Comparative essay of Frankenstein and The Island
In two pieces of works, there is one subject where the both align: creating artificial life. Frankenstein, novel by author Mary Shelley, is about the main character Victor Frankenstein playing God by creating a non human creature that all living sees as a monster including himself. Meanwhile in the film The Island directed by Michael Bay there is instead a company that plays God, where they illegally create clones to prolong the lives of the rich. Overall the movie and the book both shine the spotlight on the ethics of creating artificial life while also discussing whether or not these creations are “human”. One of the points brought forward in both the book and the film is about the ethics
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To answer that, we firstly need to define what makes someone human. According to http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ a human is someone that is “subject to or indicative of the weaknesses, imperfections, and fragility associated with humans”. Mary Shelley makes it very clear that the monster possess the same traits as a human. The monster feels, talks and acts as a human regardless of the fact that it does not obtain the looks of one. Since he is artificially created and does not look like a human, his creator Victor Frankenstein is repulsed by it and shuns him. This makes the monster feel unwanted, which is a very human response. In all efforts to reach his creator, the monster fails and to illustrate his anger, he starts his revenge by taking the lives of the relatives of Victor but also the people that fear …show more content…
In the bunker the clones communicate and bond with one another. Some bonds stronger than others, like Lincoln 6 Echo’s and Jordan 2 Delta’s friendship that later on evolves into a relationship between two people that connects and falls in love. Likewise the clones possesses the human qualities like curiosity and observantness. Early in the movie we see one of the clones in the bunker, Jones Three Echo, already criticizing the facility and the system they all live in which leads to Lincoln 6 Echo finding out the truth. This by following his “human instinct” of curiosity to the uncontaminated section. Although the clones are artificially created, they are still human and the company is well aware that they act, talk and feel like humans do. The company controls everything from what they eat to who they are allowed to communicate with. For example, around the beginning of the movie Lincoln 6 Echo and Jordan 2 Delta are talking and have a romantic “moment”. As soon as the head of the company Dr. Bernard Merrick, sees this from the hidden cameras his first move is to try to dismiss it. Thus, the company are aware of the fact that the clones function much like humans do but refuses to look at the
Moral ambiguity is lack of clarity in ethical decision-making. That is, when an issue, situation, or question has moral dimensions or implications, but the decidedly “moral” action to take are unclear, either due to conflicting principles, ethical systems, or situational perspectives. The desire for companionship is the main theme surrounding Frankenstein. The creature‘s loneliness is led by the abandonment of his creator Victor Frankenstein. Frankenstein was horrified upon the realization of the creature he has brought to life.
Acceptance is something Matt Alacran struggles with and he needs a lot of it. Matt the clone is low on strength because no one will accept him being a clone, except for a couple of people. Matt finds out a “dirty secret” from Tam Lin his bodyguard says that there is no difference between a clone and a human. Celia his adoptive mother loves and accepts Matt because she believes that Matt should be treated
What about this society has made them all like these clones? Well for starters the individuality. The books represented more than books they represented their own opinions, secondly how technology has affected connection. They replaced everything by advanced technology that were all programed the same. Lastly the information that was given to them was all given by the people of higher power and some government.
Mike Pence, an American politician and the current Governor of Indiana once stated, “Human Cloning is coming”(Pence 1). This creates an anxious atmosphere that leave societies questioning if the knowledge, consequences, and ethics are even a reasonable approach towards the idea of cloning. Both “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, have themes that convey a meaning not to mess with nature’s creations. These two literary examples are evidence that cloning obviously has a vast and unpredictable outcome that are not to be ignored. Moreover, cloning is a highly questionable pursuit of science that may lead to possible destruction if not monitored carefully.
