Frankenstein By Mary Shelley: Scientific Message For The Modern Age

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Frankenstein, a science fiction novel, written by Mary Shelley. According to London in 1993, in this novel, Frankenstein has ambitiously created an ugly giant named Daemon; but Daemon did not obey the wishes of Frankenstein. Instead, Daemon killed the relatives of Frankenstein, and the body and mind of Frankenstein, who had been bathed in happiness, were severely wounded and finally died in anger. There is a significant idea in this book that could guide people in the 21st century, which is to use science correctly and in a moral way. Daemon, in the story, represents the highest technology in the world; however, the final outcome was that, sadly, human beings were unable to control the high technology which they have created, and in the end, humans will destroy it. This essay will talk about why this novel teaches us a lesson on science and how to face scientific development nowadays. Firstly, scientific research should be done with a clear aim and responsibility taken by its makers. The most important is that anti-natural research should be avoided.

Firstly, scientific research should have a specific aim, so that the later process could be controlled. In the story, Frankenstein originally had no idea what he was doing. It is understandable that he just wanted to develop science. After being created, Daemon firstly had no idea about the surroundings too, he then slowly realized his existence. But he did not know who he was and did not have any sense of belonging. Therefore, it was extremely eager for human love. However, because Daemon was huge and ugly, they scare away human beings wherever they go, and even continue to be beaten. Even though Daemon was kind, they have been brave enough to save the girls. In order to communicate with human beings, gain the care and dependence between people. Daemon hid in the window of a family and learns human language and knowledge day after day. Because of its active communication with the family, it led to being beaten, and the psychology of the original good man went to extremes. It frantically wanted revenge to create its owner and killed Frankensteins loved ones.

Secondly, scientists should be responsible after their scientific work had been done. They are supposed to take responsibility and solve problems if there are some. However, in this novel, the scientist did little things to help. To elaborate, in the beginning, Daemon was a simple, kind, helpful man. In the end, he became a demon. All of this was caused by human beings. It is the human prejudice against appearance that pushes him into the abyss. The irresponsible Frankenstein is the root of all this, he was a man of arrogance, conceit, embarrassment, irresponsibility. Frankenstein shows fear, hesitation, and cowardice in the face of the demons which they created, and lack of temperament. He was unable to defend the people they love, and eventually, they were defeated by the wicked. So only It can be said that Frankensteins tragedy is that he is self-defeating.

Most importantly, though humans conquer nature without fear, and are eager to change the laws of nature, anti-natural is destined to be punished. People live in is surrounded by machines. The machine replaced the workforce on a large scale. The man became a slave to the machine and became a screw on the big machine of society. Personality, initiative, and creativity have been killed as never before. The rule of the machine also caused the social division of labor and large-scale movement to the city. It destroyed the previously stable rural communities and replaced them with atomic individuals who were strangers in the city. In this process, social productivity increases like a snowball, and knowledge increase like a nuclear burst. But the emotional bond that people used to live on has also been destroyed as never before. Our era is madly worshiping wealth and personal achievement, and the accumulation of material wealth is unprecedented. But all these rewards people are the deeper separation between people and a greater difference in value. This seems to be a ruthless mockery of the value of reason and material wealth. The machine has no life, but it is not completely within our control. The machine invented, like the giant of Frankenstein, has a sense of self and is not bound by us. For example, cars bring convenience, but they also bring car accidents and deaths; mobile phones break the barriers of space, but people have been harassed by SMS, advertising, and spam. Technology has brought about an explosion of productivity, but it has also brought about massive unemployment, making people’s labor more repetitive and mechanical. When people are madly asking for technology, technology is constantly retaliating against them like Frankenstein’s geeks. So many times the fear is not the technology itself, but human beings who cannot use technology correctly. The author has long foreseen the imbalance between the rapid development of science and technology and the development of human reason. Pesticide abuse, atomic bombing, etc. have verified her here. The prophecy in the novel, the tragedy is not caused by the technology itself, but by the defects of human nature.

In addition, the root of all tragedies is the discrimination of people. People’s discrimination turns the original kind monster into evil and turns into a devil. In fact, many tragedies in the world are caused by discrimination. In the novel, only one person is willing to be friends with him. That person is a blind grandfather. Because he is a blind person, he can’t see his appearance, he ignores his appearance and feels his kind heart. Other people who can see him, judge what kind of person it is easy, because of his appearance. When he saw a little girl fall into the water and save the little girl. The girl’s father mistakenly thought that he would hurt the girl and fired at him. Because of his appearance, others mistakenly thought that he was a bad person and started attacking him right or wrong. Because of the existence of blinkers, people often ignore his good heart and make wrong judgments.

This novel is a Gothic novel that expresses discrimination against another person because of external factors. It has a long-term impact on technology, by telling people in the 21st century to regard and use science in the right way. It is a necessity for scientific work to have a clear aim and a person to take the whole responsibility. Additionally, anti-natural research should be forbidden because human beings do not have the ability to control it.

References:

  1. London, Bette. ‘Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, and the spectacle of masculinity.’ Publications of the Modern Language Association of America (1993): 253-267.
  2. Rushing, Janice Hocker, and Thomas S. Frentz. ‘The Frankenstein myth in contemporary cinema.’ Critical Studies in Media Communication 6.1 (1989): 61-80.

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