Assignment 5 - Frankenstein: Test of Human Abilities

Hello Readers!

This assignment is a part of internal evaluation of student's academic activity in the Department of English, MK Bhavnagar University. Here is my assignment.

Name: Rohit Vyas

Class: Semester 2

Roll No: 21

PG Enrolment Number: 2069108420200041

E-mail: rohitvyas277@gmail.com

Course: M.A. English, at Department of English, M.K. Bhavnagar University

Paper 5 – Romantic Literature, Unit 2

Submitted to: Dr. Dilip Barad

Frankenstein – Test of Human Abilities

Introduction

Human evolution and the continuous development in every coming generation can be taken as firm proof that humans have endless capacity to think, to grow and to expand the horizons. Time and again it is witnessed that the extraordinariness of variety of people who have set the milestones in their respective fields. Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawkins, Nicola Tesla and several other scientists came up with many revolutionary theories and inventions that could change the whole way of human life. It wouldn’t be the exaggerating to state that literature is considered as mirror of society. Indeed it seems to be true in the case of the preset novel Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus. Mary Shelly had written this novel in 1818 which was anonymous edition.

19^th century inventions (Barna, Tarlach and Scharping)

The 19^th century was full of thinkers, critics, theorists, scientists, biologists, mathematicians who were thinking something very different and ahead of their time. Many inventions came into being that amazed people with awe and set the people think that to what extent human brain can go? Charles Darwin, who was a biologist, wrote ‘The Origin of Species’ in 1859.

There were many important discoveries in 1800s which make us believe that human thinking capacity and tendency to excel in many fields is unbounded and limitless.

According to a website, in 1818, British obstetrician James Blundell performed the first successful human blood transfusion. This is only one medical discovery, but the list is very long. In a nut shell, Frankenstein is the novel written after Mary Shelley’s dream about a monster.

Artificial Intelligence and Human beings

Frankenstein keeps on experimenting with dead bodies of humans and used to join various parts with each other to make one full body. Several attempts are made for making the AI bots. The monster learns reading from the books. This can be seen as feeding of the information into a program which helps an AI to speak, to understand and to respond at sudden movement. Frankenstein understands the language and tries to speak something.

Victor Frankenstein’s caliber and his eagerness, ambitiousness to create something new, set him on a quest to the creation of the monster. He was versed with medical examinations and experiments.

To quote the extract,

Today we are constantly confronted with new developments in fertility science and new philosophical conundrums that result from genetic engineering, in vitro fertilization, cloning, and the prolongation of life by artificial means. Couples taking fertility treatments sometimes have to face the difficult choice of "selective reduction" or the possible adverse results of multiple, premature births. People wonder, has science gone too far? According to cultural critic Laura Kranzler Victor's creation of life and modem sperm banks and artificial wombs show a "masculine desire to claim female (re)productivity" (Kranzler 45). Frankenstein and its warnings about the hubris of science will be with us in the future as science continues to question the borders between life and death, between "viability" and "selective reduction," between living and life support. (Guerin, Labor and Morgan 317)

Organ Transplantation

In the novel Frankenstein, one finds that Victor’s experiments lead the readers to think of transplanting various body parts. In today’s medical science, it is possible to transplant the organs such as kidney, liver and in some cases heart also. But the case in the novel is a bit different than the real incidents. Victor tries to make a new body by joining limbs of other dead bodies and brain. Here a quote is mentioned in which Victor describes his creed to create the creature.

“I collected the instruments of life

around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the

lifeless thing that lay at my feet.” (Shelley)

This quote from the original text confirms that Victor was creating the whole new creature by joining the body parts. In the same manner it can be directly connected with today’s organ transplant. It can be stated that such surgeries were considered as major achievement for doctors when it was first introduced. There is one more reference of one journal’s article which says about Indian surgeon and medical scholar, Sushrut. He is known as father of Indian surgery. (Singh) It is believed that ‘Shalyachikitsa’ means surgery was initially laid by him. One can see the connection between Victor Frankenstein and Sushrut in terms of surgery and cutting body parts of dead bodies.

