Frankenstein

Frankenstein and Scientific Knowledge

In the novel Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Victor Frankenstein is a young scientist who seeks the secret of life and the promise of youth. In doing so, he creates a monster from dead body parts, hopefully finding a cure for sickness and death. After working for years on his project, Victor has finally completed his masterpiece. However, after seeing this hideous creature he runs for cover because he cannot stand the sight of his monstrous creation. By the time Victor had returned to his house after fleeing, the monster was already gone with the sense of abandonment forever instilled in his heart. The Monster then feels neglected by his creator and swears revenge upon Victor and his loved ones. In his plot for vengeance the monster kills everything important to Victor, in order to make him realize the wrong he has done. Upon these happenings, the monster learns a lot about the culture that surrounds him such as language, history, the social structure and feelings. Through the eyes of the monster, we can see that the misuse of scientific knowledge has a large impact on the functions of social class and how a society views the members of its community. The novel has a strong opinion on the importance of the social class structure during the time the novel was written, focusing on the middle class.

The misuse of scientific knowledge that Victor used to create the monster, caused him to live in agony and harm members of society due to their brutal response to his uncontrollable deformity. "When I looked around, I saw and heard of none like me. Was I then a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled, an whom all men disowned?" (Shelley 95) This shows that because the monster was brought to life in such an unrealistic, human way, and with his inhumanly looks, people shunned him and caused the monster to regret life and his creation. The abuse of Victor's knowledge led to the monster and his failure in society. Knowledge is only good if it does not interfere with life and if does not take away a passion that one has. Knowledge is a tool that is very important to people. But if the knowledge obtained caused harm, or causes a person to lose track of what is really important in life, then the importance of that knowledge is void. The importance of knowledge is to enrich our lives, not destroy them and our passion for activities we love. For example, Victor's passion for science was forever marred by the creation of the Monster, who had no choice, but to come alive and live as he did.

Social class determines the rank of a person in society's eyes. "I heard the division of property, of immense wealth and squalid poverty; of rank, decent, and noble blood" (Shelley 95). Social class is determined merely by the objects a person owns and how much money they make. Today, social class is still a very important status people look at and try to obtain the highest level. "I learned that the possessions most esteemed by your fellow creatures were, high... A man might be respected with only one of the acquisitions; but without either he was considered, except in very rare instances, as a vagabond and a slave, doomed to waste his powers for the powers for the profit of the chosen few" (Shelley 95). Basically possessions determine a person's social rank in the eyes of the other members of the community. If one has no possessions they are considered to be on the lowest level. But who is to say what possessions are? If a person has a lot of friends and family they are rich with love and people, is that not important enough to be placed in a higher social standing? The monster did not own anything, nor did he have any money. But he had villagers whom were his friends, and took care of him. He learned and acquired knowledge through these villagers that made him a better "person." Is that not what is really important in life? Social class benefits the social standing of the upper class in the eyes