In the end of the book of Gris Grimley's Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein dies still with many regrets that he had made in the past. One of his biggest regrets was creating a monster in his laboratory who ended up doing many unforgivable things like murdering Victor's little brother Williams. The monster also went on to do many horrible things and therefore I think that the monster should not be considered human. One reason why I think that the monster should not be considered a human being is that he would put his anger on everybody else when upset or when things did not go how he planned them to be, so they can be miserable like him as well. One way that he did this was when Victor abandoned him and the creature ran away, the creature
Even at a young age, they were discouraged from escaping Hailsham with the threats of death beyond its walls. The fear of rebelling has been innate to them, that they themselves begin to believe that they are less than human despite having emotions, relationships, They have aspirations, vices, and regrets. Their actions ceased to become voluntary the moment their fates were instilled in them. The sole purpose of the clones is for them to be mutilated until all functional integrity is lost.
This shows the humanity in the monster and his tendency to be amiable. He was also able to learn from his mistakes. For example, the creature realized that he needed to stop stealing the family’s supplies after he noticed how much they needed them. Victor, however, didn’t learn from his mistake of creating the monster, and created another. The monster also refers to the family in the cabin as “[his] friends” when they didn’t know of his existence (103).
The ethics that are practiced are seemingly immoral, and yet widespread and commonplace in some cases. Clones, like Matt, are “declared an unperson” (Farmer, 2002, p. 367) in society, and are therefore allowed “to be slaughtered like chickens or cattle” (Farmer, 2002, p. 367) for their organs. At birth they are supposed to have their minds destroyed so that they become like an animal, all the more aligning with the view of them being similar to livestock. Yet, Matt is an exception to this since he was allowed to keep his intelligence. Therefore as the reader, we are able to see Matt as a human being and not as the dirty clone almost everyone views him as.
You’d think that the abnormal behavior of the clone was who they really are. Leading them to be such a convincing
What the guardians, Miss Emily and Madame wanted was to preserve human life and they achieved that, but they had to take certain measures in the process. The measures they took were harvesting the vital organs of the clones. The clones were all alone in this world and there was nothing they could do to change their destined fate. A quote that supports that is in chapter twenty-two and Kathy says, “ I realised of course, that other people used these roads; but that night to me these dark byways of the country existed just for the likes of us, while the big glittering motorways with their huge sins and super cafes were for everyone else” (Ishiguro
That power trip in humans can lead to an unhealthy obsession. Scientist who create clones will have too much power, which will lead to them becoming so obsessed with their work that that is all they care about. In “The Birthmark,” Aylmer became obsessed with just the slightest flaw in a perfect woman, to the point where “when they sat together at the evening hearth his eyes wandered stealthily to her cheek…” (Hawthorne 2). Even when Aylmer was sitting, enjoying time with his wife, he was thinking about the birthmark.
The monster in Frankenstein is the one who is hated because of his ugliness. His form is unpleasant, but his spirit may be human. There are two-sided about this. Most people consider that the monster in the story is not a human, in my view he is true human. Most people consider that the monster in the story is not a human because of his birth and vitality.
Another common misperception is the contamination. The clones think Dr. Merrick and his workers have saved them, but in reality they are only told this so they are not curious of the outside world. Finally, all the clones are led to believe that there is a lottery system where the prize is being released to an island, but Dr. Merrick only makes up this perception as a way to secretly harvest the clone’s organs. Lincoln Six Echo discovers the truth by spying on winners of the lottery as they are getting killed, and relays this info to Jordan Two Delta. They both become perceptive to the truth.
Within the last 150 years, science has given birth to telephones, television, new medical practices, nuclear weapons, and the internet, yet humans are rapacious and desire more from themselves. Because of this, mankind has found ways to consistently revolutionize every aspect of each subject and continue to do so as time progresses. Until recently, cloning was a concept taken from science-fiction but became reality in 1996 when Dolly, the sheep, was successfully cloned. From her birth, the scientific community sparked debates over the legality of cloning, and one specific debate was whether cloning oneself should be legal, along with downloading memories from the previous host. Although the technology may be available in the future, while assuming
They find Lincoln Six Echo’s client who bought him and ask him to help them free the rest of their clone friends. Lincoln the client secretly calls Dr. Merrick the founder of the clone colony and has the two escaped clones chased after. Lincoln Six Echo and Jordan Two Delta make their way back to the colony and free the rest of their clone friends. In Michael Bay’s The Island Lincoln Six Echo and Jordan Two Delta and their friends are dehumanized by the actions of Dr. Merrick and his