Concept of Cloning in the Novel Frankenstein - Research Paper Example

Frankenstein and the Concept of Cloning From its early exploration in Shelley’s work, through the scientific heyday of the 1960s technology revolution into the modern and postmodern world, the concept of the 'created human' has continued to fascinate authors of science fiction as well as scientists and philosophers. As it has been developed and explored, numerous conceptions have emerged regarding the relative benefits or limitations of a broad movement toward a 'created' future. In recent years, the ability to create humans has moved from the graveyards of the Victorian era to the petry dishes of modern laboratories, but the concept and the drive to build a stronger, better man continues in the form of cloning. Cloning is the creation of an embryo by the method of human somatic cell nuclear transfer (Ramsey 3). This procedure involves implanting DNA cells from one organism into a 'neutral' egg. A 'neutral' egg is one in which the DNA nucleus has been removed (Ramsey 4). After implantation, the newly constituted egg is then chemically treated so that the egg begins to behave as though fertilization has occurred. This results in the creation of embryonic growth of another organism that contains the complete and identical genetic code of the original organism. By learning more about the genetic code and how it works, scientists are hopeful that they can begin to breed out some of our more fallible weaknesses and breed in stronger codes. All of these conjectures can be said to have started with the introduction of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, a sci-fi gothic horror novel that excited the imaginations of the post-Victorian age and continues to inspire today. Like the concept of cloning emerging now during a time of unprecedented change in computer technology and the many applications this has, the Industrial Revolution brought about world-changing possibilities during Shelley's time. “By the beginning of the Victorian period, the Industrial Revolution … had created profound economic and social changes, including a mass migration of workers to industrial towns, where they lived in new urban slums” (“The Victorian Age”). Advances in technology and machinery during Shelley's age touched off new scientific debate in the same way that our ability to discover things on a micron level has increased our ability to manipulate the world around us and the morals and ethics of whether we should do that. Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution emerged during Shelley's time as well, which threw into question many of the people's religious beliefs (Landow) in a similar way in which new technological advances in gene manipulation have made many question whether or not we are trying to play god with human cloning. During Shelley's time, the increasingly literate public was becoming more involved in these debates because newspapers and other periodicals were more widely available to them. This, too, has a parallel to today's times as the Internet, Facebook and other media sites are linking people from far away to bring about new changes in the way we think and who is able to participate in the conversation. New media proved essential then and now in introducing and maintaining widespread discussions in the political and social issues of the day. One difference then was that fiction novels were recognized as having a voice in these discussions. “The Victorian novel, with its emphasis on the realistic portrayal of social life, represented many Victorian issues in the stories of its characters” (“The Victorian Age”). What Mary Shelley questioned most strongly in her novel remains a major question asked today: what is the proper role of the scientist in the contemporary age? In Frankenstein, the young scientist and one of the main characters is Victor Frankenstein. Frankenstein pushes technology to its outer limits because he wants to overcome death. His idea is to re-animate dead tissue. Within the book, the science of the past is criticized because it has been unable to produce many results but the science of the book's present is also criticized because it doesn't seem to have much imagination. “The ancient teachers of this science,’ said he [Frankenstein’s first professor], ‘promised impossibilities, and performed nothing. The modern masters promise very little; they know that metals cannot be transmuted, and that the elixir of life is a chimera” (Shelley 40). This sounds very similar to modern arguments about cloning as it is seen to be a means of overcoming death through the cloned creation of replacement body parts and through its failure to produce results since cloning does not create twins and the new individual would have a right to their own body parts. The book also suggests there is a limit to how far science should go. “Victor Frankenstein, the 'modern Prometheus' seeks to attain the knowledge of the Gods, to enter the sphere of the creator rather than the created” (Bushi) just like modern scientists are trying to create their own animals and humans with cloning. Frankenstein thought he could create a better human than God. He thought he could make something better, stronger, more powerful and more resistant to its environment. “The comment that seems evident in Frankenstein is that God has abandoned Man; the progression of history sees Man abandon God in the Victorian era” (Bushi). Modern scientists have been using the lessons they've learned in cloning to predict an age in which 'designer babies' might be produced, where the parents can specify all their features and strengths. The book ends, though, with the monster ruining Frankenstein’s entire family. Like today's scientists, Frankenstein ignored the rules of the natural world in order to intentionally discover what he could about how to bring inanimate tissue back to life. This was a process in which he was “forced to spend days and night in vaults and charnel-houses. My attention was fixed upon every object the most insupportable to the delicacy of the human feelings” (Shelley 45) while “my eyes were insensible to the charms of nature” (Shelley 49). This can be compared to today's scientists dressed in pristine white coats and working in sealed off laboratories with microscopes. In spite of the many warnings he’d received from his mentors and the obvious fact that he was working against the natural order of things, Frankenstein never had any intention of abandoning his search for deep knowledge. He continued to work on the creature he had started no matter how gruesome the work might seem and he never considered that it might turn out to be horrible to look at or harmful to man. He wasn't able to understand the dangers of what he was doing until it was too late for him to stop it because the living monster stood looking at him with its yellow eyes. Today's scientists seem to take more care about what they're doing, but they still can't possibly understand the problems they may be opening up with the creation of clones. For example, “Recent study of mammalian cloning suggests that a number of defects often created in the reprogramming of the egg do not manifest themselves until later in the life of the resulting clone, so that mature