I think the question of morality in the Frankenstein universe is a great question to explore. Victor devoted almost 2 solid years of his life, ignoring health, friends, and more, in order to achieve his goals. However, he never really contemplated the consequences of such a lofty objective, and only after he had given the Creature life does he realize how "wrong" he was. How often do you think scientists overlook the consequences of their research like Victor does? He wanted to give life to a creature that had none, and that is all he saw. Did he see no further? Did he not analyze what else had to be accomplished in order to call this experiment a success? Ultimately, this failure of foresight led to the unfortunate deaths of William and Justine.
So, do you think Victor deserves what happens to him after his supposed error in moral judgement? And going back to the question in class, Was it even morally OK to do this to begin with?
I feel like, in the book's universe at least, that this experiment was indeed morally wrong. Many of the personalities in the book display traits that remind me of the philosophical era (Thoreau, Emerson, etc.) where life is life and whatever happens, happens. So , for Victor to go against this grain goes against the will of most people in the Frankenstein Universe.
I think Victor definitely deserves some sort of punishment for abandoning his creation. It's ironic that his goal was to create life and in doing so, the lives of William and Justine are lost.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what would have happened if he had started off smaller... giving life to a cat or something. For one thing, he wouldn't have to desecrate people's graves. and it wouldn't have taken nearly as long to construct a cat (He could even slit the throat a live cat just to bring it back to life again with minimal reconstruction.. sorry about that image i just put in your heads..)
But seriously, is it morally wrong to create life in general or just human life? (or anything that is self-aware like primates or elephants...)
Well I think that a lot of the times scientists overlook the consequences because they are so engulfed in achieving the goal that they have set for themselves. They don't think, "Oh if I give this thing life, it might become a monster." They think, “If I successfully give this thing life, It will be the greatest scientific achievement of the world."
ReplyDeleteI agree with Heidi in that what he did was definitely morally wrong. However, it has been done, therefore, I feel like now all he can do is do his best to destroy the monster. I feel like the punishment that Heidi mentioned, has come with the death of those two.
And Heidi, I agree with you on the cat thing, I mean anything in general that would be easier than a human would have made for a better experiment. I think as long as it was already dead it wouldn't matter if you used their body, just be smart about what your creating, and don't make a giant monster. haha
First, it is totally wrong for Victor to create the monster, because Victor actually does not have ability to handle the result brought by his creation. Victor is lucky that monster is just like an innate kid instead of a bloody killer. Otherwise, the monster will kill more people and cause more problems. For all scientists, they have responsibility to consider the results of their researches and discoveries. Although too much consideration may limit the development of science, unexpected results can definitely bring more serious un-fixable problems (including moral problems) to human beings. Scientists must think about the results before their doing the researches.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the things that Victor does is morally wrong, and he was so blinded by finishing his creature that he forgot to look into the details and the consequences. I think that even though there have been a lot of scientific mistakes in the past, in today's society, scientists don't really have much free range to ignore further consequences.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, are there levels of how morally wrong the creation is? For instance, if Victor had taken care of the monster like he should have and taught him proper ways of society, would it still be as morally wrong?