NT1.2

As the monster hides in the shed and gradually learns how to read, write and speak, he begins to understand and become closer with human emotions. By watching the Delaceys he is able to see how the members of a loving family interact with one another on a regular basis. By learning how to speak, read and write the monster gains self-confidence. The books had the biggest affect on his emotions. As he said, “I can hardly describe to you the effect of these books. They produced in me an infinity of new images and feelings, that sometimes raised me to ecstasy, but more frequently sunk me into the lowest dejection.”(127) Through reading he was able to open up his mind, something that he didn’t even know he could do. He was able to ponder the ideals he read about.

Paradise Lost was the book that he connected with the most. This is because it is about Adam and Eve. It is about God creating a being. It really seemed to hurt him, though, to think of how his creator did nothing but abandon him when he needed him. The reading of this book brought him feelings of anger because his creator abandoned him.

Shelley allows the monster to vent some of his feelings for Frankenstein. I think this is important because it shows Frankenstein that had he only embraced the being that he created, though hideous to look at, he could have molded him into the being that he wanted. I think this allows the reader and Victor to see that the monster had feeling all along, though he wasn’t able to fully understand them until he was able to use his mind with more of an affinity to that of a normal human being.

The knowledge and skills that he gains do allow him to become better acquainted with his emotions. I do not believe that they make him more violent, at least not directly. I think what they do is to cause him to be more vulnerable. He wants nothing more than to converse with this family, to show them what they have done for him so that he may gain their acceptance and that backfires. This causes him to feel rage and adds to his growing hatred for the human race. This is why he said, “despair had not yet taken possession of me; my feeling were those of rage and revenge. I could with pleasure have destroyed the cottage and its inhabitants, and have glutted myself with their shrieks and misery.”(136) This is a very drastic and sudden change of humor for the monster. Only moments before he wanted nothing more than to talk with them and possibly gain their acceptance, then when they are frightened of him and lash out at him his mood does a complete reversal. It is at this point that he really begins to realize that he has no place in this world. If these people that are so loving and amiable are unable to accept him, then what are the chances that any other human being in this world could accept him either?

Walton’s motives are to find the Northwest Passage. He wants to do what no one has ever been able to do so that he can become a very rich and famous person. He wants to figure out some of the mysteries of the North Pole. Walton says, “I may there discover the wondrous power which attracts the needle; and may regulate a thousand celestial observations, that require only this voyage to render their seeming eccentricities consistent for ever.” Though he outlines his reasons for making this journey I think there is another motive behind his undertaking. He describes his failure as a poet and how he had hit rock bottom after he realized that a poet was not what he was meant to be. Then he had the available funds to try and pursue a dream he, and numerous other people, had always had, which was the quest for the Northwest Passage. With his continual failure taken into account, his motives seem to be less about just becoming rich and famous. It seems he wants to prove himself more than anything. He wants to prove that he can do something important and not fail at it. He doesn’t need or really want the wealth or fame that will come with finding the Northwest Passage. This is seen in the text in his first letter to his sister. “Margaret, do I not deserve to accomplish some great purpose? My life might have been passed in ease and luxury; but I preferred glory to every enticement that wealth placed in my path.”

Like Walton, Victor Frankenstein is also out to prove something. He realizes that the ability to bring to life something that was once lifeless holds more power than most can imagine. With power such as that he could become rich and famous beyond his wildest dreams. I do not believe that those are his motives for doing the experimentation that he does. He motive is to prove not only what he can do but to prove that the scientists that wrote the books with theories that everyone said are outdated and nonsensical aspirations knew what they were talking about. He wanted to prove that it wasn’t drivel that he was spending his time studying. I believe he really just wanted to show that his findings were true even if they didn’t work completely. He just wanted the knowledge behind what he discovered to be out for people to use and elaborate on. I think this can be seen in the text when Victor says, “I was encouraged to hope my present attempts would at least lay the foundations of future success.” I think he wanted to at least leave something for someone else to elaborate on. I think this ties into something he said earlier. “In other studies you go as far as others have gone before you, and there is nothing more to know; but in a scientific pursuit there is continual food for discovery and wonder.” He wanted to at least go farther than anyone had gone before.
I think Shelley is trying to show us how common motives like these are. Everyone wants to be successful and show that they are worth something, but everyone has a different way of doing that. She goes to the extreme to prove this point by having Victor and Walton meet in the middle of a frozen ocean, but I think by showing this in such an extreme context it helps hit the point home even harder.
Since I just said that everyone wants to show they are worth something I think it is obvious that people like Bill Gates posses the same motives, but I also feel that they do what they do more for the fame and fortune. They want to leave a legacy. They want to be remembered as these great inventors and technology wizards. If Bill Gates didn’t desire to be rich, famous and powerful, he wouldn’t be seen as somewhat of a software dictator that pushes all of the little people around. If Gates wanted nothing more than to show that he was worth something then he wouldn’t be the cutthroat businessman that he is.

I feel that it is necessary to limit the actions of scientists in some aspects of study, but without pushing some of the boundaries then we as a society could possibly be missing out on cures or technologies that would be beneficial. My main belief is that science should not harm people. Study, research and experimentation should be done to help people not harm them. So if a scientist were performing experimentation on someone in a way that could harm them I think it is wrong to do. Many people would say that scientists should not do anything immoral, but I think that to say that scientists should not do things that are immoral is not a very clear statement. Reason being that everyone has different morals. So what is right to one person is actually wrong to another.

Within the beginning of Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark”, Hawthorne seems to say that scientists should be able to do what they want to help benefit mankind. He shows a very successful scientist that is willing to put his wife in a dangerous position for the good of science. As the story progresses I think Hawthorne wants the reader to see the adverse affects that science can have. He shows the kind of uncontrollable nature of science and experimentation. I think Hawthorne was trying to warn the readers of the danger or science. He was saying that some things in nature shouldn’t be tampered with, even if they are beneficial in some way. Even though Aylmer was able to successfully remove the birthmark, God, or maybe nature, taught him a lesson by taking away Georgiana’s life. Aylmer was taught that there can only be one all powerful being in the world.

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