Technology In Frankenstein

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The blurred lines between improving technology and violating humanity’s limits present the question of when technology is overused. This recurring question is answered in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, in which she demonstrates the dangers of abusing technology through the story of a human who plays the role of Creator. Embedded in her story, Shelley displays the impossibility to control over advanced technology, and its inevitable destructiveness, through the actions of Victor Frankenstein’s creation. Victor created life; however, he created a life that he could not restrain, therefore transgressing the line of moral behavior. Shelley writes her novel as a warning to readers of the dangers of advanced science, and depicts the boundary between …show more content…
The ever ceasing quest for knowledge leads to uncertainty, because eventually an individual will search for understanding past his cognitive limit. Victor discloses, “...How dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow” (Shelley 31). Revealing his regret of his endeavor to create life, Victor demonstrates the consequences that increased knowledge can have on an individual. Due to Victor’s deep knowledge gained from creating life, he becomes burdened by dismay and uncertainty. Though Victor pursued ultimate knowledge and understanding in the beginning of the book, he immediately regrets his studies when his creation comes to life. Shelley reveals through Victor’s character that an endless pursuit of understanding will ultimately lead to uncertainty in the real world. Through Victor’s regret, Shelley expresses the correlation between excessive scientific knowledge and disillusionment of sensibility. Relating to Shelley’s view in Frankenstein, stem cell research has driven the question of what defines morality. Many scientists assert that stem cell research is a justifiable study due to its ethical purpose- to cure disease. Possessing a similar view, Lawrence J. Nelson of Santa Clara University argues, “…Embryos have a modest but genuine moral status and should not be either created or destroyed for insubstantial reasons…” (Nelson). Nelson claims that stem cell research remains moral as long as the studies being performed are productive. However, others believe that stem cell research is unethical. Pope John Paul II argues, “Experience is already showing how a tragic coarsening of consciences accompanies the assault on innocent human life in the womb, leading to accommodation
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