Life, Death, and Frankenstein Essay - 1395 Words

Life, Death, and Frankenstein Since I spent last weekend in Vancouver attending the funeral of a beloved aunt who died on Good Friday, you could say that Ive been pondering a lot about death and dying lately. It didnt help either that I chose to bring my copy of Mary Shelleys Frankenstein with me to read on the plane rides there and back, seeing as this story deals with the creation of a new form of life and the deaths that result from it. Being in this rather morbid frame of mind, I decided for this commentary just to take a closer examination of life and death as contained within the kind of gothic narrative of this early science-fiction horror story. Its almost like a Yin-Yang pairing between the two: Victor controls the†¦show more content†¦In his quest to cheat the inevitable end to life to fulfill his purpose of bestow[ing] animation upon lifeless matter he visits charnel houses to steal the materials in order to create this new life: he raids the remains of the dead in dissection rooms and slaught er houses to put together what he believes will be his crowning achievement, an eight-foot tall man of incredible strength. He carries through his well-known experiment in few details, and the experiment is a success, but not what he hoped for. The pieces that he had assembled and carefully stitched together as beautiful (34) are horrifying with life infused into them. His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion, and straight black lips. (34) Terrified by the life he has created out of the remains of death, Victor flees and leaves his child to fend for himself. His secret of life seems to have been effective, for his creation is an intelligent creature capable of surviving in wild regions that would be inhospitable to most humans, and learning through watching others being taught. However, hes also lonely at being the only undead creature of his kind and demands that Victor createShow MoreRelatedFrankenstein: The Danger in Knowledge, Science and Playing God 1846 Words   |  7 Pagesdoes he reveal to us the dangers of playing God? 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