The Moulding of the Scientist Individual in Frankenstein

Authors : Shamil Taha ABDULLAH

Pages : 37-50

Doi:10.17494/ogusbd.505771

View : 12 | Download : 8

Publication Date : 2018-12-03

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :This article aims at examining the fashioning of the scientist figure in Mary Shelley`s Frankenstein. The article suggests that the novel is informative about the status of science at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Shelley`s pessimistic attitude towards science precludes noticing the embedded and informative particulars which, if put together, can produce a comprehensible image about the circumstances of scientific ventures in the post-Faustian era. This article shows that in Frankenstein the scientist is perplexed by the branching of the Renaissance sciences and fields and the birth of new subfields and disciplines. Frankenstein and Walton are the specialized and devoted scientists of the transitional era who are divided between the science of the Faustian paradigm and the newly emerging scientific conduct of the nineteenth century. The article argues that the tragic fate of the hero in the novel is brought about by scientific hubris
Keywords : Literary Criticism, Social Theory, Disenchantment, Renaissance