科毕业文
题目：
弗兰肯斯坦性分析
摘
英国著名浪漫义作家玛丽·雪莱(17971851)英国著名思想家社会活动家葛德文著名女性义运动先驱沃斯通克拉夫特独生女时十九世纪英国著名诗珀斯·雪莱第二位妻子弗兰肯斯坦玛丽·雪莱1818年创作说认世界第部真正意义科幻说弗兰肯斯坦解读早期传记研究女权义分析马克思义分析弗洛伊德精神分析解读等等足文分析复杂性描写进步解欣赏深刻题—违背然充造物角色科学应类带福音非灾难
文首先作者生活历浪漫义思想歌特说影响探讨玛丽·雪莱性观根源更结合弗兰肯斯坦中性描写分析类造物情结俄狄浦斯情结社会性
文认弗兰肯斯坦悲剧幸仅寓言式预言式文分析现实意义类已掌握克隆技术天盲目追求科学需文精神指导合理应科学性发展更空间然更加亲谐
关键词：玛丽·雪莱弗兰肯斯坦性
Abstract
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley was an important writer during the age of Romanticism in English literature She was the only daughter of two literary celebrities Her father William Godwin was a revolutionary philosopher and novelist Her mother Mary Wellstone Craft was in the vanguard of feminism At the age of sixteen she met the famous British poet Percy Bysshe Shelley whom she later married By the time she was nineteen Mary Shelley had written one of the most famous novels published in 1818— Frankenstein which was known as the first science fiction in the world Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has attracted a wide variety of interpretations ranging from earlier biographical study the feminist to the Marxist the psychoanalytic and Freudian reading
This thesis will focus on the analysis of the complicated description of human nature in the novel to further understand the profound theme—human beings should not rebel against nature and science should promote the wellbeing of mankind but not bring people disasters
The thesis will firstly expound on the origin of Mary Shelley’s views on human nature according to the influences from Gothic novels Romanticism and her life experience Then the analysis will focus on human’s God Complex Oedipus Complex and human’s sociality embodied in the complicated description in Frankenstein
The last part of the thesis advocates that the tragedy in Frankenstein is not a fable but a prediction With the cloning of life forms and genetic engineering now common place human beings should make rational use of the science technology and live in harmony with nature
Key words Mary Shelley Frankenstein human nature
Contents
1 Introduction 1
2 Origin of Mary Shelley’s Views on Human Nature 2
21 Influence from Gothic Novels 2
22 Influence from Romanticism 3
23 Influence from Life Experiences 3
3 Analysis of Human nature in Frankenstein 4
31 Human’s God Complex 4
32 Human’s Oedipus Complex 6
33 Human’s Sociality 8
4 Realistic meaning of the analysis 10
5 Conclusion 12
Bibliography 13
Acknowledgements 15
Analysis of Human Nature in Frankenstein
1 Introduction
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797 1851) was born in London England She was the only daughter of two literary celebrities Her father William Godwin (1756 1836) was a revolutionary philosopher and novelist Her mother Mary Wollstonecraft (1759 1797) the author of the Rights of Woman was in the vanguard of feminism Unfortunately Mary Wollstonecraft died giving birth to Mary leaving her daughter in the care of his husband Mary spent her childhood in a very miserable situation She could not expect any love from her stepmother At the age of sixteen she met the famous British poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 1822) whom she later married Shelley helped her not only in her life but also in her literary success She always has conversations with Shelley about life and literature Most of their conversations aroused her inspiration for her novels
In the summer of 1816 Mary Shelley and her husband visited Switzerland While they stayed at the Chapuis in Geneva they had to spend the night at the Villa Diodati due to an incredible storm They agreed that each one write a story founded on some supernatural occurrence However Mary’s Frankenstein was the only one that completed
It proved a wet ungenial summer Mary Shelley remembered in 1831 and incessant rain often confined us for days to the house (Shelley 1980 21) Amongst other subjects the conversation turned to the experiments of the 18th century natural philosopher and poet Erasmus Darwin who was said to bring a corpse or assembled body parts to life Sitting around a log fire at Byron’s villa the company also amused themselves by reading German ghost stories prompting Byron to suggest they each write their own supernatural tale Shortly afterwards in a waking dream Mary Godwin conceived the idea for Frankenstein
I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out and then on the working of some powerful engine show signs of life and stir with an uneasy half vital motion Frightful must it be for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavor to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world ( 刘玉红 199783)
She began writing what she assumed would be a short story With Percy Shelley’s encouragement she expanded this tale into her first novel Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus published in 1818 which made Mary Shelley known as mother of the science fictions
The tale relates the tragic experiences of Frankenstein a Geneva student of natural philosophy who discovers the secret of life and succeeds in imparting life to an artificial human being The thing Frankenstein has created and abandoned later takes its revenge against its creator In order to catch this vicious monster and kill it for human betterment Frankenstein pursues the monster to the Arctic and dies there (Johnson 1982) The monster makes a decision to destroy itself too Many people show their interest in this novel not only because it is one of the earliest written science fictions in the English literature but also because it had eccentric and unconstrained plots It also had very complex and complicated description about human nature and this thesis seeks to analyze Mary Shelley’s views on human nature and finds the significant meaning for today’s human and science development
2 Origin of Mary Shelley’s Views on Human Nature
21 Influence from Gothic Novels
Gothic novel tales of the macabre fantastic and supernatural usually set amid haunted castles graveyards ruins and wild picturesque landscapes (Frederick 1997 23) The Gothic novel was very popular in the late 18th century and the early 19th century especially among female readers who indulged themselves in these terrifying romantic stories They took delight in talking about the ghastly and bloodcurdling castles the deep and remote wilderness the bloody murder and the mysterious supernatural phenomena Although Mary did not write any castles in Frankenstein she showed the bloody laboratory the deep and remote forests and mountains where both the scientist and the monster had lived for some time the bloody murders that the monster committed and above all the mysterious supernatural creation of a human being Since Frankenstein is a Gothic tale of terror it has almost all the distinguishing features of Gothic novel such as terrifying plot the bleak wilderness the bloody murder etc However it has also revealed the black side of human race which is a new feature of Gothic tales With the influence of Gothic novels Mary Shelly focused her description on black side of human nature
22 Influence from Romanticism
