How Does Shelley Use Scientific Elements In Frankenstein

The periodical context of the novel exhibited revolutionary changes to the pre existing foundations of neoclassicism and its complementary sense of reason and enlightenment. Romanticism with its emphasis on feeling, passion, imagination and emotion was spreading malignantly. It was this concoction of imagination and passion that allowed Shelley to question the scientific endeavour and its associated consequences of the era and to challenge her audience reconsider them. I will discuss the most prominent views of the era, which were that scientists could fully account for what makes up humanity, that scientific endeavour should have free reign and that females were passive figures.

Victor Frankenstein was in awe of the mysteries of us as
conscious beings and what makes up ‘humanity’, but rapidly developed a flawed sense of confidence, which lead to an unrecognised lack of understanding and ultimately lead to dire consequences. As Victor reaches a pinnacle in his discovery and quest to create life, he narrates with great exuberance that he “was like the Arabian who had been buried with the dead and found a passage to life”. This simile shows Victors attempt at comparing himself with the subjects of mythology and legend, this suggests to the audience that Victor himself believes that he embodies the traits of these subjects. This in turn shows his flawed sense of self-confidence. It is only when he is confronted with the consequences of William and Justine’s death, who were the “first hapless victims to (Victors) unhallowed arts”, that he realised that his dangerous lack of understanding had caused their death. The use of the phrase ‘unhallowed arts’ has spiritual and religious connotations. The use of this by Victor shows the audience that he is starting to accept that there is more to humanity than the physical form of a human being. Although it did require the dire consequences of William and Justine’s death to resolve to opacity of his poor judgement as cause by his intoxicating self confidence. Ultimately this series of unsettling events challenges the audience to reconsider the idea that scientists can fully account for what makes up humanity.

Victor’s sense of morality was warped by his ambition of discovery and scientific endeavour.
As he came closer to creating life, the magnitude of his ambition increased to a point that he was able to rob graves purely for the purposes of his experiments. “A churchyard to (him) was merely the receptacle of bodies deprived of life... forced to spend days and nights in vaults and charnel-houses”. The ironic personification of the corpses with ‘forced’ and ‘deprived’ shows that Victor ironically still sees the corpses as human beings, by treating them with human qualities, but still doesn’t see that a churchyard has any spiritual significance but is rather a ‘merely’ inanimate ‘receptacle’. This shows the audience the extent to which his moral judgement is flawed, so much so that there is an ironic or paradoxical nature to it. Because his purpose for grave digging was directly linked to his scientific endeavour, it follows that his sense of morality was warped by his ambition. Mary Shelley challenges the idea of giving scientists free reign in their endeavours, by showing us that they still have human qualities such as ambition and its associated flaws and giving them an almost immortal and god like control could have drastic
consequences.

Mary Shelley’s aversion to the figure of the passive female stems from two causes, her being a female and her mother being a strong feminist author. Shelley introduces Elizabeth early in the novel as a passive female in the way that she was a “pretty present for… Victor” and his to “protect, love and cherish”, “till death she was to be (his) only”. This language shows the objectification of Elizabeth, she is a present rather than a friend for Victor. There is also a suggestion of ownership in ‘till death she is mine’, to Victor. This shows the audience that Elizabeth is a possession of Victor and lower on a hierarchical scale to him. Therefore, Victor has control over her making him the active male coupled with Elizabeth as the passive female. The use of this strong language suggests Shelley’s negative view of passive female figures and in turn challenges us to reconsider the accepted norm of passive female figures.

Imagination is a key component of scientific discovery and the development of society, it follows that imagination can be at times dangerous in its outcomes. But imagination also allows the exploration of these outcomes before they occur in reality, giving salvation to the devastating outcomes. Mary Shelley has used the latter form of imagination to open the eyes of the humans in this era, of great scientific discovery, to challenge what has been made acceptable by society