LITERATURA INGLESA DE LOS SIGLOS XVIII - XIX

STUDY QUESTIONS FROM FRANKENSTEIN

1. What role does Technology have in Frankenstein? Does Shelley believe it is

responsible for the problems that occur?

The novel Frankenstein was written in the eighteenth century by Mary Shelley and it
was published in 1818. During this time, several historical events took place and are
very important to analyze this novel.

Some of them were the Industrial Revolution, the research for knowledge,
communication improvements or the Enlightenment. These issues are reflected
somehow in the novel by Mary Shelley and have a connection with technology.

Technology has a very important role in Frankenstein because Shelley tried to reflect
her fear with the new improvements of her century in the figure of Victor Frankenstein.
The Industrial Revolution was a process of economical, social and technological
transformation. More over, Enlightenment brought the idea that human knowledge
could fight against ignorance and tyranny to build a better world. We can't forget the
research for knowledge which is also very important in the figure of Victor
Frankenstein.

Víctor Frankenstein has these qualities in his personality, he was fascinated with science
and with the idea of bringing life to something inanimate. He liked to read and when he
was young, he read and studied the works of Paracelsus, a father of modern medicine
and Albert Magnus, a great philosopher :

I have read and studied the wild financies of these writers with delight, they appeared
to me treasures known to few besides myself. I have described myself as always having
been imbued with fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature (page 35, chapter 2)

I took their word for all they averred and I became their disciple (page 36, chapter 2)

Victor Frankenstein went to university to keep studying, he got the help of his professor
Walton to get his application in science and since that moment he became more
interested in physics and chemistry:

From this day natural philosophy, and particularly chemistry, in the most
comprehensive sense of the term, became early my sole occupation. I read with ardor
those works […] I attended the lectures and cultivated the acquaintance of the men of
science of the university. (page 49, chapter 4)

One of the phenomena which had peculiarly attracted my attention was the structure of
the human frame, and, indeed, any animal endued with life. (page 50, chapter 4)

At this point Victor decides to bring life to an inanimate being based on his knowledge
in science and deep researches. This has a connection with the Industrial Revolution, the
rise of technology and also the new creations and inventions of the eighteenth century.

Victor has the secret of giving soul to an inanimate being but also the knowledge to
build a body which receives it. This is how he decides to create a new being based on
his instruction, investigations and with the help of technology. He hesitated at first to
create a being resembling humans or another one simpler, but he was so excited that the
wanted to give life to a being as complex as the human being.

Victor is clearly the reflection of the upcoming advances in science that Mary Shelley
foresaw. He finally created a creature whose appearance was monstruous but what he
didn’t know was that it would bring chaos to his life:

How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe or how delineate the wretch from
whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form? (page 58, chapter
5).

I had gazed on him while unfinished; he was ugly then, but when those muscles and
joints were rendered capable of motion, it became a thing such as even Dante could not
have conceived (page 60, chapter 5)

The creature being abandoned by its creator, began to have feelings and behave like a
human, he became to be filled with hatred because everyone rejected him for his
appearance and this made him seek revenge. He killed William, Victor’s brother and
later in the novel Victor's wife, Elizabeth.

Answering the second question, Mary Shelley does believe that technology is
responsible for the problems that occur. Without technology, Victor Frankenstein
wouldn’t have been able to create the monster, technology is the fundamental element
for this story to develop.
Technology and also science were believed to bring benefits and advances to society.
Using both, Victor wanted to bring to life an inanimate being or either create a new one,
which would have been a great historical event: return to life once being dead.

This fact that sounded like a miracle thanks to technology, but became something dark
in this novel. The creature that was brought back to life, despite its appearance, had a
good soul but became evil and full of anger because of how society treated him.
Technology and partly society were responsible for all the problems that occur.

The fact that technology is very important in this novel could also be because Shelley
wanted to reflect her fear of the developments in her century. She probably tried to
show her worry for the new inventions but, above all, her worry about the human’s
ambition to discover new things and how quickly improvements in technology,
medicine and science were studied and carried out.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

- Shelley, Mary (1818): Frankenstein or the modern prometheus. England: Planet

ebooks

- Zachary, Kat. (2008, August 23). Frankenstein Concordance.

<http://heartoffrankenstein.blogspot.com/2008/08/paracelsus-and-albertus-
magnus.html>