Pursuit of Rationalism and Science at the Expense of Humanism

             Since its inception in 1818, the novel "Frankenstein" had radically altered the horror genre of literature, for it introduced the horrors of humanity as a result of using science to attain power and control beyond humanity's capabilities-that is, humans creating humans through scientific, not natural, production. Author Mary Shelley had introduced the theme of humanity's pursuit of rationalism and science to illustrate the state of society as she experienced it in 19th century: a society that was gradually becoming more rationalist, scientific, and objective to society's concerns and issues. .

             Evidently, "Frankenstein" is a novel that depicted the opposing nature of science and humanism. The characters of Victor Frankenstein and his creation, the Creature, represented science's objectiveness and detachment from human values and morals; however, Frankenstein's transition to being a humane individual once more towards the end of the novel showed Shelley's objective to illustrate humanism as most important to humanity. Cultivating a humane and moral society, for Shelley, was most important than the social and intellectual progresses associated with science.

             It is thus this paper's objective to discuss and illustrate in the novel "Frankenstein" the theme of society's pursuit for science and objectivism at the expense of humanism (human-based morality). This paper reflects how objectivism resulted to the Creature, Frankenstein's creation made possible through science, and its wrath against humanity. In effect, the Creature's lack of morality and inability to experience emotions reflects science's limits in influencing and affecting human life, particularly humanity's standards of morality.

             The theme of science versus humanism was evident in the transitional phases that Frankenstein had in the novel. These two phases were identified as follows: (1) the first transitional phase was his change from being a humanist (lover of arts) to a man of science and (2) his eventual conversion to being humane again after realizing how morally wrong he had been in creating the Creature.

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