Ethical Arguments in Frankenstein

The story behind the creation of Mary Shelley's classic Frankenstein is as legendary as the story itself; Shelly, along with her then fiance and later husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, was on a vacation in Switzerland with Lord Byron and other guests. One night they held a contest amongst themselves to see who could write the scariest horror story. Shelley drew her inspiration on a nightmare she had of a man kneeling beside a monstrosity he had created. From this vivid image Shelley integrated her own distrust of advances in modern science.

She believed that man was never intended to "play God", or to try to overextend his mortality by using science to develop his own divinity. Observing fantastical technological achievements and developing a sense of suspicion about the ethics and responsibility involved is still a source of society's struggles. As cloning and medical experimentation become commonplace, questions regarding the necessity or right to perform said experiments also arise. Frankenstein is more than a horror classic; it is a commentary on the ethics of science and technology.

Mary Shelley was a member of the Romantic Movement, an artistic and intellectual group that included her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley. The Romantics placed an emphasis on natural beauty in their works in contrast to the mechanical creations prominent in the Industrial Revolution. As the implementation of new-found technology brought forth an appreciation for a sense of capitalism and wealth, it also brought forth a reaction to these trends, namely the origins of organized labor and socialist tendencies. A single machine worked by a solitary worker could replace several, and this led to the Luddite movement, a group of workers named after a mythological man named Ned Ludd.

The Luddites protested against their replacement and often sabotaged machines and threatened merchants. Shelley's view of the rise of the machine is prominent in the full title of her masterpiece: Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. Prometheus was, in Greek mythology, a Titan who stole fire from the gods and gave it to the mortals, and was punished by Zeus, the most powerful Greek god. Zeus trapped Prometheus on a mountain where every day an eagle would devour his liver, which grew back only to be eaten again this next day. This cautionary tale is similar to the one of Adam and Eve being banished from the garden of Eden for eating from the tree of knowledge, and in Frankenstein the monster compares himself to Adam, but laments that Adam had the advantage of being created in God's image and could comfort in his relation to divinity while the monster saw himself as a lonely abomination.

With the dominance of the internet and the onset of YouTube and MySpace, daily life and society in general have undergone what could be referred to as a third industrial revolution. User-generated technology has altered the face of entertainment and also privatized the industry, taking the power out of mass corporations. The excitement and fear that surround the internet phenomenon as well as biotechnology and other recent scientific advancements mirrors those that occurred when the first Industrial Revolution took place in the eighteenth century.

Frankenstein is ultimately a classic novel whose themes of ethical responsibility, self-identity, rebellion and innocence are as relevant today as they were when the novel was written. It is a clear warning, an answer to the prominent achievement of man-made materials. Mary Shelley's nightmare has become its own creation, manifesting itself in the consciousness and imagination for all generations to come, haunting us eternally.