God, Man, and Nature in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley - Book Report/Review Example

God, man and nature are vastly intertwined with each other, and with the exception of God, each could not survive without the other. Man could not survive without nature; he depends upon the earth for his food, the rain for his water, the trees for his dwellings and the sun for his warmth. Nature could not survive without man. It depends upon him for rejuvenating the soil, replenishing what it cannot and keeping order among it. God, however, created both man and nature and can survive without either one. A belief in a higher power is a personal matter between the higher power and the man, but a man's attempt to be God-like is often met with disastrous results. Although works of fiction, "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley and "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley, both depict accounts of what can happen to a person or a society that attempts to become a god. Victor Frankenstein, the protagonist of the novel "Frankenstein," is a scientist who has made an amazing discovery-he can create life. "After days and nights of incredible labour and fatigue, I succeeded in discovering the cause of generation and life; nay, more, I became myself capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter." (Frankenstein pg. 49) Frankenstein is both exulted and apprehensive about his discovery and unsure, at first, what to do with this knowledge. "When I found so astonishing a power placed within my hands, I hesitated a long time concerning the manner in which I should employ it. Although I possessed the capacity of bestowing animation, yet to prepare a frame for the reception of it, with all its intricacies of fibres, muscles, and veins, still remained a work of inconceivable difficulty and labor." ( Frankenstein pg. 50) Giddy of his own success, and filled with dreams of what the discovery could mean for him as a scientist and researcher, Frankenstein decides to create a human being, one that would worship him for developing him. "I doubted at first whether I should attempt the creation of a being like myself or one of simpler organization; but my imagination was too much exalted by my first success to permit me to doubt my ability to give life to an animal as complex and wonderful as man." ( Frankenstein pg. 50) "No one can conceive the variety of feelings which bore me onwards, like a hurricane, in the first enthusiasm of success. Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world. A new specifies would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. No father could father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs." ( Frankenstein pg. 51) So Frankenstein created his being, only to realize at its completion he had made a horrible mistake. "The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature. I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, 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, and continued a long time traversing my bed-chamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep." ( Frankenstein pg. 56) "Oh! No mortal could support the horror of that countenance. A mummy again endured with animation could not be so hideous as that wretch. I had gazed on him while unfinished; he was ugly then; but when those muscles and joints were rendered capable of motion, it became such a thing as even Dante could not have conceived." (Frankenstein pg. 57) Thus began Victor Frankenstein's descent into hell. "I passed the night wretchedly. Sometimes my pulse beat so quickly and hardly, that I felt the palpitation of every artery; at others, I nearly sank to the ground through languor and extreme weakness. Mingled with this horror, I felt the bitterness of disappointment: dreams that had been my food and pleasant rest for long a space, were now become a hell to me; and the change was so rapid, the overthrow so complete!" ( Frankenstein pg. 57) He despised himself for what he done, as well as despised the creature he had created. The creature, in turn, despised Frankenstein for creating him, as well as himself for having been created. "Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live Why, in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you had so wantonly bestowed I know not; despair had not yet taken possession of me; my feelings were those of rage and revenge." (Frankenstein pg. 161) So began years of cat and mouse, being the hunter and the hunted. The only intention of each was to destroy the other. Frankenstein intent on the destruction because he believed the creature to be the reason of the downward spiral of his life, due to his developing of him and of the creature's involvement in the deaths of his family. The creature's intent due to his forced alienation from man and companionship, being doomed to forever be alone. "But liberty had been a useless gift to me had I not, as I awakened to reason, at the same time awakened to revenge. As the memory of past misfortunes pressed upon me, I began to reflect on their cause-the monster whom I had created, the miserable daemon whom I had sent abroad into the world for my destruction. I was possessed by a maddening rage when I thought of him, and desired and ardently prayed that I might have him within my grasp to wreak a great and signal revenge on his cursed head." ( Frankenstein pg. 245) "I did not know the names of the towns that I was to pass through, nor could I ask information from a single human being; but I did not despair. From you I could only for succour, although towards you I felt no sentiment but that of hatred. Unfeeling, heartless creator! You had endowed me with perceptions and passions, and then cast me abroad an object for the scorn and horror of mankind. But on you only had I any claim for pity and redress, and from you I determined to seek that justice which I vainly attempted to gain from any other being that wore the human form." (Frankenstein pg. 165-166) They did not end up destroying each other, but ended up destroying themselves. Victor Frankenstein died upon a ship before he could capture his prey, and the monster, upon seeing his creator dead, vowed to destroy himself. "But soonI shall die, and what I now feel be no longer felt. Soon these burning miseries will be extinct. I shall ascend my funeral pile triumphantly, and exalt in the agony of the torturing flames. The light of that conflagration will fade away; my ashes will be swept into the sea by the winds. My spirit will sleep in peace; or if it thinks, it will surely not think thus. Farewell." (Frankenstein pg. 275) Only God can handle the duties and responsibilities of be being God. Victor Frankenstein