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Can Man Play The Role Of God In Frankenstein Essay

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Throughout the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley discusses a plethora of themes. She presents these themes through the characters and their actions. Some of these themes can spark some arguments and raise a few questions. One of these themes presented in Frankenstein is birth and creation and presents a significant topic in today’s world. Can man play the role of God? Victor Frankenstein had a normal childhood. His father was well respected by many people and had a comfortable environment to learn and develop in. He begins to have a huge thirst for knowledge after he finds a volume of Cornelius Agrippa’s work in his house. He begins reading works from Paracelsus and Albert Magnus, who are both scientists of alchemy. At the University of Ingolstadt, Victor studies natural philosophy. He becomes obsessed with how things are alive and how others aren’t. He wants to figure out how to make non-living things into living one and starts to study anatomy. “. . . I must also observe the natural decay and corruption of the human body” (Shelley, 36). However, his combination of old and new science to create life leads him down a path of self-destruction. Shelley discusses the birth and creation through Victor, who succeeds in creating life. During this, he starts to take on the roles of God and women. Frankenstein uses his “. . . workshop …show more content…

There are many examples of people taking the role of God. One example is the use of genetic engineering. Genetic engineering is the process of manually adding new DNA in an organism. The purpose is to add one or more traits that are not found in that organism. Dr David L. Perry is criticizing arguments that go against genetic engineering. Perry argues that while theologians claim that genetic engineering is condemned as “violating the dignity of human life”, parents who desire healthy children is not a violation of human dignity, but rather acceptable and even praiseworthy (Can we Play God?,

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