The Modern Prometheus
by Zach Foth
"We are unfashioned creatures, but half made up, if one wiser, better, dearer than ourselves - such a friend out to be - do not lend his aid to perfectionate our weak and faulty natures."
"A human being in perfection ought always to preserve a calm and peaceful mind, and never to allow passion or a transitory desire to disturb his tranquility. I do not think that the pursuit of knowledge is and exception to this rule."
Victor Frankenstein seeks to educate the reader regarding companionship. It is perhaps the most prominent and certainly the most obvious theme of the book. "Unhappy man!" exclaims Frankenstein to Robert Walton a man on an expedition in frozen waters who longs for a friend who "would have sense enough not to despise me as romantic, and affection enough for me to endeavour to regulate my mind." This need for a friend is clearly met in Frankenstein as he begins to narrate his own story in all its horror.
Frankenstein for much of the novel leads a solitary kind of life. While creating his creature, Frankenstein does not ever leave the confines of his laboratory. Even when he returns home after six years to attend to his elderly father and distraught family in the wake of the murder of William, Frankenstein spends most of his time wandering the mountains of Switzerland. The modern classification of "introvert" does not accurately describe Frankenstein disposition. Rather, he relates the influence of natural philosophy which, he says, "is the genius that has regulated my fate." How is it that a scientific man could be given to such loneliness? I do not yet see a clear connection to which natural philosophy would cause loneliness or solitude. Or perhaps the argument is rather science lacking public discourse is akin to the need of a good friend. It is not, therefore, that natural philosophy itself led Frankenstein to create something displeasurable but that his scientific strivings were not tempered by discourse. Certainly in his solitude Frankenstein was given over to selfish passions in wanting to be the giver of life, something that might have been staved off by another party. Only after does he realize that his act was blasphemous.
Frankenstein for much of the novel leads a solitary kind of life. While creating his creature, Frankenstein does not ever leave the confines of his laboratory. Even when he returns home after six years to attend to his elderly father and distraught family in the wake of the murder of William, Frankenstein spends most of his time wandering the mountains of Switzerland. The modern classification of "introvert" does not accurately describe Frankenstein disposition. Rather, he relates the influence of natural philosophy which, he says, "is the genius that has regulated my fate." How is it that a scientific man could be given to such loneliness? I do not yet see a clear connection to which natural philosophy would cause loneliness or solitude. Or perhaps the argument is rather science lacking public discourse is akin to the need of a good friend. It is not, therefore, that natural philosophy itself led Frankenstein to create something displeasurable but that his scientific strivings were not tempered by discourse. Certainly in his solitude Frankenstein was given over to selfish passions in wanting to be the giver of life, something that might have been staved off by another party. Only after does he realize that his act was blasphemous.
