Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was born in London in 1797, her parents were two notorious personalities of the time: the anarchic and rationalist philosopher William Godwin (author of An enquiry concerning Political Justice and Things as they are, or The Adventures of Caleb Williams) and one of the founders of the feminist movement (with A vindication of rights of woman), Mary Wollstonecraft. This environment lead Mary to become interested in literature and revolutionary ideals: indeed both of her parents were involved in a group influenced by the ideals of the French Revolution which also included William Blake.
Despite this positive and stimulating circumstance, Mary's infancy had not been very happy. Her mother died about ten days after her birth, a fact that marked her whole life with an intense sense of guilt. Two years later Godwin married Jane Clarimont, a widow with two sons. Mrs Clarimont was quick-tempered and has always preferred and favoured her own sons over Mary.
Godwin took care of Mary's education on various subjects, but she also had access to his library which was used to assist to the discussions between the various visitors of the house like the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the vice-president of the United States Aaron Burr and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Actually Mary did not receive a formal education, she attended school for a period of just six months when she was fifteen years old. However with private readings and a fervid cultural ambient she reached an unusual instruction level for girls of the XIX century.
The plot of the story is not very complex. Everything starts when the Swiss doctor Frankenstein manages to create a human being from pieces of dead people: in the beginning he is excited about his creations but in a short time realizes that what he made was ugly and revolting. Terrified and over-stressed he abandons the creature to himself for a while and when he comes back the "monster" has disappeared. After a long period of sickness, Frankenstein returns at home. There he discovers that his young brother William has been mysteriously murdered: Justine, an innocent servant, was accused and condemned to death. Frankenstein is the only aware of Justine's innocence because he knows that the author of the crime was his terrible creature.
One day, while Victor Frankenstein was alone in the middle of the Alps, the monster appears and tells him his story from the beginning. The creature has just a single request for Frankenstein: have someone to live with, like him, without prejudices. He asks for a female creature. Victor refuses, but the threats of the monster convince him to accept. However when Frankenstein has almost completed the new creature, looking at her he is disgusted and cuts her into pieces. The monster, who was just outside the house, promises to be with him on his wedding night.
After his return, Victor marries his cousin Elizabeth, but the monster keeps his promise and kills her: from this moment on the only aim of Victor's life is to avenge his relatives and to kill the creature. After a very long chase Victor meets a ship caught in the polar ice and there dies talking with the ship Captain, Walton. The monster also recounts his story to Walton and finally he leaves, preparing to die in the mountains.
The structure
The novel is narrated by three people:
- captain Walton to his sister;
- Frankenstein to Walton;
- the monster to Frankenstein (in the Alps) and to Walton (in the end);
The author seems to disguise his female voice beside three men using an
epistolary form.
Video: A scene from the film with Robert De Niro
Walton is an alter-ego of the young Frankenstein: his aim is reach unexplored polar areas and be remembered by future generations. Both Walton and the young Frankenstein were moved by the same force: thirsty for knowledge.
I cannot describe to you my sensations on the near prospect of my undertaking. It is impossible to communicate to you a conception of the trembling sensation, half pleasurable and half fearful, with which I am preparing to depart. I am going to unexplored regions, to ‘the land of mist and snow’, but I shall kill no albatross; therefore do not be alarmed for my safety or if I should come back to you as worn and woeful as the ‘Ancient Mariner’.
In this passage we can find an explicit reference to The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, which undoubtedly influenced the author:
Walton tells his sister he won't kill the albatross and come back to warn a
wedding-guest of something. Although Walton hasn't met Frankenstein yet: he does
not know to be a wedding-guest himself. Actually we can see in Frankenstein
talking to Walton a sort of ancient mariner telling the wedding-guest his story
to make him aware of the danger hidden in ambition, even if it be only the
apparently innocent one of distinguishing yourself in science and discoveries.
Both Coleridge and Shelley talk about a crime against nature but the latter
makes a step forward: while the Ancient Mariner killed the albatross unaware
(senselessness of the crime), Frankenstein's reasons are clear, ambition and
thirst of knowledge.
We can find other similarities between Walton and the wedding-guest: for
instance as the
latter becomes a "sadder and a wiser man", the former collects Victor's
experience and finally decides to abandon the challenge of reaching the Pole.
At
the beginning of the novel Walton states:
One man’s life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought, for the dominion I should acquire and transmit over the elemental foes of our race.
But in the end, after listening to Frankenstein experiences, he renounces. If we think about the conclusion of The Rime, we will remember that the mariner finally saved his life through a reconciliation with nature, blessing the slimy things, instead in Frankenstein there is not such a "happy" ending: there is no way to salvation for Frankenstein he is condemned to endless suffering until death. These themes of eternal punishment recall two other traditional figures: Lucifer and Prometheus.
[Victor] All my speculations and hopes are as nothing, and like the archangel who aspired to omnipotence, I am chained in an eternal hell. My imagination was vivid, yet my powers of analysis and application were intense; by the union of these qualities I conceived the idea and executed the creation of a man.
Lucifer, in the Bible, is described as the angel of light who tried to challenge God and so was chained in an eternal hell. That's exactly what Victor has tried to do: he put himself at God's level giving life to a creature. Frankenstein is an overreacher, he tries to go beyond human limits, he aspired to eternal life, but his blind passion for science doesn't allow him to realize what he was creating. Near the end of the novel Victor examining his conduct does not find it blameworthy: in a fit of enthusiastic madness he gave life to the creature. That is his fault: taken by this madness he played with life and because of this Nature punished him.
You purpose to kill me. How dare you sport thus with life?
Says the creature. Creature that should not exist, a monster to the eyes of
humankind, but just for the ugly appearance given by his creator. Who is the true
monster? The ugly creature or the mad creator?
