Mary Shelleys Frankenstein :: English Literature:

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein looks at the consequences of mans attempts to meddle in the creation of life. In the 21st century, with its scientific and technological advancements does her story still have an important message for humankind? Steven Foster Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' looks at the consequences of mans attempts to meddle in the creation of life. In the 21st century, with its scientific and technological advancements does her story still have an important message for humankind? In Frankenstein Mary Shelley is trying to convey many messages, but the most important one of these is that it is not man's business to do the jobs of the gods which is why Victor Frankenstein tells his story in the first place. I believe that it is still worth hearing this message as we are doing the same thing again; we have the technology to create a human being from scratch and nearly enough to choose what it looks like. Only the other day for example on the news they were showing how scientists could choose the sex of a baby. Mary Shelley intended the book as a warning, the story was told within the book as a warning and it was as if Victor Frankenstein was telling the story to the people of the time. The reason she wrote the book in the form of a warning was because at the time many sudden advancements led people to believe that they would soon understand and be able to create life. This did not happen but in our time we are realistically close to being able to do these things so the warning is still relevant as it talks about issues that haven't happened yet. Most of the characters in the book are there to fulfill a purpose, Robert Walton is in the book so that Frankenstein can warn someone about the dangers of pursuing a dream and so he can tell the story "learn from me, if not by my precepts, then at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native village to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow". The monster is in the book to be the result of an experiment as in the above analogy would be the killer bees who were designed to create more honey than ordinary bees who then escaped and have wiped out all other types of bees, like the monster who was intended to be the first of a new race "A new species would bless me as their creator" This quote