You are about to hear the creature’s side of the story. Before that happens, let’s reflect on Frankenstein. How would you describe his character? Is he good or evil? What drives him? Is he a reliable narrator? Do you trust him? Use evidence from the text to tie Frankenstein’s actions to education, credo or power.Victor Frankenstein's character is very obsessive and possessive. I think that he had innocent yet arrogant intentions when making the creature. He doesn't seem like he wanted to hurt anyone or put anyone in danger, but he wanted to demonstrate his power over the laws of nature by creating artificial life. Ultimately, that is veil,however he becomes evil without trying to. However, he also doesn’t try to be inherently good, since he only thinks of himself. The fact that he went two full years not really worried about what his monster was up to also signifies his selfishness and carelessness when it came to other people. He created a life in a powerful body, but doesn’t seem to take in account the great amounts of danger the creature brings with it, especially since Frankenstein did nothing to help build a good moral character for the creature, who is just like a baby, new to life. This is, again, another example of Frankenstein having awful foresight in the book, specifically to the havoc his creature is wreaking throughout Germany. Selfish Frankenstein only seems to care when things impact him directly, and since he got the self-glorification he wanted by creating this masterpiece of artificial life, he couldn’t care less about what happens after to the creature, because it seems to have nothing to do with Frankenstein. He is obsessed with gaining knowledge over everything seen through his intense studies leading up to his creation. Frankenstein's credo is his value of superficiality, because many decisions he makes is because of physical appearance. He loves Elizabeth because she is physically beautiful, and is afraid of his creature because he looks disgusting. This characterizes his relationships with both characters, from love and longing for Elizabeth to complete disregard, disgust, and carelessness for the creature. This also seen through is acceptance of the taller better-looking professor compared to the short fat one.
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What message might Victor be missing when he dreams that his kiss turns Elizabeth into a corpse? In Chapter 5, when Victor dreams about Elizabeth, he kisses her, and she dies, morphing into an ugly decayed human comparable to his dead mother. I think that the message Victor might be missing is how the dream is foreshadowing that Elizabeth is going to die just like his mother. Also, since she turns into a corpse when he kisses her, it seems to point towards the idea that Victor will cause her death with innocent intentions. Having this dream immediately after his creation came to life, we, as readers, can infer that the creature will cause her death, which can be a way of balancing Frankenstein’s interruption of nature through the scientific construction of a human being, acting as karma and restoration, where a life is taken for the life Victor supplied the creature. Victor’s attempt to play “God” will definitely reap significant consequences, and most likely the death of many people, even the ones he holds dear to his heart. This can be supported by the immediate contrast of the creation of the hideous creature and the idea of Elizabeth becoming a corpse. Also, with the motif of beauty, in the eyes of Frankenstein, the creature turns from a beautiful body to an ugly monster, when he receives life, whereas Elizabeth turns from being “in the bloom of health” to being “livid with the hue of death” in his dream. Shelley uses a variety of different characteristics in order to juxtapose the difference between the creature and Elizabeth, both of which were obsessed over by Victor, but have different fates due to his selfishness and deep passion for science and extreme capacity for ambition and aspiration to overpower natural laws. His disregard for this dream is one of the many examples of Frankenstein having extremely poor foresight in the novel.
The novel explores the nature and limits of scientific experiment. When Shelley wrote this novel, science had not developed to a point where the secrets of life were opened to it. Now, science has unraveled the secret of DNA, defined the genetic code, experimented with cloning, and explored the complexities of human engineering. Write your view of the questions facing scientists and our society today.I don’t think there should be limitations on scientific discoveries, because as humans, it is necessary for us to gain knowledge to improve the evolution of our species. This science can help us find cures, treatments, and create technologies that can improve the quality of life for us and future generations. There can’t really be a single decision made to stop someone from receiving knowledge or discovering something new, because it is necessary to human nature to constantly improve and curiously seek more than what we have. I think it’s possible for science to go too far, like if you’ve ever seen those post apocalyptic movies where the Earth is in ruins and the only source of life are robots or aliens. However, I believe that scientific discovery is helpful as long as we are responsible with the application of science to our world, so that it doesn’t harm anyone. Morality plays a big role in anything we do as humans, but is really dependent on the individual, and affects how far they are willing to take their research. Lots of people do have bad morals, but as long as the intentions for science are to do good, we shouldn’t limit it. I also see how science may affect religion. For example, the creation of life, like that in Frankenstein, would oppose monotheistic values of appreciating what God or a higher power has already gifted the world. They might see this as trying to play God, which could cause chaos and protests. Also, in pop culture, the creation of life or the alteration of human genes is always depicted negatively, in a destructive way, which could impact the attitudes of most people towards this kind of research. It stigmatizes a common fear of the unknown throughout our society, which cannot really be overcome fear until we know, and research is done to explore the possibility of human achievement. As Sir Francis Bacon said, “knowledge is power”, in which exploration will help improve our community and could lead to a deeper understanding of the natural world.
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Cameryn JusonWills Period 2 Archives
April 2017
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