Playing God? Essay, Research Paper

What are the Ramifications of Imperfect Man Playing God?

It was a clip of huge scientific finds and contentions in Europe during the early 19th century. Mary Shelly & # 8217 ; s Frankenstein is a contemplation of the inquiries that society was conveying to the head refering scientific discipline and faith. In this horror narrative, one can clearly see the contentions originating at the clip that scientific discipline may be killing faith and therefore world. The branchings of Dr. Frankenstein & # 8217 ; s effort to play God are seen through the perceptual experiences of the monster, the personality traits taking to his ain devastation, and the ultimate loss of Frankenstein & # 8217 ; s saneness and morality.

First of all, Frankenstein & # 8217 ; s effort to play God and Creator is most obviously seen through the perceptual experiences and actions of his creative activity. The animal is born into the universe as if it is a babe, cognizing nil of life. This animal & # 8217 ; s first experience as a life being is being shunned by its ain Godhead.

I beheld the wretch & # 8212 ; the suffering monster whom I had created. He held up the drape of the bed ; and his eyes, if eyes they may be called, were fixed on me? He might hold spoken, but I did non hear ; one manus was stretched out, apparently to confine me, but I escaped and rushed downstairs ( 43 ) .

The monster is making out to the lone thing he knows therefore far, his Godhead, and is met with disgust. Frankenstein, being simply human, can non offer this animal the unconditioned love and counsel that God bestows on His animals. This, in bend, leads to the at hand immoral actions of the animal. Symbolically, the same action of making out that has Frankenstein run with horror is the procedure in which the monster uses to kill all of his victims by choking. Had Frankenstein merely tried to care and pass on with the monster during this harmless event, so possibly the awful narrative would hold ended here. Besides, the animal himself refers to his state of affairs in life and to his Godhead in a Biblical sense. Like most worlds, the monster grapnels with such inquiries as & # 8220 ; What [ am ] I? & # 8221 ; and & # 8220 ; Whence did I come? & # 8221 ; ( 113 ) . The animal compares himself to Adam, with Frankenstein being his Godhead. However, he sees his province as far different from that of Adam & # 8217 ; s, being that he is & # 8220 ; wretched, helpless, and entirely & # 8221 ; ( 114 ) . He so compares himself to Satan, but notes that even Satan has company. If this animal, as compared to Adam, feels so suffering and desolate, must that non besides speak of the incompetency of its God?

Another facet specifying the branchings of Frankenstein & # 8217 ; s try to portray God is seen in his ain personality traits that lead to his devastation. First of all, aspiration is the ultimate human defect in Shelley & # 8217 ; s novel. This construct is foreshadowed as the reader gets familiar with Mr. Walton. Walton & # 8217 ; s quest to the North Pole is entirely to fulfill his aspiration of celebrity. In direct correlativity, Frankenstein & # 8217 ; s motivations in making the monster are his desires to be a celebrated scientist. What could be more unbelievable than making life? Therefore, one sees the relationship between scientific discipline and faith. Frankenstein is trying to be God to his ain creative activity in order to carry through his ambitious desires. At the exact minute that these desires are fulfilled, Frankenstein realizes that he himself is non God, and he is appalled at the & # 8220 ; calamity & # 8221 ; that he has created. This realisation, nevertheless, is excessively late to alter the way of devastation that Frankenstein must confront. Besides, compassion, or deficiency thereof, plays a critical function in the comparing of Frankenstein to God. God is of all time compassionate to the critical demands of his existences. Frankenstein, on the other manus, chooses his

times of lovingness and hatred at the most inopportune times. Alternatively of making out to his creative activity to learn and care for it, he turns off and casts it out to the barbarous universe without any counsel or love. However, Frankenstein about shows compassion to the monster when he is eventually forced to face it in individual. The monster pleads to Frankenstein to make a comrade for it by seeking to arouse empathy for its wretchedness and sorrow.

& # 8230 ; alternatively of endangering, I am content to ground with you. I am

malicious because I am suffering. Am I non shunned and hated by all world? You, my Godhead, would rupture me to pieces and victory ;

retrieve that, and state me why I should feel for adult male more than he

commiserations me? You would non name it slay if you could precipitate me

into one of those ice-rifts and destruct my frame, the work of your ain custodies ( 130 ) .

At these words Frankenstein feels compassionate for the monster he created and agrees to its demands. He subsequently is overcome by his clemency for world over his ain selfishness and realizes that the creative activity of another abomination is evil. Again it is proven that merely God in His huge wisdom can supervise and protect living existences. Man, as seen in Frankenstein, will merely neglect at this ineffectual enterprise.

Finally, Frankenstein & # 8217 ; s effort to play God consequences in the ruin of his ain saneness and morality. This is first seen in his creative activity of the monster. Ironically, in the procedure of his effort to be Godlike, Frankenstein begins to move really amorally. He frequents cemeteries and has no regard for human life. & # 8220 ; ? I dabbled among the unholy moistnesss of the grave or tortured the life animate being to inspire the lifeless clay & # 8221 ; ( 39 ) . In his pursuit to be like God, he falls wholly off. He besides wholly cuts himself off from his household and friends. This excessively is dry in that God reinforces the importance of household bonds. Besides, Frankenstein openly conveys hatred towards his creative activity and seeks to slay it. Not merely is he embarking farther off from faith by wanting to kill another life animal, but that animal is his ain creative activity. Finally, Frankenstein spends his life on a suffering, heart-breaking chase of his animal. After the monster takes all that he loves, Frankenstein exhibits an grim desire for retaliation and justness. Yet once more, although Frankenstein originally desires to be the Godlike Godhead of life, he exhibits traits that are wholly contradictory to his predicament. In his quest through life and for the monster, Frankenstein forfeits all of his felicity and all that he loves. Bing that God is love, one can see that the effort of adult male to be God consequences in enduring for his blasphemy.

In decision, Shelley illustrates the hazards that can bechance adult male if he actively seeks to play God. Although adult male should populate a moral life patterning that of God, adult male should non seek to himself make life and go a God. The foundation of Frankenstein & # 8217 ; s ruin is in his early errors as a fallible homo by non accepting duty for his ain creative activity that he so passionately works to convey into being. His ruin is subsequently multiplied and finally brings him to his decease, because Frankenstein ne’er really takes duty for his actions. He besides ne’er asks forgiveness of his fellow adult male for making such a devilish animal or of his God. Man, being a fallible animal, will ne’er possess the features of God, no affair how much scientific discipline and engineering progress. Simply because the resources and cognition are present to make, does non do it a righteous enterprise.

Bibliography

Shelley, Mary W. Frankenstein. New York: Bantam Books, 1991.