Frankenstein: A Modern Metaphore

Towards the end of the 18th century, as the French Revolution was forcing Europe to reexamine older and more traditional ideas and politics, another revolt began to influence art, literature, and music. This was the Romantic Movement, and it challenged the intellectual underpinnings of the Enlightenment. Whereas the Enlightenment espoused rational thought and explanation of all phenomena through natural and measurable means, Romanticism focused on emotion, inspiration, horror, and the mystery of the supernatural. In her chilling tale of loss and loneliness, Mary Shelley captures the hopes, fears, and ideals of the Romantic Movement. Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus is an example of how our culture began to express these new ideas in a dark an horrific setting.

Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein

Frankenstein was written by Shelley in 1817 after making a mutual agreement between her, her poet husband Percy Shelley, and his contemporary Lord Byron to write ghost stories. Although initially published anonymously (and despite initially unkind critical reception), Shelley's tale quickly gained popular success. The story of Victor Frankenstein's blind ambition to create the unthinkable, and the ultimate and tragic consequences which followed, spoke to many uncertainties that people harbored during this time of increasing technological change. The Romantic Movement, later countered by Realsim, sought to curtail the advent of man's control over his environment - instead encouraging us to appreciate the aesthetic beauty of our environment and embrace our place within it.

Illustration for the 1831 edition by Theodore von Holst

Modern day Frankenstein

Shelley uses the creation of Frankenstein's monster as a metaphorical warning, likening the quest for scientific knowledge and its consequent power to the doctor's obsession with his dominion over the natural world. Indeed, the titular reference to "Modern Prometheus" is an allusion to the god of Greek myth that endowed humans with life and stole fire from the heavens to give to man, resulting in severe punishment by Zeus. She also seems to promote the idea that the quest for power that may be considered "god-like" is blasphemous. Victor becomes at first interested, and later obsessed, but ultimately destroyed by his desire for this sort of power. The creature, conversely, appears to be an embodiment of Shelley's prediction of our future: power without knowledge, reckless and destructive. As of the writing, man had yet to give birth to the monster of the industrial revolution, and the unknown terrors that might (and perhaps did) accompany it. Shelley's work stands as a bleak reminder of the wisdom of humility, and may give the truly wise the foresight to consider the consequences of blindly-ambitious scientific endeavor. 

Image of an atomic blast, an example of a truly disastrous technological advancement.

Despite my own belief that the quest for knowledge is entwined with our destiny as a species, I subscribe to the notion that we collectively share the responsibility of what we create. History has taught us that achieving technologies without fully understanding them can prove disastrous. Examples of this can be found in our experiences with nuclear weaponry, environmental pollution, or biological warfare. Even Alfred Nobel, creator of dynamite, is known to have suffered mixed emotions about his powerful invention being put to use as a weapon. To this end, he established the Nobel prize to promote responsible scientific progress. Similarly, we must be sure to establish a method of discovery with an inherent caution, a dedication to understand and attempt to control the consequences of our exploration of our universe.