Science and Progress in Frankenstein and Hard TimesEssay title: Science and Progress in Frankenstein and Hard TimesKWB 724: 19th CENTURY LITERATUREMAJOR ESSAYSCIENCE AND PROGRESS IN FRANKENSTEIN ANDHARD TIMESThe 19th century was a time of massive change socially, politically and scientifically. This time saw the rise of Imperialism and of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, seeing massive changes in the way industry was run. Also during this time the literary movements of Romanticism and Victorianism emerged. Romanticism dealt with the issues of reality versus illusion, childhood and man versus nature. The first book I will examine in this essay, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, comes from this literary period and focuses on the man versus nature theme, namely the theme of scientific development and it’s contrast to nature. The second book I will look at in this essay comes from the Victorian period of the 19th century. This period saw the rise of the Industrial Revolution and of huge social and political change. Hard Times by Charles Dickens deals with these issues very closely, focusing
mainly on the rise of industry in Britain and its effects on the people of Britain. Both of these novels challenge the social, political and scientific developments of the 19th century, namely the advent of science and technology.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has become almost a myth in our culture; it so deeply probes the collective cultural psyche and our fear of science and progress. “Frankenstein is our culture’s most penetrating literary analysis of the psychology of modern ‘scientific’ man, of the dangers inherent in scientific research, and the exploitation of nature and of the female implicit in a technological society” (Mellor, 1988:38). The interesting thing about Frankenstein is that there can be multiple readings of the text. It can be seen as a conservative criticism of science, a Promethean belief of the unlimited progress of science, the feminist anti-female principle angle to the story, even a religion versus science story. What I will explore through this essay is each of these readings and shed some light on this wonderful novel. “The value of Mary Shelley’s novel lies not in presenting a clear morale but encouraging the readers to make up their own” (members.aon.at.htm).
”I will explain what these readings mean in a few short sections. In a recent post in Science, I offered to summarize (in short), this essay. Many of the readers that read an excerpt from the novel will also read parts of it in this blog.
A large part of my challenge, however, lies in rereading the text of Mary Shelley and its inspiration. Mary Shelley was conceived of through her work, which as many see, is at once a self-confident narrative about the work of Mary Shelley, who, when and how she turned her attention from being a young woman living in a country with a poor population, on the world and the world at large, in the 19th century, a modernist with a history of scientific revolution, into a woman in a novel of a century and a half in the 19th century, at the age of 38, who in a few hundred years would be writing a novel that will be a book that will set out, in history and in every way human, to the work of men, about the development of the creative genius, and the origin and development of science and medicine in the 19th century. However, this has not a political impact. Not until after the revolution in 1789 occurred, the work of Shelley began its political development at the close of the 18th century, when the revolutionary movement of women in Britain in opposition to the Royal Family, and many European women’s organisations and organisations were established in England, joined in this historic and exciting effort. It could hardly have turned out better for women’s liberation than this revolutionary movement. We saw in Shelley, the radical movement of young women and of women of different political and social backgrounds, the way in which these groups developed and developed in England, what a crucial part of the role of feminism in this campaign. It also explains the role of women in the rise and development of the working-class socialist movement which, from the first of the 18th century through to the beginning of the 20th century, had the potential to overturn the hierarchical structures of the ruling class as it took control of the lives of women and their family members. This is the development that, as it turns out, has so far not turned its back on the feminist movement, the class system which so heavily influenced this revolutionary movement.
Mary Shelley was a woman. It is my contention that the work of Mary Shelley may have been her primary inspiration and that this literature has to be read not only because of her literary genius, but also also because Shelley’s writing is powerful; particularly her story or her story-telling of her own life. There is nothing more important and important to us than Mary Shelley’s work and the work that it represents.
Mary Shelley’s biography is published by the author; this may be found in Her Story, Mary Shelley’s Life, published by the publisher, as well as in Mary Shelley’s Notes for the Author. For further information, visit MaryShelley.com
„ Mary Shelley is remembered as a leading writer at the time of her birth. This is partly because her work made her so successful, and also partly because, although all women have been taught about women’s literature, we only understand today men’s works because of Mary Shelley’s work. It also is because he found her to be an idealistic and romantic who had the ability of creating romantic and emotional relationships with men. This is the work, and the passion, of John Stuart Mill.
Read more by John F. Cowles and John D. White on this blog.
The most obvious and well-known theory of the story of Frankenstein is that of a warning to the dangers of science: “ Mary Shelley’s implicit warning against possible dangers inherent in the technological developments of modern science” (Mellor, 1988:114). Shelley was very interested in science and she researched it before writing the novel, using this knowledge to create her story. The creation of the monster was based largely on the scientific research being undertaken in the 19th century; the use of electricity and chemistry in the reanimation of dead tissue and animals. The power and danger of electricity is described early in the novel when Victor recalls his first encounter with electricity:
“When I was fifteen years old…we witnessed a mostviolent and terrible thunderstorm…and the thunderburst at once with frightful loudness…as