An Ecocritical Study On Frankenstein

Mary Shelley (1797-1851) is a famous novelist of the Romantic period. Frankenstein is considered one of the best Gothic novels as well as the first science fiction in the modern sense. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein has attracted a wide variety of interpretations, ranging from earlier biographical study ,the feminist, to the Marxist, the Psychoanalytic and Freudian reading .Some of these interpretations have relied on the scantiest of evidence while others are simply limited and even mistaken in their analysis of the period.In China, Frankenstein has aroused scholars' interest and for the last five years thirteen theses and forty-nine academic papers have been written focusing on Frankenstein's identity, romantic and gothic heritage, narrative strategies, archetypal analysis, and androgyny. However,few scholars analyze the novel from ecological perspective, which is worthy when considering the global focus nowadays is environmental protection and minimizing the bad effect of sci-tech development.Mary Shelley reveals her unconscious ecocritical thinking at the beginning of modern era by depicting a modern Prometheus who is punished for his own activity of ruthless misuse of nature. The subtitle The Modem Prometheus refers to the Prometheus in Greek mythology. Victor Frankenstein,the protagonist in the novel, has the desire to create another human being. This act is a typically anthropocentric. He overestimates what he can do and what science can do. And his anthropocentric deeds lead to destructive results:a monster,which ultimately destroys himself. The destructive results call people to reconsider the relationship between man ,nature and science. Ecocriticism offers a fresh angle in the analysis of Frankenstein.The thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter one is devoted to introduce definitions,development and focus of ecocriticism. Chapter Two is a general role study of Frankenstein, who he really is,Prometheus or God. He apes the ultimate creative act; he transgresses in trying to move into the God's arena of creating life, which leads to the whole tragedy. Chapter three, four and five are a thorough study about the hard evidence of the ecocritical concerns within Frankenstein. By searchingthe details and the relationships of nature,science,humans and the monster of thebook, we are able to see what role each of them plays and how they play. As aconsequence, the whole story is an ecological tragedy and an alarm bell for nowadayspeople.