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Examples Of Ethics In Frankenstein

Decent Essays

Jared Casarez

AP English IV

Mr. Farias

February 12, 2018

The Ethics and Impracticality of Creating Life:
A Critical Analysis of Frankenstein

Moral Criticism harbors in the basis of societal and personal perceptions of ethics and morality, both in regards to the author’s belief system and the general ideology of the society at the given time of a text’s conception (Brizee 1). Within Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein tests the limits of ethical and moral concerns in his experimentation and successful animation of his creature. The novel explores the wonder and tranquility Victor has for nature, yet, in his defiance of its will with his metaphysical science, his creature dreads living and his life as a whole(Shelley …show more content…

The theistic vitalist position posits a divinely created soul, and thus asserts that human subjects do not fashion their own morality but, instead, seek to discover absolute moral law that is defined by an absolutely good moral law giver. The mere assertion of an absolute moral law indeed does not guarantee moral behavior. For example, through his exposure to Milton's Paradise Lost, the Creature embraces the Christian theistic worldview and its revelation of an absolute moral law, yet he still commits murder. However, the theistic understanding of absolute morality does provide a rationally consistent basis upon which to defend objective moral judgments.
The problem central to Frankenstein is the belief of its central character that he can perform the ultimate usurpation, that of God. There is an extreme vanity and egotism acting as the motivating force for Victor's work, as opposed to a disinterested desire to further the interest of the human race in general. Victor's true desire is to gain divine knowledge of the world, with the inevitable consequence, therefore, of substituting himself for the divine

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