Yes and no. One of the major differences between the two men is that Victor Frankenstein is an undergraduate college student who dropped out of school in order to pursue his experiment, while Faustus is a scholar who has spent years exploring the sciences until he had learned all there is to know. Though we call him "Dr. Frankenstein" today, he is not a doctor, and in fact has very little formal instruction in science. Faustus, on the other hand, both gives and receives instruction until he reaches the limit of human knowledge.
Faustus's shift is also more gradual than Frankenstein's. Frankenstein spends a few months, tops, at the university, before deciding to take his education into his own hands, where he immediately begins construction on his monster. Faustus spends years dabbling in magic before he agrees to give his soul to the devil.
Even then, Frankenstein faces immediate repercussions from building a monster; Faustus spends years using his powers before the devil finally drags him to hell.
Science fails Victor because he does not devote the time to understanding it. Necromancy fails Faustus because he devotes too much time to it and still cannot fully understand it.
Mary Shelley's novel is a seminal parable for the modern world, for its theme has been imitated in literature and, of course, in countless science fiction films. Basically, the theme is the paradox of modern man who, through science, produces miracles but is unable to control their results.
As in the legend of the Golem upon which she partly based her story, Shelley's Dr. Frankenstein creates a "monster" without understanding that his creation will become an independent entity whose actions are unpredictable and dangerous. In some sense, it is Frankenstein's own fault, or in fact, his own choice, that this happens. The most crucial scene in the novel occurs when the monster pulls back the curtain of the doctor's bed, terrifying him and causing him to flee. Frankenstein is thus guilty of abandoning his own "child," and this "sin" is a metaphor for man's potential recklessness and misuse of the power he has created. Science fails Dr. Frankenstein because his moral weakness is such that he does not take responsibility for his use of science and for his own handiwork, the monster. Shelley wrote her story at a time when the industrial revolution and applied science—technology—were creating the beginnings of the modern world and would soon result in a series of fabulous inventions: steam power, gaslight, and only a few decades later, the telegraph, photography, railway travel, and the like. She was prophetic in that, as we can see today, the consequences of technology, like Frankenstein's creation, are not fully controlled and have resulted in environmental damage and climate change.
Marlowe's Doctor Faustus is another seminal literary character to whom Frankenstein is similar, because both men are striving for something beyond the normal dimensions of human experience. Faustus wishes to gain a kind of super power, not through "conventional" magic, but through a pact with the devil, Mephistopheles. He wishes to achieve some ultimate experience that transcends normal human life, even if he must sell his soul (which he does) to achieve it. The climax is his encounter with Helen of Troy near the end of the story. But even after this, Faustus has no sense of fulfillment. All that is left for him is the terror of realizing that he has condemned his own soul to hell as a result of his bargain with Mephistopheles.
Frankenstein's science fails him because, in creating life, he oversteps the bounds of what he is able to control or understand; although, it doesn't help that he abandons his creation, either. It's not so much the failure of "science" as it is that of man's human weakness. In the same way, the magical powers granted Faustus by the devil do not achieve their purpose because Faustus never gains the fulfillment of an ultimate experience that he wishes, and he ends up destroying his own soul. In both characters' experiences, the failures are similar because it is man's own inherent weaknesses and flaws that bring about catastrophe.
No comments:
Post a Comment