Rather than focusing on the twists and turns of the plot however the novel foregrounds the mental and moral struggles of the protagonist Victor Frankenstein and Shelley imbues the text with her own brand of politicized Romanticism one that criticized the individualism and egotism of traditional Romanticism Victor Frankenstein is like Satan in Paradise Lost and Prometheus he rebels against tradition he creates life and he shapes his own destiny These traits are not portrayed positively as Blumberg writes his relentless ambition is a selfdelusion clothed as quest for truth(Blumberg 1993 50)
23 Influence from Life Experiences
Mary Shelley had the extremely confused feeling of pregnant and giving birth to a child She was pregnant when she was sixteen and it happened almost every year for five years Most of her babies died soon after their births Besides she was an illegal mother at that time because she was not married to Shelley then The filthy description in Frankenstein demonstrates Mary Shelley’s terrifying feeling about the maternal instinct
In this novel Mary Shelley concerned much on the creation of life The creation of life was described as filthy dirty and bloody For example the condition of the experimental laboratory of Frankenstein was miserable Frankenstein himself became seriously ill and the materials for his creation came from the graves charnel houses the dissecting room and slaughterhouse (Clemit 200330)
3 Analysis of Human nature in Frankenstein
31 Human’s God Complex
Mary Shelley subtitled her novel The Modern Prometheus Prometheus (the name means Forethought) appears in Greek myth as a divine being one of the Titans descended from the original union of the Sky God with the Earth Mother In some stories he is the creator of mankind and he is always their champion He is supposed to have stolen fire for them from Heaven when they were denied it by Zeus and to have been punished by being fastened to a cliff in the Caucasus where an eagle tore daily at his liver Frankenstein shared many similarities with Prometheus In Frankenstein the scientist played the role of the modern Prometheus He was the creator of a human being Although he abandoned his creation he could not avoid taking the responsibility of it that was his intellectual invention
Once the crazy scientist gained it his fall began and he would be excluded from the paradise of life Both Frankenstein and Prometheus had done something for human betterment however both of them were punished seriously Prometheus was punished because of fire while Frankenstein suffered from his own actions because of knowledge Prometheus was chained to a rock where an eagle plucked at his liver each day The next day his liver would grow back again and the eagle ate it again He had to endure this tragic experience day after day Frankenstein also endured some miserable things such as lost of his family and friend However Prometheus endured the corporal punishment while Frankenstein suffered the spiritual sufferings He was disturbed by a state of utmost confusion and terror
Prometheus sought fire for human betterment Frankenstein was bold enough to challenge the power of God Fire can be very useful to human beings but it can be very destructive too So is knowledge In Frankenstein the monster learned to use fire to make his food more delicious and he used the same thing to kill people as well It was knowledge that made Frankenstein become a researcher in the vanguard of scientific progress meanwhile it was the same knowledge that destroyed his life and happiness
Frankenstein is a very good novel of new ideas and exciting plots Almost every character in Frankenstein shows his interest in developing his own situation and does something for human betterment (孟东红 2006：4)The first narrator Walton goes to create around in order to seek an extremely new place for human beings Frankenstein the scientist in the novel tries every effort to create a living human being that he dreams to be perfect but unfortunately it is very different from his dream Frankenstein plays the role of a Modern Prometheus Prometheus in the Greek myths sought fire for human betterment Though ugly and dangerous the monster is the victim of Frankenstein’s scientific experiment
Frankenstein speaking of himself as a young man in his father’s home points out that he pursues knowledge of the world though investigation As the novel progresses it becomes clear that the meaning of the word world is for Frankenstein very much biased or limited He thirsts for knowledge of the tangible world and if he perceives an idea to be as yet unrealized in the material world he then attempts to work on the idea in order to give it as it were a worldly existence Hence he creates the creature that he rejects because its worldly form did not reflect the glory and magnificence of his original idea (Shelley 1989 60)
Frankenstein begins to build on his scientific knowledge and when he goes to Ingolstadt and finds a mentor in Waldman he also starts to take his study of chemistry seriously There he becomes part of the new science that penetrates into the recesses of nature and show how she works in her hiding places (吴定柏 1998：8586) However ideas are simply not enough to cause a young and intelligent man like Frankenstein to try to take on the role of the ultimate Creator and bring life to a corpse Shelly shows us that the external or the society at large will always intermingle with the internal or the emotional and psychological makeup of the person It is Frankenstein’s own chimerical makeup a confidence in the male scientific ability a belief in the male prerogative to control nature by the accumulation of knowledge the absence of a tempering maternal influence and his own hubris that leads him to circumvent the natural channels of procreation (王永志 1993 9) His knowledge of the world is ironically one that is created in piecemeal Hence the creature can be seen as a physical representation of the terrible patching up of mismatched parts to make a whole In trying to be more than he is that is a human being Frankenstein finds himself wedged in between nature and God becoming estranged from his immediate society as he becomes burdened with the tragedies brought about by the creature Mary Shelley had the extremely confused feeling of pregnant and giving birth to a child
It was in the middle of the Industrial Revolution in Britain that Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein New technologies such as the mechanization of spinning and weaving and improvements in the modes of transportation led to a shift in the country from being a largely agricultural and commercial society to being the world’s first industrial nation This transformation fomented economic and political upheaval Agitation for more rights for workers and women had its onset in this period The Romantic poets revolted against the formality of neoclassicism and advocated a return to nature and a world of imagination and unconscious feelings All of society was influenced by the Napoleonic Wars and the ideas of the French Revolution (严春友 2002 78)
The debate between scientific discoveries and traditional religious and metaphysical thought was starting to take shape and the ethics of how far man should pursue his desire for knowledge was beginning to be a topic of discussion a topic still in debate today And Mary Shelley undoubtedly objected to human’s God complex and human’s tendency to override nature
