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Frankenstein: A Digital Edition

Citation: Becky Little

MLA Citation: Little, Becky. “‘Father of the Atomic Bomb’ Was Blacklisted for Opposing H-Bomb.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 10 Aug. 2017, www.history.com/news/father-of-the-atomic-bomb-was-blacklisted-for-opposing-h-bomb.

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Limits of Human Ambition
Mary Shelley published the original text of Frankenstein in 1818. Despite the original publication date being over 200 years ago, the text still has a presence in high school and college classrooms. The themes, conflicts, and messages presented in the book are still relevant today. This edition of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein offers the 1818 text obtained from Project Gutenberg. We, the FYS class, have added our annotations to the book to aid in understanding the text, and to help guide students through reading the text. As you read the text you will find helpful definitions, maps, and other annotations to provide a better understanding of terms, concepts, and geographical locations. At the end of our edition, we add a collection of sources that provide research and resources across a wide range of topics.

One of the many themes still relevant today is the concept of Ambition. Of all of the land-dwelling beasts and sea crawlers of planet Earth, the homo sapiens race is, by far, the most complex beings to have ever exist. Their ambition to survive, adapt and to break any preconceived about the limits of their nature or the nature of their environment is unprecedented. Whilst this ambition may bring forth a golden age of peace and achievements, it comes with the danger of destroying one’s nature and livelihood. Ambition can be defined as a powerful desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and arduous work. This definition is applied throughout the book Frankenstein on multiple occasions. Ambition is mostly represented by the main character of the book who is Victor Frankenstein.
In Frankenstein, Mary Shelly uses the fictional character of Victor Frankenstein to explore the idea of over-reaching your ambition. Victor Frankenstein is a Genevese, from Geneva, citizen. He comes from an ancestry of “counsellors and syndics”, (Volume I, Chapter I). As a young child, Victor Frankenstein had the ambition to learn. At this stage, Victor’s ambition of enjoying philosophy only was embodied within the limit of what books or knowledge Victor could receive. This ambition will lead Victor to study in Ingolstadt, Germany. In Ingolstadt, Mr. Frankenstein’s ambitious part of his consciousness will be embodied fully. To quote Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein: “As I applied so closely, it may be easily conceived that I improved rapidly. (...) Two years passed in this manner, during which I paid no visit to Geneva, but was engaged, heart and soul, in the pursuit of some discoveries, which I hoped to make”. Whilst analyzing the preceding statement, Mary Shelly shows the effects of ambition. In this time Victor Frankenstein is following his life’s passion of natural philosophy. As an unintended consequence of over-embellishing his ambition, Victor has neglected the people he grew up with. It must be noted that Mary Shelley is not alluding to any idea that ambition is inherently evil. In fact it is contrary to this perceived notion. During the time Victor was in Geneva, before going to Ingolstadt, Victor Frankenstein’s ambition was treated as a beneficial endeavour. The difference between this example and Victor studying in Ingolstadt is that Victor respected the consequences of his ambition. This is not the only time Victor’s over-ambitious side appears. In the chapter where Victor Frankenstein derives the idea of creating life by reversing death, Mary Shelly masterfully paints the side-effects of over-ambition. To quote Victor Frankenstein: “I had returned to my old habits. I collected bones from charnel houses; and disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human frame. In a solitary chamber, or rather cell, at the top of the house, and separated from all the other apartments by a gallery and staircase, I kept my workshop of filthy creation; my eyeballs were starting from their sockets in attending to the details of my employment”. In his over-ambitiousness and lack of caring for consequences, Victor Frankenstein violated common ethical laws. Even though the body, in question, is dead, it is still a representation of the life that body once held. By most common ethical laws, defiling a living body, similar to what Victor Frankenstein did, is evil. Since a dead body is a representation of the life that body once held, any act similar to Victor Frankenstein decision to steal body parts is evil. This contrast of actions shows an interesting lens to view ambition. In each case Victor Frankenstein was ambitious in his goal. The negative effects only appeared whenever Victor tried to over-step his ambitious limits.

Victor Frankenstein isn’t the only character driven by his ambition. The monster has an ambition to be loved and accepted. He is abandoned immediately by his creator, then travels and studies men to learn the customs. He studies a family, helping when he can, and learning how to fit into their society. When the family shuns him, he had helped, he decides to seek a final chance to fulfill his ambition to fit in. He approaches Frankenstein and asks for a mate to join him in his isolation from society. Clerval has an ambition to travel and be with his friend. Most of the characters have a key source of ambition driving them to their own individual journeys. It is only Frankenstein that takes their ambition beyond the limits of humanity. His ambition leads to the negative consequences in his life.

The same concept of being ambitious without thinking of the consequences is constantly seen throughout history. In the Manhattan project, or the nuclear bomb project, the lead scientist Robert J Oppenheimer felt great remorse for his actions in creating the bomb. He created the bomb for the US government to be used in World War 2. When being congratulated for his actions in the project, he addressed the gathering at Los Alamos. He said “If atomic bombs are to be added as new weapons to the arsenals of a warring world...the time will come when mankind will curse the names of Los Alamos” (Ham) He and his team had an ambition to see if they could create a new scientific advancement by splitting the atom, charged to them by the president. While they created a bomb for the war, the never considered the negative impacts it would have on society looking toward the future. After the bomb had been dropped, Oppenheimer felt remorse, regret, and guilt for his actions in the creation in the bomb. When he approached President Truman with a request to restrict nuclear ability, he was persecuted and lost his security clearance. “Today, Oppenheimer is mostly remembered as a scientist who was persecuted for trying to address the moral problems of his creation” (Little) Frankenstein only took responsibility for his ambition in the last volume of the book when he decides not to create the monster's mate. He only came upon that responsibility by looking at the effects of his thoughtless ambition in the beginning of the love book. While Frankenstein certainly isn’t Oppenheimer, he too is a “scientist persecuted for trying to address the moral problems of his creation”