More on Davy

• Anne K Mellor in her essay about the role of science in Frankenstein’s quotes an important passage from Davy’s discourse of the situation of the chemist.
• Victor has the knowledge that has given him an acquaintance with the different relations of the parts of the external world and more than that, it has bestowed upon him powers which may be almost called creative; enabling him to modify and change the beings surrounding him, and by his experiments to interrogate nature with power, not simply as a scholar, passive and seeking only to understand her operations, but rather as a master, active with his own instruments.
• Davy emphasises that the power the sciences take from knowledge both aids further enquiry and has potential for action and creation.
• Davy’s language is aggressive, he speaks of the scientist as able to ‘interrogate nature with power’ so that he can become ‘acquainted with the most profound secrets of nature’.
• The passage suggests an intervention from the scientists that goes beyond discovery and may spill over into a desire to manipulate/control natural processes that are not beneficial.