Views of Science as Expressed in The Sphinx and Frankenstein - Essay Example

Views of Science as Expressed in “The Sphinx” and “Frankenstein” Igor Webb’s Ideas Across Time brings together seemingly unrelated works and discovers the common thread among them. An example is the examination of science in both “The Sphinx” and Frankenstein. These are two literary works from different time periods and vastly different authors that explore the same themes. It is important to point out that while both authors have very definite ideas about science, neither was a scientist. In fact, both were literary scholars, Shelley of the fiction genre and Bacon of scholarly writings. However, they shared an interest in theorizing how science relates to the nature of humans. Bacon theorized that science is a means to solving two riddles, one being the nature of things and the other the nature of man. His ideas for a way to solve these riddles are very similar to the widely utilized scientific method, believing that matter can be studied and understood by observation, trial, and error (Bacon). Bacon manifests his vision of science in the mythical Sphinx. The Sphinx is a monster with the head and voice of a young woman, the feet of the griffin, and wings of a bird. The creature and her riddles represent the riddles of science and how searching for the answers can either tear apart a man or cause a break through by answering the riddle and subduing the Sphinx, or quenching the man’s immediate thirst for knowledge. The man who finally defeats the Sphinx, a man with high intelligence and clubbed feet, demonstrates the need for patience and taking things slowly when confronting the riddles of science. If a man showed ignorance in the face of science, if he failed to answer the riddle correctly, the Sphinx would rip him apart. The griffin claws of the Sphinx represent the way that the pursuit of answers can take sharp hold in the human mind, effectively ripping it apart if the answers are not found. In the same vein, the face and voice represent the beauty of science and the wings are indicative of how the answers of science spread and fly quickly to the far reaches of the Earth (Bacon). Her riddles originate from the Muses, where the questions are ambiguous and have no emotional subtext. Once the riddles reach the Sphinx, they contain the unbiased cruelty of the pursuits of science, where the questions themselves do not care regarding the havoc they can wreak on those who dare to try to solve them. Bacon has taken an ancient myth and applied it to the mysteries of the universe. Mary Shelley’s view of science relates to Bacon’s in that she also viewed science as a potential monster. In her book Frankenstein, Shelly brings science to the forefront as her scientist follows his pursuit of creating life in an inert body with little regard to anything else in his own existence. His thirst for the knowledge he dreams of is filled with emotion as it permeates every corner of his life. Here, it isn’t merely an answer that he seeks, but the application of the answer in order to realize his lofty goals. Once his dream is realized, the scientist, Dr. Frankenstein, realizes the madness of his pursuit and the horror that he has created. Shelley’s view of science was heavily influence by the revolution in thought going on during her life (Shelley). She was a highly intellectual woman and began writing Frankenstein as a ghost story at the request of the poet Lord Byron. She based the story on a discussion of the uses of electricity and the experiments of Erasmus Darwin (Shelley). Where Bacon’s tale took a view of science from the questions that can be asked and solved, Shelley sees science as the difference between life and death, the bridge to heal the gap between the two. In this instance creation and death are not that distant, both being amazing and terrifying at the same time (Shelley). Frankenstein is similar to the tale of the Sphinx in that the seeker, or scientist, can go mad in the quest for his answers. Dr. Frankenstein forgoes human interaction, food, rest, everything that is a necessity for humans as he attempts to make regenerate life in the dead tissue that he has patched together to form his own version of humanity. In his ideal world, he believed that he would create another race, that he could be god to a new version of the species. He realized the error of his ways when his experiments succeeded and did in fact give life to the pieced together body in his makeshift laboratory on the top floor of his apartment. When the creature he had created opened his eyes, Dr. Frankenstein saw the horror that he had made, the monster that had become his life. He tried to escape it, to leave the monster in his laboratory, but it came to find him in his bedroom, illustrating that the pursuit of science had permeated even the most private places in his life. In contrast, the Sphinx did not just invade your life it took your life unless you were able to defeat it by correctly answering her questions. In both stories, the seeker ended his quest successfully by reaching the desired answers. The difference is that Dr. Frankenstein went mad in his discoveries while the club-footed man was victorious, slaying the monster and returning to Thebes as king. Both men had to reach the end of their journey of scientific discovery through patience and perseverance. Shelley’s view of science takes hold, not as an answer to a riddle, but in the aftermath of the answer. She is concerned with how the journey affects the scientist and how the answers found can fall short of the high expectations set. Bacon’s tale of the Sphinx is more about the victory of achieving the answer rather than the ultimate failure that can come with the application of it. He shows the idealism of the quest for knowledge while Shelley’s piece demonstrates the tragedy of the idealistic nature of science, as her hero is driven made in his pursuits. Both points of view exhibit the optimistic ideals of the quest for further knowledge with one adventure ending with the slaying of the question that torments and the other finding the flaws in the theory. In each instance, both main characters set out with a lofty goal, each wanting to be a god in their own way, whether as the ruler of a group of people or the creator of them. Each has to face his task with the same persistence and determination, demonstrating that both Shelley and Bacon shared the same working knowledge of the meticulous methods by which scientists search for their answers. The variance in the pieces is found in the application of the knowledge gained. Bacon’s pursuit ends with the finding of the answer. That is all it takes for his character to be victorious in his endeavors and return to Thebes as king, his goal realized in the slaying of the Sphinx. Shelley’s ends with the application of the knowledge gained, the outcome of which drives her scientist further into madness as his single-minded dedication to the pursuit of his answer, of further scientific knowledge, ends in what he perceives as a disaster, the monster come to life. He did what he set out to do, much like the man from Thebes, however his end result, the actual creation of a new being, was not the fantasy that he set out on his journey believing it to be. In this way, Shelley’s and Bacon’s view of the scientific method is the same, both employing the same principles on the journey to the discovery of further knowledge. Shelley just carries it one step further in that finding the answer is only the beginning of the gaining of real scientific knowledge. In her cautionary tale, it is the application of that knowledge that leads to true understanding, not just the answer itself. Works Cited Bacon, Francis. "The Sphinx." Webb, Igor. Ideas Across Time. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008. 152-156. Shelley, Mary. "Frankenstein." Webb, Igor. Ideas Across Time. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008. 157-167. Read More