32 Human’s Oedipus complex
In the novel Frankenstein was very proud of his knowledge of science He determined to create a perfect human being that could fulfill his dream Frankenstein tried his every effort to create a living human being However he did not realize what he had done until the thing he had created took its first breath Frankenstein found that the thing was not a living human being but a monster Badly frightened and disgusted by the ugly gigantic monster Frankenstein abandoned it and thought it would die in the forest However the monster survived the bleak forest and came back to revenge on his creator This plot was similar to that of Oedipus the King An oracle said that the child Oedipus would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother (王佐良1992 171) Frankenstein and Oedipus’ father did the same thing avoiding taking responsibility led to their tragic destiny Mary showed her dissatisfaction on this in her novel She believed that the one who avoid taking the responsibility would finally be punished
Mary Shelley had the monster in Frankenstein educated in the forest so that he could have the knowledge to take his revenge Instinctively the monster grasped the necessary skills for his survival Later he learned knowledge secretly from an exiled family Not only had he learned the basic knowledge of language but also understood the rules and regulations of human society especially when the cottagers sent him three books as present for his secret help to them These three books consisted of Paradise Lost the volume of Plutarch’s Lives and The Sorrows of Werter
In The Sorrows of Werter the monster found a neverending source of speculation and astonishment (Johann1989 56) He wondered on Werter’s deeds wept on his extinction without precisely understanding it The volume of Plutarch’s Lives gave him far different effect from The Sorrows of Werter These two books gave him the very basic idea of what the human society was like (Darbble M 1932 792) The more he had read and known the more he thought about himself completely He wondered what he was where he came from and why he was excluded from the human race etc This feeling became stronger when he finished Paradise Lost
Did I request thee Maker from my clay to mould me Man did I solicit thee from darkness to promote me (Milton 1998 34)
Mary Shelley copied these lines from John Milton’s Paradise Lost These words said by Adam to God echoed in the heart of the monster who wanted to say exactly what Adam had said to his creator The monster compared his situation to that of Adam (张玉婷 1997 83)
Adam was created by God as a perfect creature while the monster was hideously formed and he found himself wretched helpless and alone When Frankenstein created the monster he did not expect it would be a monster He started doing so for human betterment He intended to create a wonderful being of good nature that was the most perfect creature in the world However the ugly appearance of the monster frightened him and made all his dreams die in failure So he abandoned the monster and a voided taking the responsibility to take care of it thus made it such a miserable wretch in the world The revenge reflected the monster’s fight for his right Once he survived as Oedipus did he would demand his own right of happiness However it was reasonable for him to ask for him to ask for his betterment When he was refused of this basic request he would naturally take revenge When God found that Adam was alone in the Garden of Eden he created a female Eve for him so that he could have a company The creation of a female monster in Frankenstein was an interesting reflection of that The monster demanded Frankenstein to create a female for him so that he could have someone loving him in the world Frankenstein had no idea but to do what the monster had requested However he was afraid of the result of his experiment Therefore he destroyed the female monster before she came to life that caused the monster’s revenge on Frankenstein Frankenstein did so for human betterment because if the female monster became alive she could possibly be more vicious than the male monster The end of this novel shows Mary Shelley’s fear about the scientific experiments and her pessimistic point of view
33 Human’s Sociality
The creature on the other hand is an untamed and extreme version of the free individual Without the support and shelter of a family and the systematic approaches of an education system the creature nevertheless gains an education of sorts And he does this by reacting to his basic needs for shelter food warmth and company In the debate on the importance of nature versus nurture Mellor explains that Frankenstein shows nurture to be crucial because the creature rapidly discovers the limitations of the state of nature and the positive benefits of a civilization grounded on family life (吴伟仁 1990 16)This is the informal education that the creature experiences which in modern society is termed socialization The De Lacey family is metonymic of the general population or the working egalitarian base of a society The creature learns about the gentle love and respect that the members of the family show to each other the division of labor among the ablebodied members that keeps the family alive in Safie’s story and the De Lacey’s unfortunate past he learns about the problems that society has its problems such as greed and corruption Sadly although he learns about the wonderful aspects of civilized life the creature also learns of his own status in the strange system of human society He has no history because he is ignorant of his creator and creation he does not possess money friends or property and he was not even of the same nature as man The creature’s discovery of knowledge led to his own selfknowledge and he finds that all his knowledge has somehow become part of him and his identity of what a strange nature is knowledge It clings to the mind when it has once seized on it like lichen on the rock (吴伟仁 1990 76)
Thrown unaided and ignorant into the world the creature begins his own journey into the discovery of the strange and hidden meanings encoded in human language and society In this essay I will discuss how the creature can be regarded as a foil to Frankenstein through an examination of the schooling formal and informal that both of them go through In some ways the creature’s gain in knowledge can be seen to parallel Frankenstein’s such as when the creature begins to learn from books Yet in other ways their experiences differ greatly and one of the factors that contribute to these differences is a structured and systematic method of learning based on philosophical tenets that is available to Frankenstein but not to the creature
