The Island Vs Frankenstein

It is apparent that Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner share many thematic similarities. One of these themes is the idea of humanity, “What makes someone human?” In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein the idea of humanity is often teased with the creature. Victor sees the creature as an “abomination” and rejects him because of his imperfection/ monstrosity. Because of the creature’s appearance he is rejected by society, often being met with shrieks and horror. In Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, the replicants also feel rejected by society; however, unlike the creature they are not rejected because of physical monstrosity, instead it is because they are perfect, even more perfect than the humans that created them. In Frankenstein,

Duncan Jones’ movie, Moon, follows the story of a man named Sam Bell who is sent to space to collect “moon gas” and is nearing the end of a three year shift. Throughout the final weeks of his mission, Sam begins to experience severe health issues which eventually lead him to a near death experience. When Sam wakes up from his incident, he discovers that he is not the only one on the moon. Sam notices that there is another him, more younger and healthier, but nonetheless him. Sam’s clone convinces him that he is merely a clone as well and just a pawn of something bigger. Sam and his clone then have to solve the mystery before a rescue team comes. The film Moon can be seen as a Marxist allegory in that it encompasses the concepts found within Marx’s ideology. Marx explains his ideology through Historical Materialism, a progress/change in the distribution of economic power, which meant that history could best be understood through class struggles. Marx believed that the base of a society lied in the economics and that the owners, who were making profit, were over the workers/laborers. This was wrong because the profit owners would create a “superstructure” that was made up by the state military, police, education, religion and ideology. Marx interpreted the “superstructure” as being, “…not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness” (Ball eat

1) In the not so distant future, The House of the Scorpion, takes place in the country of Opium. This country lies between the United States and Aztlan, formerly known as Mexico. Within these borders we follow the life of a young boy named Matteo Alacran, who happens to be a clone. Not only is Matt a clone, but he happens to be the clone of the 143 year old dictator of Opium, El Patron. Since he is the copy of the most powerful man in the country Matt is given certain privileges and a wealthy upbringing, and yet because he is a clone Matt is looked down upon as second class individual by the members of El Patron’s family. It is not until later in his life that Matt realizes that the reason he is treated that way by the Alacran family is because his total existence, the reason he was created, is to provide El Patron with donor organs to prolong his life even further. The House of the Scorpion delves into the ethics behind scientific advancements and the

Man should never be allowed to play god, but creating life is something that has always been an enticing concept (American Scientist). In order to feed our fantasies about cloning and producing life, we turn to fiction novels to amaze, and sometimes to scare us. One of the best-known archetypes of this is Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. Hailed as the eighth most popular English novel in history (The Guardian), the classic story of a mad scientist named Dr. Victor Frankenstein has been the basis of countless movies and parodies (Romantic Circles). Though the name Frankenstein has become very well known, the original story as penned by Mary Shelley has been overwhelmed by the numerous derivatives that were published afterward in different forms of media including movies, plays, and even comic books. (The Frankenstein Movie and Monster Horror Film Site). The plot of the novel depicts the monster as having no other desire in life than to be loved and to assimilate seamlessly into society (Chapter 17). This shows that, contrary to popular belief Victor Frankenstein is the actual evildoer because he did not take the necessary precautions before his experimenting, he abandoned his creation and also because he came from a family that

Over the past century, Frankenstein has been analyzed and interpreted in seemingly infinite different forms of literature, film, and television shows. Once solely recognized as the story about a brilliant scientist who creates a creature in whom he regrets making after the creature turns out ugly, Frankenstein now represents an internationally recognized and commercialized pop culture symbol for Halloween decorations and costumes. When analyzing and appreciating the true literary essence behind Mary Shelley’s original Frankenstein, one of the most important comparisons to consider remains the underlying influences behind the Creature’s immoral actions and whether or not the blame for these actions belong to Victor or the Creature.

A current fear is that clones may not have the same human rights as an average human, and “some ethicists fear that the clone’s rights will be broken” (Aurelia, 2011). It is not certain if clones would be classified as strictly human, becoming second-class citizens, and seen as less important than people who are not clones. In Frankenstein, Victor’s creation is mistreated, and not seen as human. The monster struggles with abandonment, isolation, and societal discrimination. People do not see Victor’s creation as human, they fear and reject him from society, and he retaliates

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein brings his creation to life and has to endure the repercussions of his actions. While Victor is in fact human, the question of whether the creature or Victor is more human still stands. Humanity is demonstrated as compassionate in the book and monstrosity is the opposite. The creature is more human because of his developed personality and desire to be human. Victor, although born into a humane family, evolved into everything bad about humanity; he developed obsession, resentment, and manipulated life to conform to his idealities. Therefore, Victor is the real monster.

