Science And Science Fiction In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

If Frankenstein is a book of its age, it also looks ahead to its century 's end when interest in the human psyche uncovered the unconscious mind. The idea of the Doppleganger, the double who shadows us, had been around since the origins of the Gothic novel in the 1760s. By the end of the nineteenth century, works such as Stevenson 's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde made the idea that we had more than one self common. Capable of both great good and evil, we had, it seemed, a "monster" always potentially within us and not always under our control. Freud 's splitting of the psyche put the monster-like id at the core of our persons.

"Frankenstein." A horror fiction, gothic novel infused with the elements of the Romantic Movement. The 280 paged book is sectioned into three narratives; Firstly, Walton 's story to his sibling, and the thought of seeking knowledge. Secondly, there is Victor Frankenstein 's story to Robert Walton and the idea of glory and bringing life to death. Thirdly, the creature 's story to Victor Frankenstein and how he became a monster due to society.

This woman writer was the progenitor of a new literary form which is “gothic science-fiction.” This means that science-fiction is in symbiosis with the gothic as it incorporates its major tropes. In her novel, she takes the gothic trope of fear in order to express the distress concerning technological innovation and scientific progress/experimentation. Gothic science fiction, therefore, is “a product of cultural anxieties about the nature of human identity, the stability of cultural formations, and processes of change” (280). Frankenstein adopts gothic tropes while infiltrating science in the body of the narrative. Shelley’s text is perceived as an indictment of science which contributes to the creation of human beings/the birth myth.

We often don’t realize the negative aspects that come along with being ambitious. Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, elaborates on this idea and conveys how these aspects can affect us. In her novel, the main character, Victor Frankenstein, is a scientist who finds the secret of animating dead flesh back to life. He uses this secret to create a superhuman giant, yet soon runs away from his creation, after realizing how hideous he looks. As the creation makes his way out into the world, he receives hatred for his repulsive countenance.

“You seek for knowledge and wisdom, as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been”. –Victor Frankenstein. Frankenstein, written by the English author Mary Shelley, was a gothic, horror fiction, soft science fiction novel, published in London on 1818. The pursuit of knowledge is at the heart of Frankenstein, as Victor attempts to surge beyond accepted human limits and access to the secret of life. Frankenstein has several characters, some of them are very important for the developing of the story.

Susan Sontag, an author of the essay “Imagination Disaster,” explores the world of science fiction as she discusses the tropes in films from the mid-1900s. Throughout her essay, Sontag analyzes why these types of films were created, and basically ties her discussion with humanity. With the growing technological advances, science fiction films state specific things about how science threatens humanity. She also ties her discussion to how sci-fi films tend to serve an attempt at distributing a balance between humanity and the technological world. Sontag claims that science fiction films has suspense, shock, surprises, has an inexorable plot, and how they invite a dispassionate, aesthetic view of destruction and violence.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a cautionary tale of man's dangerous ambition when testing the boundaries of technology. It combines Shelley’s intuitive perception of science with the vast scientific discoveries of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, specifically the discovery of the nature of electricity. In Frankenstein, electricity serves as the technological tool which creates the monster, giving life to an assemblage of lifeless body parts. Medical experiments of the time demonstrated how a dead frog leg would jolted with the injection of electricity. This phenomenon served as a bridge between science (electricity) and nature( biology).

In other words, the light of science in Frankenstein is creation. Furthermore, Victor Frankenstein pursued his scientific abilities too far and suffered the consequences of life. Light begins as a symbol with the letters at the beginning of Frankenstein. Walton writes letters to his sister informing her that he is on his way to eternal light. As his letters continue, the light is described in detail.

Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley in 1818, is recognized as the most famous literary romantic and gothic novel that uses various types of languages and themes to convey a message to readers. Frankenstein is best known for the defying laws of nature in which Victor Frankenstein reanimates life with his knowledge of science. The novel denotes darkness which could originate from Shelley’s many experiences with deaths or the influences of the Romanticism period that Shelley lived in. The creation of Frankenstein was established in 1818 with three other Romantic authors who challenged themselves to write a horror story. Frankenstein was created on Shelley’s determination to come up with the most terrifying story, and a dream about a scientist

“Whenever the creation order is inverted, there is disorder, destruction, and death. When we tamper with this order, even a little, we become life-takers rather than life-givers”(J. Ligon Duncan III ). This quote plays a large part in the overall literature that is Frankenstein; it pulls together the attributes of the story in a way I haven’t seen before. This essay will be focusing on the relationship between the gothic novel of Frankenstein, and the greek myth of Prometheus. It will be a compare and contrast of the dueling stories.