankenstein is a popularized reference point in debates on synthetic biology. In the introduction to her novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, Mary Shelley wrote, “Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavor to mock the stupendous mechanism for the Creator of the world.” (Shelley 9). The main character, Dr. Victor Frankenstein, was a brilliant scientist that reaped the consequences of his genius by ‘bestowing animation …show more content…
The moral of the story best summed up by Pieter Steinz, “The moral seems clear, and in the 21st century dominated by progressive genetic engineering and biotechnology relevant than ever: do not play God and be wary of the dangers of technology.” (Steinz 2002). Written during a time of turmoil over the technologically-based change that was taking place in the world, Frankenstein appeared at a pivotal moment in the Industrial Revolution. Being a staunch Romantic, Shelley’s novel reflects the fear of the scientific revolution that was taking place around her. Since its release, Frankenstein has been used as most popular reference to the perception of the world if artificial life was created. Described by Jon Turney as ‘the governing myth of modern biology’, Frankenstein has changed the way society views synthetic biology and even 200 years after it’s written, has had a lasting cultural impact on the ethical debates of science (Turney …show more content…
The Monster in Shelley’s novel is treated with fear and disgust because of his physical appearance by townspeople that are acting by social norms. Constantly greeted with backlash, the monster, once filled with optimism and goodness towards humanity, now seeks revenge for all the wrong done upon him. Calling out the human ethical hypocrisy, the monster says, “Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all human kind sinned against me?” (Shelley 155). Those opposed to creating life are only really opposed when it’s not what they want. In a sense, the village people of Shelley’s novel has become our society. So what does our opposition to things seemingly foreign to us say about our society? In his ethical debate article regarding Frankenstein and synthetic biology, Henk Van den Belt