As Frankenstein’s creation the creature is also exiled from the two important categories of existence known to society God and Man Unlike Frankenstein however who tries to put himself above other men the creature is portrayed as being caught in between Man and animal Yet the creature seems to obtain an understanding of human life as a complex interwoven fabric from his observation of the De Lacey family and from the books that he reads From the Sorrows of Werter the creature becomes acquainted with the tremendous range of human emotions that he found accorded well with my experience among my protectors By reading Plutarch’s Lives he learns high thoughts and discovers that through the processes of his mind and the examples of great lives of other men he is able to be elevated…above the wretched sphere of his own reflections He also reads Paradise Lost in which ideas like free will and predestination are discussed The creature’s develops a critical insight into his own life as Plutarch’s Lives is not only a historical work but also a series of character studies which reveal a person’s morality And by reading Paradise Lost he is able to put words to his own condition drawing parallels between himself and Adam and exposing the differences Unlike Frankenstein’s choice of a solitary life the creature yearns for the support of a family and the companionship of a female Hence one finds that Frankenstein’s encyclopedic knowledge is undermined by his lack of selfknowledge and of the nobler aspects of human emotional life which ironically is compensated for in his creature which he rejects (肖明翰2002 30)
Not simply a stock symbol for a part of Frankenstein’s psyche the creature also portrays a natural and innocent man who becomes the victim of his social conditions because he reacts to the adversity he faces with negative emotions After being convinced of the De Lacey’s high level of nobility of character the creature attempts to introduce himself into their lives with disastrous results In their rejection the creature witnesses and experiences the contradictions in human behavior when Felix attacks him without asking him his story and Safie runs from the cottage without stopping to assist Agatha who has fainted The creature however is not simply a victim of his sociopolitical circumstances He also chooses to react in hatred and bitterness to his surroundings and to allow the full play of his feelings for revenge
4 Realistic meaning of the analysis
Victor Frankenstein was a scientist and the goal of science is to discover new information and Victor Frankenstein was simply being a scientist and creating new information When Victor Frankenstein created his monster it could be compared to genetic engineering or cloning of today Scientists are trying to recreate life from another exact life form through cloning They are trying to make the creation of life better and humans that are better quality without disease or deformity through genetic engineering
Since the beginning of time humans have been obsessed with the idea of where life comes from and how it is created Charles Darwin originated the idea of evolution Yet another theory on the origination of life is the existence of God and that God created the earth and all of the life on earth
Victor Frankenstein is exactly like the scientists of today Victor Frankenstein is trying to make a human being from other deceased human beings this could be compared to cloning today making one creature from another The possibility or theory of genetic engineering can guarantee that humans would be without deformity affliction or frailty Victor Frankenstein may not have chosen parts for his monster or human that were necessarily beautiful but Victor Frankenstein tried to make his product as earthborn as possible
Victor Frankenstein was simply doing the same thing that scientists have always been trying to do Victor Frankenstein is trying to be like Charles Darwin and explain where life comes from According to Victor Frankenstein life can come from the appendages of other human beings ( Blumberg 1993 32) With his creation Victor Frankenstein disproves the idea of a celestial creator
A new species would bless me as its creator and source many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me (Shelley 1932 73) This statement said by Victor Frankenstein himself could in theory disprove all that has been said thus far But it can also be taken another way Victor Frankenstein is saying that he will be exalted for creating the monster an avantgarde way of creating a human But are not all scientists celebrated for their discoveries Alexander Graham Bell inventor of the telephone has a telephone company named after him people have posters of Albert Einstein hanging on their walls the story of Benjamin Franklin flying a kite in a rain storm with a key attached to the string and discovering electricity is told to young children in science classes If all of these scientists are glorified for their discoveries why shouldn’t Victor Frankenstein enjoy and receive the same gratification as other scientists
Scientists try their best to work out something for human betterment including human health human life and almost everything for human convenience Take clone as an example It became a popular word in the world of science Some people support the idea of clone while some are against it Those who support this idea are because they find it really helpful to human beings especially in the world of science and medical field However those who against it are because they are afraid of the side effect of this newly developed science With the cloning of life forms and genetic engineering now commonplace the question of the morality of the actions of Dr Frankenstein is now more important than ever Perhaps the novel Frankenstein contains lessons that can be applied in today’s technologically advanced world It was Dr Victor Frankenstein＇s opinion that it was morally acceptable to give life to his creation Frankenstein＇s creation then needed a companion Knowing that his first creation was evil should the doctor make a second Even with the knowledge at hand Dr Frankenstein decides that it is not at all morally correct to bring another monster into the world (Brewer 1999 187205)
For over thousands of years men struggle for human betterment in every possibly way Some people try until they succeed however some work in their whole life without finding anything useful For example our living standard has been improved greatly since we have invented and made telephone plane computer etc The life expands change from below 30 to over 100 Some scientists predict that human beings can live longer than 120 years old in the near future The better people live nowadays the higher aims they want to reach in the future
5 Conclusion
Critics of the present day have been able to form more indepth analyses of the text that go beyond the very basic analyses of those from the time of Frankenstein＇s publication due to the more widely available information about the life of author Mary Shelley as well as more insight into varying theories and how they can all be applied to a given work Moreover the significant presence of the science fiction genre in today’s literature and a wider range of experimentation within novels has left today’s critics in a position to be less shocked and offended by a novel thereby allowing them to give a more impartial critical assessment of a work than was the case when Frankenstein was first published while going beyond the limits of preliminary formal expressive mimetic and rhetorical theories
Bibliography
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科毕业文