Many believe cloning is a perversion of science, and some are even concerned with a real life Frankenstein situation: “Reproductive cloning… could lead to a Dr. Frankenstein’s vision of lab manufactured humans. To me this is a perversion of science” (Ford 1). Furthermore, in Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein detached from the world as he became obsessed with his studies, diminishing his health. A similar thing could happen to scientists who clone if they decide that they are “playing god,” which can be dangerous for the scientists and the clones. Cloning is so controversial and causes an overbearing amount of stress for it to be befitting to the human mind, as Victor Frankenstein puts it, “If the study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections, and to destroy… those simple pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, then that study is certainly unlawful… not befitting of the human minds” (Shelley 50). That power trip in humans can lead to an unhealthy obsession. Scientist who create clones will have too much power, which will lead to them becoming so obsessed with their work that that is all they care about. In “The Birthmark,” Aylmer became obsessed with just the slightest flaw in a perfect woman, to the point where “when they sat together at the evening hearth his eyes wandered stealthily to her cheek…” (Hawthorne 2). Even when Aylmer was sitting, enjoying time with his wife, he was thinking about the birthmark. Also, the consequences of these obsessions can be fatal, like in “The Birthmark,” proving once again that some science can be unbefitting of

In the novel, Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, Victor and the Creature are the main references when it comes to the issues of morality. Several themes such as good versus evil, prejudice, and ambition & fallibility, the importance of friendship along with references to other famous texts like the Christian bible are manifested through the use of Victor and the Creature as they interact with each other allowing readers to construe examples of morality. Many debaters may argue the Creature is “evil” since a majority of his actions harm others while Victor is good because he was the victim and seeks to destroy his creation. However, one may counter this argument if they accentuate Victor is evil since he was the Creature’s creator,

The laboratory from where the creature in Frankenstein was created, to the DHC in Brave New World , and the creation of humans by God in Paradise lost all share one thing in common. They both share the common theme which the art and science of creating a human life. All three of the novels want to have pure human beings free from disease and distress. But the novels also want to have social stability.

All throughout Mary Shelley's novel she tells a story about how Victor the creator is clearly the real monster and his creation is the victim. Moral of the story the monster in frankenstein is only characterized to be a monster because that's what the people define him to be. Society has certain standards and it you don't meet their requirements then you're considered “abnormal.”

In the end of the book of Gris Grimley's Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein dies still with many regrets that he had made in the past. One of his biggest regrets was creating a monster in his laboratory who ended up doing many unforgivable things like murdering Victor's little brother Williams. The monster also went on to do many horrible things and therefore I think that the monster should not be considered human.

Frankenstein; the creature lashes out on the human species. The creature believes that his creator is at the one to blame for the injustice that he faces because he brought him to life. He says “cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live, did I not extinguish the spark of existence….. My feelings were of rage and revenge” (Shelly, 121) As a result of the way his creator treated him, the monster planned vengeance. Vengeance against a parent is morally wrong. Revenge is caused by hatred. This means that the monster had a great deal of hate toward his creator. The little humanity that the monster had was gone now that he no longer feels guilt or the need to control his anger. He declares “For the first time the feelings of revenge and hatred filled my bosom and I did not strive to control them, but allowing myself to be borne away by the stream, I bent my mind towards injury and death” (shelly, 121) it is ethically wrong to wish death and injury upon once mother or father. Dr. Frankenstein stood as a father figure for the monster. The hate that comes from the monster is due to the fact that he was rejected by his creator and left in isolation. Upon the realization that he was truly a monster and that the people would not accept him the monster professed “There were none among the myriad of man that existed who would pity or assist me: and should I feel kindness toward my

To what extent do you feel that genetic experimentation should be allowed, especially experiments that involve the creation of human life in the laboratory and the cloning of human beings?

Monster stories have surfaced in nearly every culture, language, and place throughout humankind?s history. The monster stories take the form of vampires, ghosts, zombies, werewolves, and evil beings, and they are all shared themes found throughout various cultures. The common factor between these monsters is that they are all arguably monstrous and evil by nature. Vampires want our blood, zombies ghosts want to terrorize us, zombies want our brains, and werewolves want to bite us, however, for the creature in Frankenstein that is not the case.