attempted to do so for his own selfish gain, but quickly realized it was an impossible task. "By trying to create life artificially and destroy death itself, Victor rises against natural laws, which have been ruling the world for millions of years. He thinks these laws are not immutable-and indeed seems to be right, as he successfully creates the monster. But even if he does manage to reach a God-like level or to acquire God-like powers, he doesn't have any God-like knowledge or experience or responsibility. When he sees his monsterhe is afraid, tries to run away and forget him. He will never try to care for him not love him, nor will he feel a strong responsibility towards what we can call his son." ( www. Gymnase-morges.ch/doc/Eleve/Frankenstein.html.) In Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World," however, it is a few members of a complete society that attempt rule the entire world, rather than just one man with one being. "the main point being culture of comfort has made God obsolete. According to Mond's view, people turn to God only when age and discomfort impel them to look beyond the physical world. But if discomforts are banished, the physical, material world never loses its pleasures. Thus, he argues, God is irrelevant in the brave new world." (www.education.yahoo.com/homework_help/cliff notes/brave_new_world/55.html. The novel opens with a tour of the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, where new students are shown how humans are created, or "hatched," as the name suggests. Thoughts, intelligence levels, jobs-everything is predestined during the incubation and conditioning periods. "We also predestine and condition. We decant our babies as socialized human beings, as Alphas or Epsilons, as future sewage workers or future." (Brave New World pg. 23) There are no mothers or fathers, and "everyone belongs to everyone." (Brave New World) Sexual promiscuity is encouraged, and taught at an early age, and acted upon, as no one becomes unduly attached to another. "In a little grassy bay between tall clumps of Mediterranean heather, two children, a little boy of about seven and a little girl who might have been a year older, were playing very gravely and with all the focused attention of scientists intent on a labour of discovery, a rudimentary sexual game." (Brave New World pg. 38) All wants, needs and desires are taken care of and there is no strife, conflict, pain or such. Everyone knows their place and is happy to remain there. "In a properly organized society like ours, nobody has any opportunities for being noble or heroic. Conditions have to got to be thoroughly unstable before the occasion can arise. Where there are wars, where there are divided allegiances, where there are temptations to be resisted, objects of love to be fought for or defended-there, obviously, nobility and heroism have some sense. But there aren't any wars nowadays. The greatest care is taken to prevent you from loving any one too much. There's no such thing as a divided allegiance; you're so conditioned that you can't help doing what you ought to do. And what you ought to do in on the whole so pleasant, so many of the natural impulses are allowed free play, that there really aren't any temptations to resist." (Brave New World pg. 213) The society also had two options for those who found themselves with thoughts, feelings and temptations that went against the norm. One option was to be exiled to an island where you could join others of the same nature, and pursue those ambitions, or a drug could be taken that would induce a sleep for any number of hours until the feelings or situation passed. "He's being sent to an island. That's to say, he's being sent to a place where he'll meet the most interesting set of men and women to be found anywhere in the world. All the people, who, for one reason or another, have got too self-consciously individual to fit into community life. All the people who aren't satisfied with orthodoxy, who've got independent ideas of their own. Everyone, in a word, who's anyone" (Brave New World pg. 204) "And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there's always 'soma' to give you a holiday from the facts. And there's always 'soma' to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering. In the past you could only accomplish these things by making a great effort and after years of hard moral training. Now, you swallow two or three half- gramme tablets, and there you are. Anyone can be virtuous now." (Brave New World pg. 213) Very little mention is made in the novel about weather, nature, trees or flowers. Only at the end, when one of the characters chooses self-inflicted exile, does the author speak of landscapes and flowers. The society has little use for beautiful things. "Even when they're beautiful Particularly when they're beautiful. Beauty's attractive, and we don't want people to be attracted by old things. We want them to like new ones." (Brave New World pg. 197-198) Shelley, in "Frankenstein," on the other hand, uses the forces of nature to help illustrate the thoughts and feelings of the characters, what they are experiencing at that moment in the story. Storms, wind, rain, sunshine-all play a part at some point or another. "By very slow degrees, and with frequent relapses, that alarmed and grieved my friend, I recovered. I remember the first time I became capable of observing outward objects with any kind of pleasure, I perceived that the fallen leaves had disappeared, and that the young buds were shooting forth from the trees that shaded my window. It was a divine spring; and the season contributed greatly to my convalescence." ( Frankenstein pg. 62) "The following morning the rain poured down in torrents, and thick mists hid the summits of the mountains. I rose early but felt unusually melancholy. The rain depressed me; my old feelings recurred, and I was miserable." ( Frankenstein pg.109- 110) These novels discuss two ways in which God, nature and man each play a part for the other. One depicts how even though the beauty of nature was created by God and affects our lives, we cannot attempt to play God and have His knowledge and power. In the other, a godless society prevails. Everything is created by man for man and is artificial. One's life is entirely predestined and preconditioned and no free- thought is allowed. Even the weather is controlled, and little beauty, natural or otherwise, is to be found in the world. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley, 1932. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, 1818 www.education.yahoo.com/homework_help/cliff notes/brave_new_world/55.html www.gymase-morges.ch/doc/Eleve/frankenstein.html Read More