题目：
弗兰肯斯坦性分析
摘
英国著名浪漫义作家玛丽·雪莱(17971851)英国著名思想家社会活动家葛德文著名女性义运动先驱沃斯通克拉夫特独生女时十九世纪英国著名诗珀斯·雪莱第二位妻子弗兰肯斯坦玛丽·雪莱1818年创作说认世界第部真正意义科幻说弗兰肯斯坦解读早期传记研究女权义分析马克思义分析弗洛伊德精神分析解读等等足文分析复杂性描写进步解欣赏深刻题—违背然充造物角色科学应类带福音非灾难
文首先作者生活历浪漫义思想歌特说影响探讨玛丽·雪莱性观根源更结合弗兰肯斯坦中性描写分析类造物情结俄狄浦斯情结社会性
文认弗兰肯斯坦悲剧幸仅寓言式预言式文分析现实意义类已掌握克隆技术天盲目追求科学需文精神指导合理应科学性发展更空间然更加亲谐
关键词：玛丽·雪莱弗兰肯斯坦性
Abstract
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley was an important writer during the age of Romanticism in English literature She was the only daughter of two literary celebrities Her father William Godwin was a revolutionary philosopher and novelist Her mother Mary Wellstone Craft was in the vanguard of feminism At the age of sixteen she met the famous British poet Percy Bysshe Shelley whom she later married By the time she was nineteen Mary Shelley had written one of the most famous novels published in 1818— Frankenstein which was known as the first science fiction in the world Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has attracted a wide variety of interpretations ranging from earlier biographical study the feminist to the Marxist the psychoanalytic and Freudian reading
This thesis will focus on the analysis of the complicated description of human nature in the novel to further understand the profound theme—human beings should not rebel against nature and science should promote the wellbeing of mankind but not bring people disasters
The thesis will firstly expound on the origin of Mary Shelley’s views on human nature according to the influences from Gothic novels Romanticism and her life experience Then the analysis will focus on human’s God Complex Oedipus Complex and human’s sociality embodied in the complicated description in Frankenstein
The last part of the thesis advocates that the tragedy in Frankenstein is not a fable but a prediction With the cloning of life forms and genetic engineering now common place human beings should make rational use of the science technology and live in harmony with nature
Key words Mary Shelley Frankenstein human nature
Contents
1 Introduction 1
2 Origin of Mary Shelley’s Views on Human Nature 2
21 Influence from Gothic Novels 2
22 Influence from Romanticism 3
23 Influence from Life Experiences 3
3 Analysis of Human nature in Frankenstein 4
31 Human’s God Complex 4
32 Human’s Oedipus Complex 6
33 Human’s Sociality 8
4 Realistic meaning of the analysis 10
5 Conclusion 12
Bibliography 13
Acknowledgements 15
Analysis of Human Nature in Frankenstein
1 Introduction
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797 1851) was born in London England She was the only daughter of two literary celebrities Her father William Godwin (1756 1836) was a revolutionary philosopher and novelist Her mother Mary Wollstonecraft (1759 1797) the author of the Rights of Woman was in the vanguard of feminism Unfortunately Mary Wollstonecraft died giving birth to Mary leaving her daughter in the care of his husband Mary spent her childhood in a very miserable situation She could not expect any love from her stepmother At the age of sixteen she met the famous British poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 1822) whom she later married Shelley helped her not only in her life but also in her literary success She always has conversations with Shelley about life and literature Most of their conversations aroused her inspiration for her novels
In the summer of 1816 Mary Shelley and her husband visited Switzerland While they stayed at the Chapuis in Geneva they had to spend the night at the Villa Diodati due to an incredible storm They agreed that each one write a story founded on some supernatural occurrence However Mary’s Frankenstein was the only one that completed
It proved a wet ungenial summer Mary Shelley remembered in 1831 and incessant rain often confined us for days to the house (Shelley 1980 21) Amongst other subjects the conversation turned to the experiments of the 18th century natural philosopher and poet Erasmus Darwin who was said to bring a corpse or assembled body parts to life Sitting around a log fire at Byron’s villa the company also amused themselves by reading German ghost stories prompting Byron to suggest they each write their own supernatural tale Shortly afterwards in a waking dream Mary Godwin conceived the idea for Frankenstein
I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out and then on the working of some powerful engine show signs of life and stir with an uneasy half vital motion Frightful must it be for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavor to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world ( 刘玉红 199783)
She began writing what she assumed would be a short story With Percy Shelley’s encouragement she expanded this tale into her first novel Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus published in 1818 which made Mary Shelley known as mother of the science fictions
The tale relates the tragic experiences of Frankenstein a Geneva student of natural philosophy who discovers the secret of life and succeeds in imparting life to an artificial human being The thing Frankenstein has created and abandoned later takes its revenge against its creator In order to catch this vicious monster and kill it for human betterment Frankenstein pursues the monster to the Arctic and dies there (Johnson 1982) The monster makes a decision to destroy itself too Many people show their interest in this novel not only because it is one of the earliest written science fictions in the English literature but also because it had eccentric and unconstrained plots It also had very complex and complicated description about human nature and this thesis seeks to analyze Mary Shelley’s views on human nature and finds the significant meaning for today’s human and science development
2 Origin of Mary Shelley’s Views on Human Nature
21 Influence from Gothic Novels
Gothic novel tales of the macabre fantastic and supernatural usually set amid haunted castles graveyards ruins and wild picturesque landscapes (Frederick 1997 23) The Gothic novel was very popular in the late 18th century and the early 19th century especially among female readers who indulged themselves in these terrifying romantic stories They took delight in talking about the ghastly and bloodcurdling castles the deep and remote wilderness the bloody murder and the mysterious supernatural phenomena Although Mary did not write any castles in Frankenstein she showed the bloody laboratory the deep and remote forests and mountains where both the scientist and the monster had lived for some time the bloody murders that the monster committed and above all the mysterious supernatural creation of a human being Since Frankenstein is a Gothic tale of terror it has almost all the distinguishing features of Gothic novel such as terrifying plot the bleak wilderness the bloody murder etc However it has also revealed the black side of human race which is a new feature of Gothic tales With the influence of Gothic novels Mary Shelly focused her description on black side of human nature
22 Influence from Romanticism