The original title of Frankenstein was Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus. As Prometheus dare to steal fire from Vulcano, Frankenstein defied God stealing the secret of life and death. This secret is very similar to fire.
[The creature] One day, when I was oppressed by cold, I found a fire which had been left by some wandering beggars, and was overcome with delight at the warmth I experienced from it. In my joy I thrust my hand into the live embers, but quickly drew it out again with a cry of pain. How strange, I thought, that the same cause should produce such opposite effects!
Like fire, science, can be both good and destructive if
uncontrolled. Zeus revenges himself because Prometheus stole something that was
prohibited to men, exclusive property of gods; instead Nature or maybe God
punished Frankenstein because he chose to sport with life. If Prometheus is a
hero who saved humans giving them fire to protect themselves, Frankenstein
cannot be defined as a hero, because, although his purpose was good (render man
invulnerable), his ardent desire for knowledge lead him to create something
monstrous and that will not ever be accepted by the community. The Modern
Prometheus is a failed hero, his actions produced only death and suffering, for
Frankenstein there will not be any Hercules (who convinced Zeus to set
Prometheus free), his only form of salvation is his death.
In the conclusion Frankenstein suggests Walton the following:
Seek happiness in tranquillity and avoid ambition, even if it be only the apparently innocent one of distinguishing yourself in science and discoveries. Yet why do I say this? I have myself been blasted in these hopes, yet another may succeed.
Victor seems to be conscious of his mistakes and wants to warn his friend not
to follow the same path, but the last sentence shows the true opinion of the
author. Science is not painted as pure evil, there is a hope for a different
kind of science, not epi-metheic (hind-thought) but truly pro-metheic (fore-thought):
this is the only form of science that can give true benefits to mankind.
Another may succeed must be interpreted in this way, because the doctor's
hope is not just that someone will manage to put together a creature (not a monster), but
primarily that Walton (symbol of the future scientists) continue to try to
pursue knowledge but avoiding ambition.
There are several other themes in Frankenstein, like the double, the usurpation of female role, social injustice and education, but one of the most important (and often forgotten in favour of the horror aspects) is the vision of science. The message the author wants to convey is about the general and individual responsibility of science and scientists. We must remember that Mary Shelley was heavily influenced by various discoveries of her time. She read Humphry Davy's works about chemistry, the evolutionary principles of the Charles Darwin's grandfather (Erasmus Darwin) and the theory about electricity of Luigi Galvani.
Bertold Brecht in Leben des Galilei (Life of Galilei) faces similar themes shifting the focus on social and political responsibility more than individual ones, but the conclusion are the same: making science without limits can lead mankind to death and auto-destruction. For Brecht this is true since the second and third version of the work, after the launch of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In this editions the figure of the protagonist, Galileo Galilei, become more ambigous, the perspective is more critical against him.
What message can we take from this two works?
Science cannot avoid to be subordinate to ethics, because the risk is to create monsters
(a Frankenstein or a atomic bomb), but neither be subjected to dull reasons of
power or political influences. Political power and science must be divided, but this
does not mean a total independence of science from ethical questions: we cannot
simply give complete freedom to research, we must doubt and reflect about what
are we willing to sacrifice for science. As Verga said: how many people will be
overcome by the river of Progress?
Still Alive is the title of the final soundtrack of Portal, an FPS (First Person Shooter) videogame developed by Valve (famous for Half Life). Your character is a volunteer for testing a new weapon, developed by Aperture Science, able to create portals between two points of room that you have to use to escape from these testing rooms. Along the whole game a robotic voice assists you and gives you suggestions: in the end you will discover that is an AI (Artificial Intelligence) and wants to kill you because you got to know too much. To win the game you have to destroy it throwing its parts into a fire.
Note: all along the game the AI voice promises you a cake, as a reward for the work you did; although in various situations you'll see a writing like "the cake is a lie... the cake is a lie... the cake is a lie...", probably left by previous and dead testers. Black Mesa was a corporation similar to Aperture Science in Half Life (the previous chapter of Portal), which created a connection between our world and an alien dimension. We're out of beta means we finished the testing phase and we're ready to release (usually a software but in this case the new discoveries). The speaking voice is the AI.
The song (by Jonathan Coulton) is full of irony and touches in a few lines important themes regarding research and science.
Video: Still Alive song from the credits of Portal
Lyrics
This was a triumph
I'm making a note here:
HUGE SUCCESS
It's hard to overstate my satisfaction....
Aperture Science
we do what we must, because we can
for the good of all of us except for the ones who are dead
but there's no sense crying over every mistake
you just keep on trying until you run out of cake
and the science gets done and you make a neat gun
for the people who are still alive...
I'm not even angry
I'm being so sincere right now
even though you broke my heart and killed me
and torn into pieces
and threw every piece into a fire
as they burned it hurt because I was so happy for you!
Now these points of data make a beautiful line
and we're out of beta, we're releasing on time
so I'm glad I got burned
Think of all the things we learned for the people who are still alive
go ahead and leave me
I think I prefer to stay inside
maybe you'll find someone else to help you
maybe Black Mesa
that was a joke, ha-ha, fat chance
anyway this cake is great, it's so delicious and moist
look at me still talking, when there's science to do
when I look out there it makes me glad I'm not you
I've experiments to run, there is research to be done
on the people who are still alive
and believe me I am still alive
I'm doing science and I'm still alive
I feel FANTASTIC and I'm still alive
while you are dying I'll be still alive
and when you're dead I'll be still alive
STILL ALIVE, still alive
Still Alive, by Jonathan Coulton, for Portal (2007), developed by Valve