Fjia

Social and moral degradation in response to negative human ambition is present in Shelly’s Frankenstein. She explores how ambitious attitudes lead to the abuse of science and ultimately, morally and socially destructing Victor. Shelley utilises ideas from the context of her time to establish Victor’s character and his experimentation with galvanism. His desire in creating his monster is evident through the arrogant tone in the statement; “a new species would bless me as its creator”. It is therefore apparent that Victor’s scientific aspirations would lead him to abuse the laws of science. Throughout the creation of his monster, Victor exploits the laws of both nature and science by “spending days and nights in vaults and charnel-houses” and in turn, destroying his morality. The hyperbola reflects Victor’s ambitious nature, presenting him as a determined individual, endlessly working to achieve his aspirations. During Shelley’s time the Romanticist movement in literature had a deep connection with nature and through Victor’s breaching of natural laws, he is punished. Furthermore, the metaphor “thirst for knowledge” is a representation of his overreaching attitude. The diction “thirst” connotes a sense of yearning in Victor to create his monster; this then leads to fatal consequences. Victor’s arrogance and desire to take on knowledge not intended for humans exposes his self-satisfying, striving attitude leading him to abuse the laws of nature in order to achieve his goals. In the progress of his creation, Victor’s social connection with his family degrades, established through the descriptive, emotive language “dreadfully emaciated by fatigue and suffering…on the brink of destruction”. Socially, he alienates himself as he dispatches himself from his supportive family. The ominous tone in the line “on a dreary night” before his creation comes to life, foreshadows Victor’s inescapable fate. The foreshadowing also alludes to the moral and social degradation he will suffer. Shelley questions the follies of industrialism and reveals, through Victor’s ambitions, that industrialism has a corrupting effect on moral values. Social and moral implications are as a result of human ambition, reflected in Shelley’s Frankenstein.