I believe that Victor’s fall does condemn rationalism because all of his acts of rationality end up hurting him in the end. Even in the beginning of the novel, Victor’s parents are described as not being super hands on or loving to him. They are not very strict, and let Victor do as he pleases. This causes Victor to dive into the study of books and sciences. The Romantics believe that emotion and love is extremely important, and when Victor did not have love or emotion from his parents, it caused him to become rational and scientific. Victor also created the monster based on science. He had formulas and particular methods for creating life, and the life that he created ended up scary and horrid. Since the monster was built without love or care, it may have caused the creature to grow up being violent. Victor ignores his love for Elizabeth and his father and instead puts all of his efforts into science, eventually leading to the death of his future wife. Victor even turns away his best childhood friend, Henry Clerval. If he had given into his emotions instead of his studies, he would have ended up happy with his family. Furthermore, Victor uses reason when deciding not to tell about the monster even though he knows that it may lead to Justine’s execution. To his rational Enlightenment self, it makes perfect sense to keep his secret. The secret will allow him to live without anyone suspecting his of his creation. However, there is an emotional aspect because he will be wrongfully killing a nice individual. Victor caves into his rational way of thinking, leading to another death of someone that he knows.
The monster is a representation of Romanticism, even though he was created using Enlightenment ideals. The monster often gives into his emotions and communicates his feelings to others. He does not become preoccupied in math or science, instead learning about language and literature. For example, the monster kills because he feels left out and isolated by Victor. He tries to explain his problem to Victor and asks for a wife, but Victor’s way of thinking does not allow for him to feel sorry for the lonely monster. The monster’s Romantic feelings cannot relate to Victor’s scientific brain, causing the creature to become more isolated. He utters in sadness to Walter, “I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on.” (Shelley 275)
Shelley’s novel continues to be popular today because the lessons and debates within the book are still relevant to our culture. There is the question of if life can be artificially created, and how will the beings produced turn out. This issue is still relevant because of cloning technology and artificial growing that will be a problem in the future. The novel also addresses the ancient moral that people should not try to be higher than god. This lesson can be seen all the way back to biblical stories such as The Tower of Babble. Frankenstein was also the first science fiction novel, a genre of books and films that is still extremely popular today.
Great ideas! I like how you justify Victor Frankenstein's logic. Frankenstein's rational mode of thinking does lead to his downfall. He sees his loved ones killed by his monster, and in the last two years of his life he chases the monster. The closing days of his life seem pretty miserable. Also, Rationalism leads Victors to live a life of isolation even though he has a family so eager to hear from him while he's studying. Overall, Rationalism serves as a starting point of Frankenstein's downfall. The monster also represents Romanticism well because he acts on impulse, or the id, according the the psychoanalytical perspective of Freud. For example, he simply hears that William is related to Victor Frankenstein, and at that moment he kills the boy. Finally, I like how you relate the novel's idea of creating artificial life to today's ongoing research in this field.
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