8/12/2019 The Modern World Has Absolved Itself From Most Association With Morality

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8/12/2019 The Modern World Has Absolved Itself From Most Association With Morality

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transgressed by the assumption of divinity in a human. Mary Shellys romantic idealistic outlook on-

in particular-the galvanists of her time displayed them as exhibiting such an assumed divinity, and

the tale of Victor Frankenstein was a horrific caricature of what was promised to them by a vengeful

nature if they succeeded in their pursuits of bestowing life on a corpse. Additionally, on the Rime of

the ancient mariner, a similar theme was taken on by Frankenstein as the cursed mariner, where he

was being punished for exceeding a boundary against it like shooting an albatross. The epistolary

form of the text enhanced the effect of natures punishment on Victor Frankenstein, as his tale was

to be repeated by him and throughout time so that others could learn from his misdeed, and he

never be relieved of the weight of his sin. Hence, in acknowledgement of Mary Shellys romantic,

disapproving view of the god-forsaking science of galvanism in her time, it is relevant in the 21st

century due to the progression of heartless science such as cloning, which is an example of playing

God- inevitably a foreboding of a horrible consequence if this science continues.

Mary Shelly was present in a time of such dramatic change, where humanity was screaming in the

streets of Paris and mewling in the sewers of England. Inevitably, she would have recognised

ambition as the genus of the bacterium which spread the plague of such chaos, and although her

idealism entailed that blood be shed for a free country, she would have recognised the ambition in

all of the sour things in the world which her ideals as a romantic antagonised, such as the rich-poor

gap, the power-hungry and the men of science endued with the pursuit of bringing corpses to life.

She utilised symbolism to represent the ghastly, abhorrent-looking monster as the product of

Victors ambition- which could have been interpreted as the monster being his ambition itself. No

mortal could support the horror of that countenance. This resonates with Shelleys belief that if

there is no peace or harmonious appreciation for nature in a man, his extreme of ambition or sloth

could have the most unfathomable consequences, represented by the monster, as his appearance is

unfathomable. To further portray her values saturated with romantic idealism, on what

indiscernable things could form at the prospect of continuous, extreme ambition, repetition was

used thoughout the text for a common description of Frankensteins creature: monster, vile,

gigantic stature, daemon. From Shelleys time, the vile abhorrence of ambition still holds, evident

in the rich-poor gap which is a geographical line like latitude and longitude on the world map, and

the apathetic increase in scientific utilisation such as genetic engineering on animals and cloning.

This is directly indifferent towards Mary Shellys idealistic notion of no extremes in ambition, and so

the ignored caution in Frankenstein creates a profound foreboding for the 21st

century society.

To conclude, Mary Shellys presence in a time of political and economic tumult had shaped her ideals

of romanticism, which allowed her to converse through Frankenstein the vile, impenetrable side of

society, which like Victor Frankenstein, continues to strive, ambitious and Godless, continuing

through science to replicate Gods work, such as through cloning and genetic engineering, creating a

disharmony in nature and promising foreboding consequences like Victor had to endure.