Creed for Knowledge

Humans have always a habit to know more about various things. Right from the time of evolution, Homo sapiens used to roam and travel a lot for survival and this travelling got them to come across fire, covering their bodies and crafting weapons like bows and arrows, and importantly invention of wheel. In terms of self defense, humans found themselves more powerful because of weapons and residing tools like roof, huts, and other protection elements. This laid superiority into their temperaments and thus humans started fighting with another tribes and groups, thus they became monarchs and rulers of colonies. Ego became heavier than humanity and human didn’t even look back in destroying even nature and disturbing ecology. This novel can be located with the reference of clear indication of Victor’s creed for knowledge and finding the secret of life.

One may say that Victor’s creed for knowledge leads him to destruction and ruins of his life. Although, it is also true that finding the way out for the ultimate knowledge is like walking on the double edged sward. It requires lot of sacrifices to gain knowledge and apply it in various arenas. Victor goes to Ingolstadt and joins university. He seeks for studying natural philosophy and chemistry. Thorough this one can find that how he is curious to know more about medicines and chemistry.

Fear of One’s Own

          When human goes beyond its limits, it suffers. It’s creed for gaining knowledge and power makes it unstoppable in the race of superiority and nothing left at the end. Victor also gains nothing in this lengthy and tiresome journey. After gaining such power and knowledge, it becomes difficult to handle it because power and knowledge gives us fear along with the enlightenment. Thus, through this novel, Mary Shelley gives us strict warning not to go beyond specific limits. As this novel was written in the age of Romanticism, it can be said that the novelist’s love for nature is responsible for generating this kind of literature. The novel gives the readers horrific feelings and cautionary signs for the upcoming dangers in life. The novel is still widely popular and considered as timeless because it best fits in the contemporary readings of human behavior and its creed for knowledge.

          Weapon of mass destruction and atomic science is the cautionary sign for the future of human beings, because it generates fear just the same as Victor was afraid of monster after creating it. Nowadays, all first world countries are focusing upon saving the ecology from the environmental disturbance such as pollution and wood cutting. Humans have made their houses and cars air conditioned and forgot to breath the clear air. The excessive execution of carbon dioxide made the environment polluted and the layer of Ozone around the Earth started reducing. Humans have acquired power, authority and knowledge but forgot to take care of nature. Countries are afraid of their own actions and on first place it seems that governments are taking decisions for people’s welfare. The inclusion of AI and Unmanned Armed Vehicles (UAVs) or drones in defense can be seen as the frightful invention yet meant to protect the humankind from war.

          Mary Shelley might be thinking ahead of its time because it seems to be true that the novel Frankenstein marks its impact even today’s time. The way character of monster emerges shows the other side of the coins which is harms and hazards of human abilities.

In a nutshell

“Necessity is mother of invention”

With the general overview of human behavior, right from the period of evolution till today, it can be fearlessly stated that human is having enough potential to create milestones in terms of development. It can create beautiful skyscrapers and make the best out of technology. Ranging from lifestyle to education and health sector, humans have always been in the doubt of their abilities to make and create something. This self-doubt and questioning attitude expanded human possibilities to seek beyond what is visible. In this assignment an honest attempt has been made to locate the novel in contemporary situations and discourses, where the gothic and supernatural elements reveal the reality of today’s life.

* Works Cited

Barna, Mark, Gemma Tarlach and Nathaniel Scharping. The 10 Greatest Scientists of All Time. 11 April 2017. www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/the-10-greatest-scientists-of-all-time.

Guerin, Wilfred L., et al. A Handboook of Critical Approaches to Literature. 5th. New York: OUP, 2005.

McFadden, Christopher. 15 Medical Inventions And Discoveries of the 1800's That Have Come to Define Modern Medicine. 22 Oct 2019.  www.interestingengineering.com/15-medical-inventions-and-discoveries-of-the-1800s-that-have-come-to-define-modern-medicine.

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein. 1818. PDF.

Singh, Vibha. "Sushruta: The father of surgery." National journal of maxillofacial surgery 8.1 (2017): 1-3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5512402.