frankenstein argumentative essay help

frankenstein argumentative essay help

Exploring the Ethical and Societal Implications of Frankenstein: An Argumentative Essay

1. Introduction to Frankenstein and Its Cultural Impact

The significance of Frankenstein can be best appreciated through the portals of its cultural impact and the curious circumstances of its creation, ranging from the appearance and physical form of the creature, sociopolitical agencies, and the ethical implications cast by its early critical reception, poetic, philosophical, and artistic responses, scientific corpuses, including biologically related research and experimentation, as well as discussions held in various cultural forums for almost 200 years. As horror writers Max Brooks and Emily Zach put it, “No other novel better reflects the anxieties and terrors outside our doors.” Yet a frustration I have with many readings of the novel is, whether because of changing societal mores or historical distance, we have missed the taproots of Shelley’s cultural observations. People often talk of Frankenstein as being a commentary on man’s scientistic tampering in God’s sacred domains, for instance, but Shelley’s actually more concerned with the ethics and science of the questions a veterinarian who despondently crafts an artificial farm animal in order that his Homo sapiens nephews might have consistent calm milk on their cocoa would be expected to explore. Mitigating suffering is the common thread in Shelley’s portrait of society, and it gives the pathos of the novel its abiding emotional impact. That’s why the novel remains capital “I”—important. It showed a working middle-class audience what societal ills could fester in certain experiments in utility.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, first published in 1818, is frequently cited as the first science fiction novel. When one stops to consider the history of science fiction, it might strike one as odd that one of the novels most foundational to the genre was published less than 50 years from the genre’s first “official” publication. Indeed, the commentators of the day could no sooner determine what to call it than we can, with early reviews ranging from “extraordinary,” “horrific and abhorred,” “inflated and wordy,” “unspeakable abhorrence,” “absurd and disgusting,” and “the offspring of a diseased imagination,” to “an extraordinary piece of writing.” If the monumentally contradictory reception of the novel aligns it with the subsequent reception of Shelley’s literary legacy, the cultural impact of the novel would eventuate in the production of at least 122 film adaptations stemming from one book.

2. The Theme of Creation and Responsibility in Frankenstein

The ethical dimension of the narrative is to be found above all in the act of creation. Victor Frankenstein does not think almost at all about the possible responsibility for his creation, nor about his duty towards other people. Just after the realization of his ambitious project, he becomes aware of the monstrosity of the creature. Through creating a man that everybody abhors to look at or be near, the result is a double antisocial act: the creature cannot communicate with nor express his gratitude and love to the villagers, in addition to being left all alone, and Frankenstein’s double guilt in his creation who is broke. In a widest sense, the Promethean myth can be considered a warning against the dangers of men going beyond human limitations. It equates reality or being burnt by excessive ambition with ideological assumptions. Hypermodern society is further increasing the responsibility and guilt of men versus their destiny.

By exploring the ethical and societal implications of ‘Frankenstein’, you are also taking up a theme discussed in a literature class. In the Gothic novel, Frankenstein uses his knowledge of natural philosophy to animate a lifeless body. He wants to solve the riddle of bodily decay and expiry by eventually making it impossible. The statement that follows contains an ethical dimension: Victor Frankenstein overreaches his human limitations and gets ahead of himself. Additionally, the text shows explicit social criticism implicit in the reaction of both the family and the courtroom: a yellow eye and translucent skin function as a metonym for strong discrimination and marginalization, similar to the rejection of Frankenstein by most of society.

3. The Portrayal of Science and Technology in Frankenstein

One broad title that the modern researcher might apply to Frankenstein is the ‘ethics of science’, which its title character undoubtedly raises; the use of science for mutilation (shaping flesh) rather than the improved lives of humans who are its emphasis pervading most sane scientific work. In the novel, Victor Frankenstein utilizes his fascination with ‘natural science’ to bring ‘new life’ into being, in an example that is fundamentally one of ‘advanced biopsychology’ as we have termed it. From this point Frankenstein’s narrative dissolves into the realm of unaccepted ‘mad’ science, just in time for the genie he has released into this ‘lucky dip’ research line (animating corpses using galvanism) to come home, in the form of ‘the Daemon’ he wakes. The Daemon as a bioplasmic shambling mockery of a man that Frankenstein initially cherishes as a ‘scientific wonder’ only to ultimately repudiate as less than human, “accursed” and a “fiend which I had let loose upon the world.”