Rather than focusing on the twists and turns of the plot however the novel foregrounds the mental and moral struggles of the protagonist Victor Frankenstein and Shelley imbues the text with her own brand of politicized Romanticism one that criticized the individualism and egotism of traditional Romanticism Victor Frankenstein is like Satan in Paradise Lost and Prometheus he rebels against tradition he creates life and he shapes his own destiny These traits are not portrayed positively as Blumberg writes his relentless ambition is a selfdelusion clothed as quest for truth(Blumberg 1993 50)
23 Influence from Life Experiences
Mary Shelley had the extremely confused feeling of pregnant and giving birth to a child She was pregnant when she was sixteen and it happened almost every year for five years Most of her babies died soon after their births Besides she was an illegal mother at that time because she was not married to Shelley then The filthy description in Frankenstein demonstrates Mary Shelley’s terrifying feeling about the maternal instinct
In this novel Mary Shelley concerned much on the creation of life The creation of life was described as filthy dirty and bloody For example the condition of the experimental laboratory of Frankenstein was miserable Frankenstein himself became seriously ill and the materials for his creation came from the graves charnel houses the dissecting room and slaughterhouse (Clemit 200330)
3 Analysis of Human nature in Frankenstein
31 Human’s God Complex
Mary Shelley subtitled her novel The Modern Prometheus Prometheus (the name means Forethought) appears in Greek myth as a divine being one of the Titans descended from the original union of the Sky God with the Earth Mother In some stories he is the creator of mankind and he is always their champion He is supposed to have stolen fire for them from Heaven when they were denied it by Zeus and to have been punished by being fastened to a cliff in the Caucasus where an eagle tore daily at his liver Frankenstein shared many similarities with Prometheus In Frankenstein the scientist played the role of the modern Prometheus He was the creator of a human being Although he abandoned his creation he could not avoid taking the responsibility of it that was his intellectual invention
Once the crazy scientist gained it his fall began and he would be excluded from the paradise of life Both Frankenstein and Prometheus had done something for human betterment however both of them were punished seriously Prometheus was punished because of fire while Frankenstein suffered from his own actions because of knowledge Prometheus was chained to a rock where an eagle plucked at his liver each day The next day his liver would grow back again and the eagle ate it again He had to endure this tragic experience day after day Frankenstein also endured some miserable things such as lost of his family and friend However Prometheus endured the corporal punishment while Frankenstein suffered the spiritual sufferings He was disturbed by a state of utmost confusion and terror
Prometheus sought fire for human betterment Frankenstein was bold enough to challenge the power of God Fire can be very useful to human beings but it can be very destructive too So is knowledge In Frankenstein the monster learned to use fire to make his food more delicious and he used the same thing to kill people as well It was knowledge that made Frankenstein become a researcher in the vanguard of scientific progress meanwhile it was the same knowledge that destroyed his life and happiness
Frankenstein is a very good novel of new ideas and exciting plots Almost every character in Frankenstein shows his interest in developing his own situation and does something for human betterment (孟东红 2006：4)The first narrator Walton goes to create around in order to seek an extremely new place for human beings Frankenstein the scientist in the novel tries every effort to create a living human being that he dreams to be perfect but unfortunately it is very different from his dream Frankenstein plays the role of a Modern Prometheus Prometheus in the Greek myths sought fire for human betterment Though ugly and dangerous the monster is the victim of Frankenstein’s scientific experiment
Frankenstein speaking of himself as a young man in his father’s home points out that he pursues knowledge of the world though investigation As the novel progresses it becomes clear that the meaning of the word world is for Frankenstein very much biased or limited He thirsts for knowledge of the tangible world and if he perceives an idea to be as yet unrealized in the material world he then attempts to work on the idea in order to give it as it were a worldly existence Hence he creates the creature that he rejects because its worldly form did not reflect the glory and magnificence of his original idea (Shelley 1989 60)
Frankenstein begins to build on his scientific knowledge and when he goes to Ingolstadt and finds a mentor in Waldman he also starts to take his study of chemistry seriously There he becomes part of the new science that penetrates into the recesses of nature and show how she works in her hiding places (吴定柏 1998：8586) However ideas are simply not enough to cause a young and intelligent man like Frankenstein to try to take on the role of the ultimate Creator and bring life to a corpse Shelly shows us that the external or the society at large will always intermingle with the internal or the emotional and psychological makeup of the person It is Frankenstein’s own chimerical makeup a confidence in the male scientific ability a belief in the male prerogative to control nature by the accumulation of knowledge the absence of a tempering maternal influence and his own hubris that leads him to circumvent the natural channels of procreation (王永志 1993 9) His knowledge of the world is ironically one that is created in piecemeal Hence the creature can be seen as a physical representation of the terrible patching up of mismatched parts to make a whole In trying to be more than he is that is a human being Frankenstein finds himself wedged in between nature and God becoming estranged from his immediate society as he becomes burdened with the tragedies brought about by the creature Mary Shelley had the extremely confused feeling of pregnant and giving birth to a child
It was in the middle of the Industrial Revolution in Britain that Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein New technologies such as the mechanization of spinning and weaving and improvements in the modes of transportation led to a shift in the country from being a largely agricultural and commercial society to being the world’s first industrial nation This transformation fomented economic and political upheaval Agitation for more rights for workers and women had its onset in this period The Romantic poets revolted against the formality of neoclassicism and advocated a return to nature and a world of imagination and unconscious feelings All of society was influenced by the Napoleonic Wars and the ideas of the French Revolution (严春友 2002 78)
The debate between scientific discoveries and traditional religious and metaphysical thought was starting to take shape and the ethics of how far man should pursue his desire for knowledge was beginning to be a topic of discussion a topic still in debate today And Mary Shelley undoubtedly objected to human’s God complex and human’s tendency to override nature
