The Role Of Electricity In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

The Force of Nature Nature is a force to be reckoned with. This was evident due to the impact of society in the 1700s which greatly influenced the interpretation and production of literature. One of the most notable concepts that developed from the Romantic era was the view of nature as a healing force. This concept was eminent in many works of literature, most memorable was that of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, took place in the late 1790s. The novel focused on a scientific phenomenon of reviving the dead. Since science exploration was limited in Shelley's time period, Frankenstein was simply considered as a gothic novel people read for entertainment purposes. But what once was considered as fictional now becomes reality with the advancement of science. Humans have not only propelled technological inventions and medicines that showcase the capabilities of humankind, but Scientists have now discovered the keys of human life that challenge the law of nature: cloning experimentation, genetic mutations, DNA coding, or designer babies.

Maya Culjat Mrs. Hale English 10 Honors 4 February 2023 Frankenstein Thesis Plus One In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, the thunderstorm scene is significant to Victor’s character because it uses lightning to connect his past to his present, and symbolize his guilt. In the beginning of the segment, Victor walks through the forest located outside of his hometown, admiring the thunderstorm that is beginning. “While I watched the tempest, so beautiful yet terrific…” (Shelley, 79). Victor views the lightning as something that is intriguing, yet he also recognizes it to be something horrific.

Since she was exposed to these scientists frequently in her childhood, electricity helped inspire how Dr. Frankenstein would bring his monster to life. If the book’s timeline was in today’s

Throughout the 19th century, a great deal of men emerged themselves in the sudy of nature and the discovery of unknown land. Focusing on transformation in scientific idea across a variety of subjects, those scientists raised the period of great advance in science, known as the Scientific Revolution. Even if much of scientific products expanded the knowledge and encouraged of different thinking, but some of scientific products were too power to destroy the nature resulting in posing a threat the community. In the novel Frankenstein Mary Shelley demonstrated that the creature transformed himself from longing for love to seeking revenge on humanity as whole. Humanity, knowledge and loneliness all lead to his corruption and tragedy through his emotional distortion.

Society today is greatly affected by science. Cell phones, computers, and social media are just some of the many facets of technology that we use in our everyday lives. To most people, this technology is wonderful, but Mary Shelley provides us with a caveat. In her novel Frankenstein, science and the pursuit of knowledge are recurrent themes. The novel starts off with Walden trying to make a discovery in the North Pole, and follows with a story about how Victor Frankenstein deals with his creation.

For people like Mary Shelley, Isaac Asimov, Victor Frankenstein and Lee McCauley, science goes beyond its definition of dealing with the human body or proving or disproving the purpose of a general scientific law/ theory . In the article, The Frankenstein Complex and Asimov’s Three Laws, written by Lee McCauley, she discusses different topics having to do with various opinions on the three laws of Asimov and the very many views that people have on the role science has in the creation of robots, and such technology that is said to “ help ” man kind. In relation to this, the novel, Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley, incorporates the views of science at the time into a narrative of adventure, abandonment and erratic actions. In the time

Frankenstein is a novel way to deal with a worry that ought to be more imperative in our day by day lives. We need to pause for a minute and ask ourselves, when we are testing in the domain of science and innovation, whose interests do we have as a primary concern? By what means will these headways influence society, and the greater part of all, what damage would this be able to creation bring about? At that point we 'll have a general public more arranged to bear the obligation that Victor Frankenstein so enthusiastically raced into. He took a gander at his experimental headways with disgrace and repulsiveness.

Dangerous Minds- Rough Draft Knowledge has the capability to be used for both good and evil. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, there is a consistent message throughout the novel showing the dangerous and destructive power that knowledge can have. Two key characters, Victor Frankenstein and his monster, are shaped through their obsessions with knowledge and the power and responsibility that it brings. Ultimately, Victor’s downfall is a result of his uncontrollable thirst for knowledge, and is brought about through the monster which is the embodiment of his obsession. Victor is a brilliant scientist who figures out a way to create life from death using galvanism, or electricity.

ENG-3U0 November 20 2015 Frankenstein: The Pursuit of Knowledge Throughout the course of their individual journeys, Victor Frankenstein’s extreme passion for gaining knowledge about creating life, Robert Walton’s curiosity to discover land beyond the North Pole and the monster’s eagerness to obtain knowledge about humans was the principal cause of each of their suffering. As such, In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the pursuit of knowledge is a dangerous path which leads to suffering. Victor Frankenstein develops a keen interest in discovering knowledge about living beings which ultimately results in his personal suffering as well as others suffering. To begin with, Victor embarks on an assignment through combining body parts and following various

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is closely related to the current issue of genetic engineering. Shelley’s main character, Victor Frankenstein, is a scientific engineer who brings different parts of people’s bodies together to make a new creation. This new creation at first seemed good to Victor however, he was eventually overcome by it. Genetic engineering is not only gene manipulation; it is a desire to take parts of an organism and create a new living thing. Shelley was 17 years old when she wrote Frankenstein almost 200 years ago and although young, her perceptions of what is good or evil, what is beautiful or monstrous, are topics today that are discussed in relation to genetic engineering, gene manipulation and mutation.

`    Galvanism is the contraction of a muscle that is stimulated by an electric current. In Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor used a very high voltage of electricity to bring the monster to life. “During the 1800s, people were fascinated with death, the afterlife, and if it could be possible to cheat our ultimate demise entirely. Additionally, we were just harnessing the true power of electricity. Shelley was very well-educated and well-traveled, so she would have been witness to the scientific developments in both of these fields.

Luigi Galvani investigated the effect of electricity on dissected animals in the 1780s and 1790s During a dissection, Galvani’s scalpel touched the body of a frog, and he saw the muscles in the frog's leg twitch. Galvani referred to the phenomenon as animal electricity, believing that he had discovered a new form of electricity. In the preface, Shelley writes, “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.” The influence of Galvanism on Shelley’s writing can be seen in descriptions of Victor’s construction of the Creature.

“And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul. ”-Plato. Acquisition of knowledge previously unknown to man stems from humanity’s remarkable, noteworthy curiosity of that which has not yet been discovered. New knowledge, metaphorically, is “food for the soul,” as said by Plato.

In Mary Shelley’s iconic gothic novel, Frankenstein, Romantic themes are strongly represented in order to propagandize Romanticism over the elements of knowledge and the Enlightenment. In her novel, Shelley uses gothic nature settings to foreshadow dark events that are about to happen in the novel. She also uses nature to intensify the effect that is brought during significant scenes, a strong example being, when Victor Frankenstein’s monster approaches him after a long period of time. Nature and its use to influence mood is one of the most paramount themes of both Frankenstein and Romanticism.