The portrayal of science and technology has become highly prominent in debate and literary canons as a very controversial subject, whereby there are strong arguments debating the ethics and implications surrounding the subject area, to the extent that it can sometimes have damaging effects on the whole of society. Beneath these arguments, the contrasting perceptions of science and technology have often played a crucial role; science being perceived as a morally superior discipline that is associated with beneficial knowledge that is fit for human benefit, whereas technology is often portrayed in a more negative manner. “Frankenstein” is a novel that utilizes these associations within the storyline and provides an insight into the societal views of scientific progression at the time it was published, where the cruel and ethically problematic actions of an individual lead to numerous catastrophic events. Since it was written, the novel has influenced all modern discussions on the benefits and flaws of scientific study.

4. Ethical Considerations in Frankenstein: Playing God and the Consequences

Rather than restyling the beast like a revolutionary rebellion soldier far removed from his constitutive parts—blind to ethnicity, skin color, race, gender, and age—Frankenstein fell into the orbit of today’s Amphitheater, Mao’s violent circus-funeral. His philosophy interweaves mass death with crude political reason and political economy of infrastructural abandon. It is unsuccessful through his death, which occurs in the film adaptation via nod to its filmic Nemesis.

Quite apart from political concerns, Frankenstein reanimates the walking corpse in part to show how much “pains” he took to “bestow animation,” cursing his attempt as not much for the “loathsome essential” that displays “me” at work. Frankenstein’s motives are selfish, and never the exalted “we” arguments employed by Slavoj Ziek. His justification regarding Divergence is a mere patina on the underlying Aleph-violence of his instrumental and cruel actions. He attempts to cover it with a patina of self-serving rationalizing verbiage that idealizes his intentions. He never conceives for the welfare of the creature, aye, caring for himself, offering a self-serving cultural war theory regarding the men he desires to reproduce.

Returning to the novel, however, we see other, grander ethical issues at play. Frankenstein’s desire here extends not so much toward facilitating discourse about class as animating the dead. He wishes to create a group that can produce a mob and assert their opposition against a ruling government, or anyone else in their incarnation as modern, army-equipped police, alternatively cited by men such as Malthus and Hobbes. He wants, in essence, to remake the story of the Leveller mutineer as a communist tale.

Regardless of whether this was an influence or disclosure explained in The Levellers: A Biographical Study, Shelley’s text has much to say about the ethical implications of scientific ambition unguided by a moral compass. Frankenstein and his associates debate the potential good of their discoveries, yet never mention potential abuses. Such science is a world “of relentless self-interest surviving in a cosmic wilderness without obligation to anything but its own winner’s gratifications.”

Questions arise as to whether there are other, darker reasons for his pursuits into reanimation, citing the sociopolitical implications of the time. Frankenstein started as a short story to distract the poets Lord Byron and Percy Shelley, and then became a novel written by Mary Shelley; it was a part of her horror story competition with the others. Shelley had a number of influences upon writing the story, including messages of abandonment and the dangers of the French Revolution.

Ethical considerations appear as a prominent theme in Shelley’s Frankenstein due to Victor Frankenstein playing ‘God’. This plays directly into the ethical and moral dilemmas the novel raises, begging the reader to consider a number of key questions regarding the consequences of a science unguided by ethics; namely, what kind of society will we end up with? By delving deeper into the story’s characters and its broader themes, it is easier to see the ethical implications of looking at Victor Frankenstein’s ambitious scientific pursuits through the lens of an argumentative essay.

5. Conclusion: Reflecting on the Timeless Themes of Frankenstein

We have witnessed that in ‘Frankenstein’, the creation and his creator were isolated from society, not respected, and could not function due to society. Respect is not inherited or automatic, so if we assume it is a social construction, then it is society that enables it. So whatever the societal context depicts, it is all society – ultimately, there to guide us in making our own informed decisions. As we have seen, the various discourses concerning this novel do have a place within society and can serve as a platform for critical engagement with ourselves and our values. Times change, however, one component of human nature is constant: the desire to seek answers to the many questions unanswered by the universe. There is much to be taken away from ‘Frankenstein’ as a novel, even two centuries from its authorship, as it has rarely been any less relevant. Frankenstein is more than just a cautionary tale; it is a model for attempting understanding and connection with others.

In order to understand and engage with another, it is important to critically assess potential societal and ethical implications as a result of that sharing. In the case of ‘Frankenstein,’ herein lies a tale that explores these implications through one man’s relentless pursuit of discovery. This essay has argued that certain pursuits in fields such as the medical sciences can have devastating societal effects. From the issue of progress and the advocacy of moderation, numerous ethical implications arise from this modern-day tale. Several validators have fitted the text to certain contemporary arguments such as how some behaviors are still socially unacceptable due to past associations and of how science fiction can act as a warning or a catalyst for reaction.