Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: One Of The Best Pieces Of Literature

Your Name Your Subject and Section Your Professor’s Name March 9, 2018 Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Mary Shelley’s book, entitled Frankenstein, has been one of the most popular pieces of literature that have been written. She was only 19 years of age when the book was conceived, but nevertheless provided one of the greatest contributions towards literature, particularly in themes such as horror, and science fiction (Milner, p.149). As we already know, the whole story hinges on the aspirations of a wealthy and an extremely intelligent doctor, Victor Frankenstein. However, despite having almost everything, he still thinks that his life is incomplete as he still cannot defeat one thing – death. Due to his greed, he used his knowledge and devoted his time to “recreate life” to prove to himself that he could, by himself, cheat death and win (Ransom, p.1). However, as he succeeded bringing the creature back to life, his plans backfired as this creature (nicknamed Frankenstein) failed to grasp the ‘essentialities of what it takes to be a human’, and sought revenge against them. In retrospect of the whole story, I believe that one of the points that could be gleaned from it is the relationship of religion (and ethics) and science. Until today, the debate between how science should work and the extent on which ethics should intervene is still ongoing. In the succeeding sections of this article, a literary analysis of Mary Shelley’s book in relation to other elements of the story would be expounded. In spite of the plot and the morals behind the story, I believe that Shelley was trying to argue against religion (and ethics) instead of saying that we should abide by them. Ever since, it has been clear that science and religion have fought against each other, with some people claiming that ethics bound us from achieving greater heights in the name of science (Traynelis, pg.1). In the book, Shelley even promoted how a person should focus on a particular scientific endeavor and be proficient at it. According to her, “A mind of moderate capacity which closely pursues one study must infallibly arrive at great proficiency in that study” (Shelley, p.25). In line with the story, she was referring to the idea of being able to defeat death itself, regardless of having a moderate capacity, as long as we intensely focus on it. A point that would certainly be hindered by the rules of ethics. However, despite being a pro...