clones have often undergone spectacular, unforeseen deaths” (McGee). Because cloning has not been fully successful yet, human cloning has not been attempted publicly. Cloned animals have proved that there is a wide range of things that can go wrong and that some animals are more resistant to cloning efforts than others. Because the facts are not known, many governments have a ban on human cloning, but there was a ban on people experimenting with dead human body parts when Frankenstein went to work on his monster, too. The aftermath of Frankenstein's success in bringing the monster to life was intended to serve as a warning to future scientists not to tamper with elements of life that we don't understand. Although Frankenstein made the monster, it makes him so upset to look at it standing there that he becomes very sick and almost collapses. It takes him a very long time to recover his senses under the care of his good friend Cherval before he is considered well enough to travel. Because of his physical and mental reaction to the monster, Frankenstein forces the monster to enter the world unprotected. “The beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room” (Shelley 42). This is completely against what he had envisioned himself doing since he had planned on being everything to the monster, proving that even the most well thought out experiments can go suddenly wrong. Frankenstein had no back-up plan for what should be done if the experiment failed and therefore the experiment was able to get out of the lab to have an effect on the outside world. The monster is uncared for and misunderstood everywhere he goes which has the effect of forcing him to live in eternal loneliness and leads to his decision to force Frankenstein to make him a companion. However, even after the monster has made himself known, Frankenstein only agrees to meet with him once the monster has threatened Frankenstein's family. While very few people seem worried that cloning will lead to the production of a monster that will get out of control and terrorize the countryside in the same way Frankenstein's monster did, cloning brings up new concerns about disease and genetic defects that still haven't been completely worked out. The moral and ethical responsibility of the scientist to his creations remains a difficult subject, especially when the problem proves to be too big for the scientist to handle alone. This is not to say that cloned organisms are all necessarily bad or evil. Even Shelley makes this clear as the monster that Frankenstein creates comes to life as a gentle spirit. He is born already wanting to love the natural things in the world and has no true desire to harm anyone. The monster makes this clear as he tells Frankenstein about his stay outside the De Lacey home. As the spring warmed up the earth, he says “my spirits were elevated by the enchanting appearance of nature; the past was blotted from my memory, the present was tranquil, and the future gilded by bright rays of hope and anticipations of joy” (Shelley 119). Nature continues to soothe the monster even after the De Laceys chase him away and he becomes filled with anger and resentment. “The day, which was one of the first of spring, cheered even me by the loveliness of its sunshine and the balminess of the air. I felt emotions of gentleness and pleasure, that had long appeared dead, revive within me. Half surprised by the novelty of these sensations, I allowed myself to be borne away by them; and, forgetting my solitude and deformity, dared to be happy” (Shelley 148). Through all these experiences, the monster proves that he was only a monster in form until society forced him into isolation and exile. Part of the problem he experienced, though, was that even when he attempted to live in exile, he becomes injured by humans he is trying to save. He finally concludes that there is no place and no time for him to exist in peace and happiness as long as humans are present. There is warning here about the possible results of cloning practices as scientists create beings that may have long-term physical and/or mental problems. These beings didn't ask to be born and they deserve respect as living things even when their treatment might be expensive and long lasting. In the end, the creature tells Walton, “I had cast off all feeling, subdued all anguish, to riot in the excess of my despair. Evil thenceforth became my good. Urged thus far, I had no choice but to adapt my nature to an element which I had willingly chosen” (Shelley 239). In some cases, the innocence of the creation may have little bearing on it may also bring about destruction to the 'normal' species through the introduction of disease or mutation. What Shelley was mostly trying to ask in her novel was what is the scientist's responsibility to the things he creates - whether it be a monster formed of parts dug out of a graveyard or microscopically altered eggs. Frankenstein tries to learn knowledge that is beyond the understanding of modern man as he tries to recreate life on his own terms. This is much the same practice doctors are attempting with genetic cloning. Because of his lack of understanding and his inability to look forward to understand the possible consequences of his actions, Frankenstein creates a monster and then abandons all responsibility to it. This forces it to become a force of evil when it could have either been a force for good if others could have learned to accept him or it could have self-neutralized if it had been given a companion. “A central concern of Frankenstein is the scientist’s shirking of responsibility for the creature he has created. 'Shelley underscores the self-centeredness of those who have power like Victor Frankenstein,’ says Bennett. ‘He’s narcissistic, he’s really hungry for self-aggrandizement’” (Pamintuan). Although there are many safeguards in place to keep scientists today from tampering with genetic cloning in humans until more is understood about the process and the results, Shelley reveals how easy it is for Frankenstein to pursue his own interests in spite of the law. Then and now, we consider ourselves masters of the universe, capable of doing all things. While the role of the scientist is called into question, emphasizing the need for the scientist to remain well-grounded in reality even as he reaches for the stars, Shelley also emphasizes the necessity of the scientist remaining responsible for whatever creation he brings into the world. Works Cited Bushi, Ruth. “The Author is Become a Creator-God: The Deification of Creativity in Relation to Frankenstein.” Mary Shelley and Frankenstein. (2002). Web. May 29, 2011. Landow, George. “Charles Darwin.” The Victorian Web. (2006). Web. May 29, 2011. McGee, Glenn. “Primer on Ethics and Human Cloning.” Philadelphia, PA: University of Philadelphia. (February 2001). Web. May 29, 2011. Pamintuan, Tina. “’It’s Alive’: Frankenstein’s Monster and Modern Science.” Humanities. 23.5: (September/October 2002). Print. Ramsey, P. Fabricated Man: The Ethics of Genetic Control. New Haven: Yale UP, 1970. Print. Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 1993. Print. “(The) Victorian Age.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York: W.W. Norton and Company. (2007). Web. May 29, 2011. Read More