Social Morality In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

When people do not follow social situations moral actions will become less and less common. The worst parts of human nature will begin to appear, commonly accepted manners and politeness will likewise not be observed. Social conventions are what keep typical polite and civil society working and are the foundations upon which we interact with one another. They are the unspoken rules of society and everyone is expected to follow them. When they are not observed it can be disconcerting at best and violent at worst.

When social conventions are not followed some will take certain liberties with their behavior and professions that they would not otherwise indulge. In Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein Victor Frankenstein robs graves and attaches body parts in his hideous attempt at creating life. He describes in detail his misdeeds, “ To me, the churchyard was a receptacle of bodies deprived of life” (Shelley 38). He goes on to say, “I saw how the worms infested the wonders of the eye and brain” (Shelley 38). Tho his actions are illegal and frowned upon to desecrate a corpse or a grave he is nonetheless free of social convention to experiment and his morals fall by the wayside. Similarly, Victor goes only by his rules when he attempts to create a second monster at the behest of the first one. Victor describes his actions at the beginning of chapter 20, “I was now about to form another being, of whose dispositions I was

Jekyll and MR. Hyde. share a common theme of the consequences that follow a lack of social convention. The death and despair that follows the experiments and mad science of Victor Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll is a result of their poor moral choices as a result of the lack. Further, the fate that befalls those around them is a result of their actions and in both cases, their actions result in their own deaths. In this way Lack of social convention leads to the worst parts of human