Myths are not merely amusing tales told to children for entertainment. They teach us something about ourselves; and because they are distillations of our cultural experience, myths can also provide us with moral guidance. Because we live in an age of science and technology, we no longer believe in magic. Perhaps the Faust legend has outlived its usefulness. Yet I believe that we have an updated version of that myth, one more appropriate for our time. It is the story of Dr. Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley during a rainy vacation spent in the Swiss Alps with her husband, the poet Shelley, and Lord Byron [[Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus (1831; New York, 1965)]]. The story is well known: From his youth, Victor Frankenstein was fascinated by science.
As he reaches maturity, his obsession leads him to alchemy and the occult, but realizing the futility of his search, he abandons magic for the new science of Bacon and Newton. Eventually he comes to discover « the cause of the generation of life itself; nay more », he confesses, « I became myself capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter ». One stormy evening, Frankenstein succeeds in bringing his artificial being to life. He sees it open its eyes and begin to stir. But, instead of celebrating his victory over nature, Frankenstein is seized by misgiving. Stricken with horror at the sight of the monster he has created, he rushes from the laboratory, unable to face the consequences of his action.
And what about the newborn creature he had brought into the world? It is left to its own devices. While the creature is benign and innocent, it has nowhere to go, is stranded with no introduction to the world in which it must live.
In a dramatic confrontation with his creator, Frankenstein’s monster pleads passionately,
« How dare you sport thus with life? Do your duty towards me, and I will do mine towards you and the rest of mankind. I am thy creature, and I will be even mild and docile to my natural lord and king if thou wilt also perform thy part, the which thou owest me … Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel »[[ Ibid., 95. ]].
The creature’s attempts to find a home lead to disastrous results: people are terrified at the sight of it, and the monster unintentionally causes the death of a young boy.
Victor Frankenstein is a man who discovers, but fails to ponder the meaning of his discovery; a man who brings something new into the world, and then pours all of his energy into an effort to forget it. His invention represents a quantum jump in the performance capabilities of technology. Yet he sends it out into the world with no concern for how best to include it in the human community.
Frankenstein never goes beyond the dream of progress, the thirst for power, and the unquestioned belief that the products of science and technology are unqualified blessings for mankind. By the time he recognizes his mistake, the consequences of his actions are irreversible, and he finds himself totally helpless before an unchosen fate.
Like all myths, Frankenstein’s story is overstated. Nevertheless, it expresses a profound and important truth : that we, as a society, are morally responsible for our creations. The myth asks us to ponder the context of our inventions.
Frankenstein’s sin was that he acted with cavalier disregard for his creation, and failed likewise to prepare the world for it. Like some of the technological systems that we moderns have created, Frankenstein’s monstrous invention took on a life of its own, and threatened its creator with oblivion.
Above all, the myth of Victor Frankenstein, and of Faust as well, ought to teach us humility. For whereas the Renaissance magus could only dream of making wonders, modern technology produces a surfeit of them. Perhaps we need to see in the terrifying tale of Frankenstein what we can easily see in the fantastic dream of Faust: both are the embodiment of the sublime folly of hope, which is still the best school of man’s character.
Bibliography
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A. G. Drachmann, 1963. The Mechanical Technology of Greek and Roman Antiquity. Acta Historia Scientiarum Naturalium et Medicinalium, vol. 17. Copenhagen.
W. Eamon, 1983. Technology as Magic in the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Janus. 70 : 171-212.
R. Greene, 1935. The Plays and Poems of Robert Greene, ed. J. Churton Collins. Oxford. II : 17- 78.
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B.S. Hall, 1982. Guido da Vigevano’s Texaurus Regiae Franciae, 1335. Scripta, 6. Brussels.
C. Huelson, 1914. Der Liber instrumentorum des Giovanni Fontana. Festgabe Hugo Blumner. Zurich.
B. Kaplan, 1982. Greatrakes the Stroker : The Interpretations of His Contemporaries. Isis. 73 : 178-85.
C. Kyeser, 1967. Bellifortis, ed. G. Quarg. Dusseldorf.
B. Malinowski, 1954. Magic, Science, and Religion and Other Essays. Garden City, N. Y.
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A. G. Molland, 1974. Roger Bacon as a Magician. Traditio. 30 : 445-60.
M. Shelley, 1965. Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus. New York.
N. Steneck, 1982. Greatrakes the Stroker : The Interpretations of Historians. Isis. 73 : 161-77.
K. Thomas, 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic. New York.
L. White, Jr., 1962. Medieval Technology and Social Change. Oxford.
F. A Yates, 1964. Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition. Chicago.
R. Bacon, 1859. Opera hactenus inedita Rogeri Baconi, vol. I, ed. J.S. Brewer. Oxford.
A. G. Drachmann, 1963. The Mechanical Technology of Greek and Roman Antiquity. Acta Historia Scientiarum Naturalium et Medicinalium, vol. 17. Copenhagen.
W. Eamon, 1983. Technology as Magic in the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Janus. 70: 171-212.
R. Greene, 1935. The Plays and Poems of Robert Greene, ed. J. Churton Collins. Oxford. II : 17-78.
A. R. Hall, 1976. Guido’s Texaurus, 1335. On Pre-Modern Technology and Science, ed. B. S. Hall and D. C. West. Los Angeles: 13-52.
B.S. Hall, 1982. Guido da Vigevano’s Texaurus Regiae Franciae, 1335. Scripta, 6. Brussels.
C. Huelson, 1914. Der Liber instrumentorum des Giovanni Fontana. Festgabe Hugo Blumner. Zurich.
B. Kaplan, 1982. Greatrakes the Stroker: The Interpretations of His Contemporaries. Isis. 73 : 178-85.
C. Kyeser, 1967. Bellifortis, ed. G. Quarg. Dusseldorf.
B. Malinowski, 1954. Magic, Science, and Religion and Other Essays. Garden City, N. Y.
C. Marlowe, 1959. The Tragedy of Doctor Faustus. New York.
A. G. Molland, 1974. Roger Bacon as a Magician. Traditio. 30: 445-60.
M. Shelley, 1965. Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus. New York.
N. Steneck, 1982. Greatrakes the Stroker: The Interpretations of Historians. Isis. 73: 161-77.
K. Thomas, 1971. Religion and the Decline of Magic. New York.
L. White, Jr., 1962. Medieval Technology and Social Change. Oxford.
F. A Yates, 1964. Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition. Chicago.
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