This essay focuses on the idea of forbidden knowledge.Choose one of the following questions and write an essay in which you explore your ideas of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
Choose one of the following questions and write an essay in which you explore your ideas of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Please be specific, use passages from the novel and write in detail about these ideas.
1. Frankenstein explores the idea of forbidden knowledge, that is, the convention that there are some things in our world that humans should not know. Taking this idea as your starting point, explore whether or not Frankenstein embodies this idea and whether or not the book’s conclusion supports the idea that there are some things that we shouldn’t know.
2. There are many beautifully described scenes of nature in Frankenstein. Examine one of these scenes. Do you think that the world of nature and the world of humans are compatible? Does Nature surpass the human in this novel? Is the natural superior to the human?
3. Does Frankenstein explore and criticize the limits of science? Does the book suggest that science can have negative as well as positive results? Is the creature and all of its destruction similar to certain advances in science in the modern world? Was the creator of the atomic bomb happy about the results (The lead scientist remarked that “I have become death” after the first atomic bomb was used). Our society believes that science and technology can solve everything? Do you think that this is true within the context of Frankenstein?
4. The creature from Frankenstein and Gulliver from Gulliver’s Travels seem to come to the same assessment of human life. Each seems to think that human life is horrible, vicious and low minded. Write an essay in which you explore the attitudes of these two characters. There are plenty of passages in which Gulliver and the Creature speak about human beings. Use those passages as your starting point in your essay.
5. Some critics believe that Frankenstein and the Creature represent one human being: Frankenstein, the emotional and the Creature, the intellectual. What do you think? Are they the two sides of every human being? Write an essay in which you explore this idea? Is the Creature the ‘dark side’ of our natures or is Frankenstein?