32 Human’s Oedipus complex
In the novel Frankenstein was very proud of his knowledge of science He determined to create a perfect human being that could fulfill his dream Frankenstein tried his every effort to create a living human being However he did not realize what he had done until the thing he had created took its first breath Frankenstein found that the thing was not a living human being but a monster Badly frightened and disgusted by the ugly gigantic monster Frankenstein abandoned it and thought it would die in the forest However the monster survived the bleak forest and came back to revenge on his creator This plot was similar to that of Oedipus the King An oracle said that the child Oedipus would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother (王佐良1992 171) Frankenstein and Oedipus’ father did the same thing avoiding taking responsibility led to their tragic destiny Mary showed her dissatisfaction on this in her novel She believed that the one who avoid taking the responsibility would finally be punished
Mary Shelley had the monster in Frankenstein educated in the forest so that he could have the knowledge to take his revenge Instinctively the monster grasped the necessary skills for his survival Later he learned knowledge secretly from an exiled family Not only had he learned the basic knowledge of language but also understood the rules and regulations of human society especially when the cottagers sent him three books as present for his secret help to them These three books consisted of Paradise Lost the volume of Plutarch’s Lives and The Sorrows of Werter
In The Sorrows of Werter the monster found a neverending source of speculation and astonishment (Johann1989 56) He wondered on Werter’s deeds wept on his extinction without precisely understanding it The volume of Plutarch’s Lives gave him far different effect from The Sorrows of Werter These two books gave him the very basic idea of what the human society was like (Darbble M 1932 792) The more he had read and known the more he thought about himself completely He wondered what he was where he came from and why he was excluded from the human race etc This feeling became stronger when he finished Paradise Lost
Did I request thee Maker from my clay to mould me Man did I solicit thee from darkness to promote me (Milton 1998 34)
Mary Shelley copied these lines from John Milton’s Paradise Lost These words said by Adam to God echoed in the heart of the monster who wanted to say exactly what Adam had said to his creator The monster compared his situation to that of Adam (张玉婷 1997 83)
Adam was created by God as a perfect creature while the monster was hideously formed and he found himself wretched helpless and alone When Frankenstein created the monster he did not expect it would be a monster He started doing so for human betterment He intended to create a wonderful being of good nature that was the most perfect creature in the world However the ugly appearance of the monster frightened him and made all his dreams die in failure So he abandoned the monster and a voided taking the responsibility to take care of it thus made it such a miserable wretch in the world The revenge reflected the monster’s fight for his right Once he survived as Oedipus did he would demand his own right of happiness However it was reasonable for him to ask for him to ask for his betterment When he was refused of this basic request he would naturally take revenge When God found that Adam was alone in the Garden of Eden he created a female Eve for him so that he could have a company The creation of a female monster in Frankenstein was an interesting reflection of that The monster demanded Frankenstein to create a female for him so that he could have someone loving him in the world Frankenstein had no idea but to do what the monster had requested However he was afraid of the result of his experiment Therefore he destroyed the female monster before she came to life that caused the monster’s revenge on Frankenstein Frankenstein did so for human betterment because if the female monster became alive she could possibly be more vicious than the male monster The end of this novel shows Mary Shelley’s fear about the scientific experiments and her pessimistic point of view
33 Human’s Sociality
The creature on the other hand is an untamed and extreme version of the free individual Without the support and shelter of a family and the systematic approaches of an education system the creature nevertheless gains an education of sorts And he does this by reacting to his basic needs for shelter food warmth and company In the debate on the importance of nature versus nurture Mellor explains that Frankenstein shows nurture to be crucial because the creature rapidly discovers the limitations of the state of nature and the positive benefits of a civilization grounded on family life (吴伟仁 1990 16)This is the informal education that the creature experiences which in modern society is termed socialization The De Lacey family is metonymic of the general population or the working egalitarian base of a society The creature learns about the gentle love and respect that the members of the family show to each other the division of labor among the ablebodied members that keeps the family alive in Safie’s story and the De Lacey’s unfortunate past he learns about the problems that society has its problems such as greed and corruption Sadly although he learns about the wonderful aspects of civilized life the creature also learns of his own status in the strange system of human society He has no history because he is ignorant of his creator and creation he does not possess money friends or property and he was not even of the same nature as man The creature’s discovery of knowledge led to his own selfknowledge and he finds that all his knowledge has somehow become part of him and his identity of what a strange nature is knowledge It clings to the mind when it has once seized on it like lichen on the rock (吴伟仁 1990 76)
Thrown unaided and ignorant into the world the creature begins his own journey into the discovery of the strange and hidden meanings encoded in human language and society In this essay I will discuss how the creature can be regarded as a foil to Frankenstein through an examination of the schooling formal and informal that both of them go through In some ways the creature’s gain in knowledge can be seen to parallel Frankenstein’s such as when the creature begins to learn from books Yet in other ways their experiences differ greatly and one of the factors that contribute to these differences is a structured and systematic method of learning based on philosophical tenets that is available to Frankenstein but not to the creature
