Good & Bad Science

• The argument of science in Frankenstein is complex.
• Anne K Mellor argues that Sheley believes there is both a good and bad side of science and these can be associated with feminine and masculine attitudes.
• Scientific language, especially of the 17th century assume that nature is feminine, science is masculine, and they exist in a sexual relation that may not be consensual.
• According to Anne K Mellor, nature is a passive submissive victim of a male scientist's desire to penetrate her mysteries.
• Mary Shelley approaches nature without the respect or modesty, which threatens its autonomy and violates its organic processes.
• Erasmus Darwin’s proto-evolutionary conception of nature states that both female and male seeds are required to ensure the necessary characteristics of the species were passed on.
• Victor completely disrupts this natural process as he removed the female contribution to the creature’s creations and denies the creature maternal love and nurture because of this.
• Victor fails to support the creation by rejecting it immediately, making no attempt to understand or empathise with the creature.
• The creature is neither human or an evolved new species that had no understanding of its origins or relationship to other creatures.
• Victor’s belief he can create life without consequences is the outcome of his self-absorbedness.
• Victor focuses everything into his work and cuts himself off from love and support.
• Victor makes no connection to nature between his brief sojourns in the natural world to revive spirits and health to some degree.
• Victor's obsessive desire to acquire knowledge for his egotism leads him to become unnatural.
• Victor loses contact with, and friends and his work replace familial and romantic relationships.
• The monster destroys everyone close to Frankenstein and these deaths of innocent and loving individuals is the condemnation of Victor's regressive and destructive life as a scientist.