Frankenstein

The reading of Frankenstein turned out to be one of my favorite experiences this summer. The romantic novel, authored by Mary Shelley, was a representation of Shelley's critique of her society's views and discrimination. Her critique of society also involves the idea of technology and knowledge being destructive. 

           In Frankenstein Shelly portrays Victor as the representation of the pursuit of knowledge and the destructive powers that it has. The struggle that Victor Frankenstein faces is one of divine proportions as he is a figure of intervention, analogous to that of Prometheus. His divine intervention is a self-destructive event which brings down the fabric of Victor's life and negatively affects society, regardless of the intent. Shelley's focus on the effects of destructive knowledge, her emphasis on natural events such as the climate, shows that she is ultimately critical of the unnatural intervention that modern scientists wish to achieve. Her opinion is not a rejection of these scientific advancements but more of a warning to people and society about the potential destructiveness of these advancements and what is characterized as unnatural science. While Frankenstein’s narrative is one of self-reflexivity, he still maintains his beliefs that the monster must be destroyed, thus proving that he didn’t learn anything. This specific event was Shelley’s most explicit example of scientists and the role unnatural science plays in individual ethical developments. Shelley speaks through Victor in the end of the book when Victor warns about becoming obsessed and the unhealthy role that his experiments ay in his societal development and the development of relationships in his life. Ultimately Victor reverts back to the destructive ways he had accustomed to as he still warns Walton and prompts Walton to kill the creature if given the chance to do so. This highlights Shelley’s harsh comments on the abdication of moral responsibility and the negative effects that intervention, and ultimately one’s ego, have one’s character development, in this instance it is Victor, but this is a much larger social critique that Shelley has surrounding these developments.

            Shelley’s second and more significant societal criticism in the novel is that of discrimination and unjust societal judgment. Her portrayal of the monster not as the victimizer, but as the victim thus paints society as the victimizer and shifts the blame from the monster to the actions of society. Portraying the monster as the protagonist and the society he was placed in as the antagonist, and ultimately the villain, allows Shelley to remain critical of the practices of the current society she was in. This still holds true today, as the monster would experience the same segregation and discrimination he faced in the novel, this necessarily societies fault, and there has been little indication of a social change since Shelley’s writing of the novel. This largely holds true due to the fact, that discrimination of the other is inevitable due to human psychology and basic human nature, which is why Shelley is not only critical of society but also of the unjust human nature within oneself.