THE FRANKENSTEIN QUESTION

Introduction

The novel, Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, was written by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and was published in 1816. The story deals with a scientist,

Victor Frankenstein, who believes that he has discovered the great ray that first brought life into being on earth. He began his experimentation in secret with dead animals, and he was then able to keep a human heart beating for three weeks. Seeking to create a superior form of human life, he gathered body parts from cadavers and used the results of chemical experiments to form a creature he eventually refers to as "the fiend". In the film, the creature becomes a monster that takes on the name of its creator, Frankenstein. In both film and novel, the creature turns on its creator and on innocent people.

Objectives

In this activity you will:

* analyze the movie Frankenstein

* contast the portrayal of science in the early 1800's with science today

* explore the role of scientific creator

* relate literature to biotechnology and the role of genetic manipulation to alter or create life forms

* analyze the relationship of creator/creation

Procedure

Working with a partner, answer the following questions in complete sentences.

1. What force of nature did Dr. Frankenstein use to give life to his creation?

2. Why do you think Dr. Frankenstein did not want to destroy his creation after the monster killed his assistant, even though everyone urged him to do so?

3. Why did the monster begin killing everyone with whom he came in contact?

4. As the story progresses, what do you see happening to the control Dr. Frankenstein and others have over the monster?

5. Why do you think so many scientists are portrayed as being mad (crazy) in literature and in films?

6. Do you think artificial life forms should be created? Why or why not?

7. Should scientists and inventors be held accountable for applications to which their

discoveries are put, even if those applications are unforeseen and unintended? Give an example of a discovery or invention whose application has had grave consequences.

8. What do you think might be a positive use for a biotechnologically engineered,

artificially intelligent life form? To what negative application might this engineered life form be used? Who or what would be the policing agency to see that any negative applications would not occur?

9. Why is Frankenstein considered a horror story?

10. When completed in 1931, the original movie was call the "Greatest Science Fiction

Thriller Ever Made." Do you think this science fiction of the 1930's could become science fact today?