As Frankenstein’s creation the creature is also exiled from the two important categories of existence known to society God and Man Unlike Frankenstein however who tries to put himself above other men the creature is portrayed as being caught in between Man and animal Yet the creature seems to obtain an understanding of human life as a complex interwoven fabric from his observation of the De Lacey family and from the books that he reads From the Sorrows of Werter the creature becomes acquainted with the tremendous range of human emotions that he found accorded well with my experience among my protectors By reading Plutarch’s Lives he learns high thoughts and discovers that through the processes of his mind and the examples of great lives of other men he is able to be elevated…above the wretched sphere of his own reflections He also reads Paradise Lost in which ideas like free will and predestination are discussed The creature’s develops a critical insight into his own life as Plutarch’s Lives is not only a historical work but also a series of character studies which reveal a person’s morality And by reading Paradise Lost he is able to put words to his own condition drawing parallels between himself and Adam and exposing the differences Unlike Frankenstein’s choice of a solitary life the creature yearns for the support of a family and the companionship of a female Hence one finds that Frankenstein’s encyclopedic knowledge is undermined by his lack of selfknowledge and of the nobler aspects of human emotional life which ironically is compensated for in his creature which he rejects (肖明翰2002 30)
Not simply a stock symbol for a part of Frankenstein’s psyche the creature also portrays a natural and innocent man who becomes the victim of his social conditions because he reacts to the adversity he faces with negative emotions After being convinced of the De Lacey’s high level of nobility of character the creature attempts to introduce himself into their lives with disastrous results In their rejection the creature witnesses and experiences the contradictions in human behavior when Felix attacks him without asking him his story and Safie runs from the cottage without stopping to assist Agatha who has fainted The creature however is not simply a victim of his sociopolitical circumstances He also chooses to react in hatred and bitterness to his surroundings and to allow the full play of his feelings for revenge
4 Realistic meaning of the analysis
Victor Frankenstein was a scientist and the goal of science is to discover new information and Victor Frankenstein was simply being a scientist and creating new information When Victor Frankenstein created his monster it could be compared to genetic engineering or cloning of today Scientists are trying to recreate life from another exact life form through cloning They are trying to make the creation of life better and humans that are better quality without disease or deformity through genetic engineering
Since the beginning of time humans have been obsessed with the idea of where life comes from and how it is created Charles Darwin originated the idea of evolution Yet another theory on the origination of life is the existence of God and that God created the earth and all of the life on earth
Victor Frankenstein is exactly like the scientists of today Victor Frankenstein is trying to make a human being from other deceased human beings this could be compared to cloning today making one creature from another The possibility or theory of genetic engineering can guarantee that humans would be without deformity affliction or frailty Victor Frankenstein may not have chosen parts for his monster or human that were necessarily beautiful but Victor Frankenstein tried to make his product as earthborn as possible
Victor Frankenstein was simply doing the same thing that scientists have always been trying to do Victor Frankenstein is trying to be like Charles Darwin and explain where life comes from According to Victor Frankenstein life can come from the appendages of other human beings ( Blumberg 1993 32) With his creation Victor Frankenstein disproves the idea of a celestial creator
A new species would bless me as its creator and source many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me (Shelley 1932 73) This statement said by Victor Frankenstein himself could in theory disprove all that has been said thus far But it can also be taken another way Victor Frankenstein is saying that he will be exalted for creating the monster an avantgarde way of creating a human But are not all scientists celebrated for their discoveries Alexander Graham Bell inventor of the telephone has a telephone company named after him people have posters of Albert Einstein hanging on their walls the story of Benjamin Franklin flying a kite in a rain storm with a key attached to the string and discovering electricity is told to young children in science classes If all of these scientists are glorified for their discoveries why shouldn’t Victor Frankenstein enjoy and receive the same gratification as other scientists
Scientists try their best to work out something for human betterment including human health human life and almost everything for human convenience Take clone as an example It became a popular word in the world of science Some people support the idea of clone while some are against it Those who support this idea are because they find it really helpful to human beings especially in the world of science and medical field However those who against it are because they are afraid of the side effect of this newly developed science With the cloning of life forms and genetic engineering now commonplace the question of the morality of the actions of Dr Frankenstein is now more important than ever Perhaps the novel Frankenstein contains lessons that can be applied in today’s technologically advanced world It was Dr Victor Frankenstein＇s opinion that it was morally acceptable to give life to his creation Frankenstein＇s creation then needed a companion Knowing that his first creation was evil should the doctor make a second Even with the knowledge at hand Dr Frankenstein decides that it is not at all morally correct to bring another monster into the world (Brewer 1999 187205)
For over thousands of years men struggle for human betterment in every possibly way Some people try until they succeed however some work in their whole life without finding anything useful For example our living standard has been improved greatly since we have invented and made telephone plane computer etc The life expands change from below 30 to over 100 Some scientists predict that human beings can live longer than 120 years old in the near future The better people live nowadays the higher aims they want to reach in the future
5 Conclusion
Critics of the present day have been able to form more indepth analyses of the text that go beyond the very basic analyses of those from the time of Frankenstein＇s publication due to the more widely available information about the life of author Mary Shelley as well as more insight into varying theories and how they can all be applied to a given work Moreover the significant presence of the science fiction genre in today’s literature and a wider range of experimentation within novels has left today’s critics in a position to be less shocked and offended by a novel thereby allowing them to give a more impartial critical assessment of a work than was the case when Frankenstein was first published while going beyond the limits of preliminary formal expressive mimetic and rhetorical theories
Bibliography
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