Mary Shelley's Ethical Thoughts As Revealed In Frankenstein

Mary Shelley, born on August 30, 1797, was a prominent literary figure during the Romantic Era of English Literature. She was the only child of Mary Wollstonecraft, the famous feminist, and William Godwin, a philosopher and novelist. She was also the wife of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. In her life, she wrote many novels, essays and literary criticisms. But the most popular was her Frankenstein, which was published in 1818. This novel has been considered as the best Gothic novel and the first science fiction in the world.In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley tells a story of a young ambitious scientist Victor Frankenstein making a gigantic being out of corpse. Frankenstein abandons his creature at his first sight and the creature revenges himself by murdering Frankenstein's youngest brother William, his maid Justine, his best friend Henry Clerval and his wife Elizabeth. The series of killings subsequently lead to the mutual destruction of Frankenstein and his creature.With ethical literary criticism, this thesis sets out to make an analysis of Mary Shelley's ethical thoughts when she is writing Frankenstein. The issue of good and evil is the core of the ethical thoughts in Frankenstein. The thesis makes an analysis of the relationship between good and evil in this novel. Simultaneously, it tells the source of the author's ethical thoughts and evaluates the ethics in Frankenstein.After a brief introduction to the plot of Frankenstein, the first part of the thesis introduces Mary Shelley and Frankenstein. The second part is literature review, which covers Mary Shelley's life, thoughts and works, critical overview on Frankenstein, and ethical literary criticism, which is going to be the literary basis for the analysis of Frankenstein in later parts. The third part makes a detailed analysis of the ethics and morality of the protagonist– Frankenstein and his creation, the monster. Frankenstein creates life freely in order to pursue his dream. After the monster comes into being, he wants to destroy him because of his ugly appearance. The monster does a series of cruel things to his creator so that he can revenge for his creation. Their deeds are against the ethics and morality of that age. The fourth part attempts to explore the author's ways to realize her moral ideal in Frankenstein. After losing a friend, relatives and wife, Victor Frankenstein realizes that human being should keep a peaceful mind, return to the nature and melt into the family and society. Human beings are social animals. They cannot be separated from their society, so they need love from the people around. Everyone has the right to pursue happiness. Besides, we need to set up the harmonious relationship between man and nature. The fifth part mainly focuses on tracing the factors contributing to the author's ethical thoughts in Frankenstein. On the one hand, it is closely connected with the personal experiences of the author; on the other hand, it is determined by the social and historical background of that time. After making the novel's ethical thoughts clear, the thesis draws its conclusion in the sixth part.As one of the most important novelists of her age, Mary Shelley still remains a significant force in modern fiction. In her novel, an ethical web is made of"good"and"evil". She challenges the traditional ethical concepts with her ethical thoughts. As a novelist of the romanticism, through the profound descriptions of social experiences of Victor Frankenstein and the monster, Mary Shelley demonstrates the increasing serious social and spiritual crisis of that age. Moreover, she reveals a picture of oppression of the so-called social civilization and rationality against humanity and the destruction of nature by industrialism, and she also gives us the solutions to them.In view of the scientific development and western civilization, Mary Shelley creates Frankenstein, full of morality. Many aspects of this novel are still relevant in the contemporary society, including the relationship between science and ethics, creation and responsibility, isolation and emotion, and so on.