Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
Our society still desires to do a range of secret deals with its scien-
tists, even while professing to treat them with suspicion: nuclear power
plants and nuclear waste dumps, in vitro fertilization, cloning, genetically
engineered organisms and production processes, surrogate parenting, the
trade in organs and genes, anti-diversity treaties with seed companies
marketing the total package of genetically modified, fungus-resistant
crops as their exclusive intellectual property and hence a monopoly.
7. Conclusion
By bringing together in Frankenstein the apparently opposite qualities of
the scientist and the Romantic visionary, Mary Shelley not only enriched
immeasurably her depiction of the scientist over earlier representations,
but extended the basic Romantic protest against materialism and rational-
ism. She showed that Frankenstein, although apparently so rational, so
desirous of secularizing the world and denouncing its mysteries, is
actually, at crucial points, highly irrational, suppressing those considera-
tions which might conflict with his obsession. Levine points out that
Frankenstein “as a modern metaphor implies the conception of the
divided self, the creator and his world at odds. The civilized man or
woman contains within the self a monstrous, destructive, and self-
destructive energy” (Levine
et al
. 1979, p. 15). The novel thus becomes a
scientific formulation of the archetypal myth of
psychomachia
or the
conflict within the soul, epitomized in Stevenson's
Dr Jekyll and Mr
Hyde
. In these wholly secular versions, science and technology are a
concretization of inner desires, masquerading as rational but, like the
Monster, equally capable of springing from the dark, unacknowledged
depths of their creator's subconscious. This perception suggests an
important qualification of the Enlightenment belief that the pursuit of
knowledge is, by definition, rational and good and should not be restric-
ted by any socio-moral considerations.
The pervasive and enduring narratives featuring alchemist-like fig-
ures and in particular the two prototypical protagonists Faust and Frank-
enstein, suggest the prevalence and universality of this particular knowl-
edge myth and raise the question of what alternative knowledge myths
