Frankenstein Impromptu
Marie Portes
AP LIT
Notes on Frankenstein Impromptu
After the death of his mother, Victor Frankenstein develops an obsession with cheating death. Our obsessions have the power to rule us, and Frankenstein loses himself in his creation. His creation takes on a life of its home. At the first sight of it, Frankenstein is filled with dread. He realizes he has created something that is a threat to humanity. It is horrendously ugly, and will kill many people throughout the novel. Science is not something to play with. Humans often forget the power of Nature, much like a child forgets the power of the ocean before getting swept away by an undercurrent. We inhabit this Earth but act as though it is ours. Alive for 2,000 years, we are ridiculously ignorant of the ways of the universe yet seek to explain and understand it. In this search, scientific research has had disastrous results.
When Mary Shelley wrote this novel, it is impossible to set aside the influence of the time period. In the midst of the Industrial Revolution, urban areas were filling up, and factories growing exponentially. Young children labored all day, with small fingers perfect to weave cloth. Women and men lost their live in mines, and men worked hours on end in the factories. Humanity was lost. People where simply parts of a machine; replicable and replaceable. Their minds or abilities were not valued, and in the search for progress, humanity became cruel and gritty.
Life and Death are things we will never understand. The Universe is something we will never understand. Yet man will chase it to his own doom, fighting to keep the illusion of control over the world. We are not the masters of life, and Frankenstein made a grievous mistake in attempting to reign it in.
This cautionary tale is timeless, in that it warns us of the perils of our obsession with progress and control. The atomic bomb was created by scientists who, when it went off for the first time, felt the dame fear that Frankenstein
AP LIT
Notes on Frankenstein Impromptu
After the death of his mother, Victor Frankenstein develops an obsession with cheating death. Our obsessions have the power to rule us, and Frankenstein loses himself in his creation. His creation takes on a life of its home. At the first sight of it, Frankenstein is filled with dread. He realizes he has created something that is a threat to humanity. It is horrendously ugly, and will kill many people throughout the novel. Science is not something to play with. Humans often forget the power of Nature, much like a child forgets the power of the ocean before getting swept away by an undercurrent. We inhabit this Earth but act as though it is ours. Alive for 2,000 years, we are ridiculously ignorant of the ways of the universe yet seek to explain and understand it. In this search, scientific research has had disastrous results.
When Mary Shelley wrote this novel, it is impossible to set aside the influence of the time period. In the midst of the Industrial Revolution, urban areas were filling up, and factories growing exponentially. Young children labored all day, with small fingers perfect to weave cloth. Women and men lost their live in mines, and men worked hours on end in the factories. Humanity was lost. People where simply parts of a machine; replicable and replaceable. Their minds or abilities were not valued, and in the search for progress, humanity became cruel and gritty.
Life and Death are things we will never understand. The Universe is something we will never understand. Yet man will chase it to his own doom, fighting to keep the illusion of control over the world. We are not the masters of life, and Frankenstein made a grievous mistake in attempting to reign it in.
This cautionary tale is timeless, in that it warns us of the perils of our obsession with progress and control. The atomic bomb was created by scientists who, when it went off for the first time, felt the dame fear that Frankenstein