Victor Frankenstein: A Tragedy in Science

Scientist and educator Stephen Jay Gould wrote, in his paper titled "The Monster's Human Nature" that "Mary Shelley wrote a moral tale, not about hubris or technology, but about responsibility to all creatures of feeling and to the products of one's own hand."

Mary Shelley consciously and accurately defends this assumption by Gould in her language throughout the novel, and at the same time she creates within the reader an understanding of this conscious decision she made, and also allows readers to consider her language choices through the lens of its implications toward the morality of science, the implications of science's effectiveness in England's society. Rather than creating this outright, Shelley creates a story in which the language speaks otherwise, speaks against using science for good intentions, and readers are then left to look at the novel in terms of their own gut feelings, much of those feelings being ones of discomfort and doubt of Victor Frankenstein's intentions toward his creation of the "being," whom ultimately goes about his new world as he does because Victor himself does not veer from his mental choices of how he doesn't consider the scientific consequences of his actions during the monster's creation.

Early in the novel, Victor observes that he "had gazed upon the fortifications and impediments that seemed to keep humans from entering the citadel of nature, and rashly and ignorantly I had repined" (Shelley 25). At this point Victor's most primeval and conquest-like thoughts and feelings seem to show through, and perhaps looks at the challenges scientists before himself faced and decides starkly that he can and will overcome those high and strong walls and take scientific discovery into his own naive hands, rather than heeding the experiences of former scientists as warnings that not considering all aspects of scientific discovery will lead to disaster, as is evident when Victor finally creates his demon. This initial thought process by Victor seems to promote the pomposity of Victor, as is true with other mental paths he takes in the later pages of the story. Because Victor is as sure of his own scientific beliefs as he is, he does not take into account the reality of what he has learned about the scientific discoveries about which he has taught himself, despite efforts by people like Professor Krempe to convince Victor that those discoveries he of which he thinks so highly are not the most ethical and sound scientific procedures. In fact, Victor thinks later "the ambition of the inquirer seemed to limit itself to the annihilation of those visions on which my interest in science was chiefly founded" (Shelley 32). Just as before when Victor first comes across these seemingly great discoveries in his science books, this time he continues to discount the ramifications of thinking in these ways, because he can only focus on his most extreme thoughts, mainly the fact that he believes so strongly that Krempe's only concern was to totally go against the things in which Victor so strongly believes. It would appear that Victor's earlier belief, that "destiny was too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction" (Shelley 27) is beginning to come true.

At this point, yes it is plausible that Victor may have a bit of a realization when he thinks that his strong belief in these "immutable laws" is too great, and is the cause of his downfall as an ethical person, yet he does nothing to counter his actions, and continues to go forward with his experiment in creating his Being. He has an even earlier realization to this defense because he says that the authors that he reads loyally wrote that being able to conjure up ghosts and demons as real entities is as plausible as any other scientific endeavor, and this action is a "fulfillment of which I eagerly sought" (Shelley 26). It isn't that he just wants to create a monster for the sake of doing something different than his fellow "scientists." He wants to have power over his own creation. But Victor cannot and does not want realize the entire problem of creating such a being like he ultimately does, because of his naivety as a young man. But age and inexperience alone does not become enough of a factor in keeping Victor from carrying out his creation, as he works on his demon for two full years, and even at the end of that time, though he is older and had time to see the grotesque nature of his monster unfolding, his thoughts and feelings of his ultimate purpose do not change.

He vows to himself "...if I could banish disease from the human frame and render man invulnerable to any but violent death" (Shelley 26) but this is also an ethically-dangerous moment because at this point, Victor's inward intentions speak of a desire to control the chances of humans getting diseases, which should make readers stop and realize that this action is wholly unacceptable in the beliefs of effective and morally-sound science. However, Victor still fails to see this moment in his mind as dangerous, as evident by his unfailing attitude of complete control of that which inherently cannot and should not be altered. Herein lies the overarching question of ultimate control of all aspects of the human condition and a desire to be God-like in his efforts, a question that first begins when Victor starts to create his Being. Victor immediately thinks "A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me" (Shelley 40, emphasis added). Here Victor seems to delve into the realm of becoming omniscient in a way, because he firmly believes that his creation will recognize him as its ultimate originator, but seems at the same time to lack both the internal ability to hold this distinction to the full potential that readers perhaps expect out of someone purporting such a strong sense of self-importance, and the external ability to convey upon his creation the ideals which a being created by a human should possess in the first place, and that in itself seems to be one of Victor's biggest and most costly blunders in creating the monster.

The monster later calls Victor on this mistake, saying "I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather thy fallen angel" (Shelley 86). While the monster possesses a superficial likeness to a human (not a complete resemblance) it lacks greatly the conscience humans possess, and as a result is forced to go out into the imperfect world around it to hopefully discover that humanness within its environment, and fortunately it does, once it spends some time watching real humans in a cabin.
Still, although the monster tries to take those lessons he learns in the woods to heart, it is not enough, because ultimately one must be born with at least some sense of morality, and because the monster lacks this basic conscience, he never reaches that total humanistic self, and is continually scorned and looked upon for what he truly is by those whom come into brief contact with him, and Victor, his self-important, forever-naïve and biased creator, is the monster's biggest downfall, the biggest tragedy being that Victor himself had repeated opportunities to take into account the real consequences of all his actions, but chose unfailingly to ignore all but his own morally and ethically-incorrect beliefs. Victor never himself comes to a realization that his actions were unethical and dangerous, and as the story ends, Victor exclaims in his last breaths, "During these last days, I have been occupied in examining my past conduct, nor do I find it blamable" (Shelley 207). Unlike a true scientist might take responsibility for creating such chaos with his own hands, Victor for one last time does want to be rid of his horrible mistake, but yet could have been rid of the monster long before this moment, and instead he stays true to his own nature and carries that guilt with him into Death, and we as readers are left to discover the actions Victor himself should have taken.

Works Cited

Gould, Stephen Jay. "The Monster's Human Nature." Natural History (1994): 14-20.
Shelley, Mary. "Frankenstein". New York: Bantam Dell, 1818.