Check Yourself Before You Wreck... Well, Everything

When I first learned I would be reading Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, I had certain expectations for what would occur in the story. Little did I know, that most modern adaptations and portrayals of the story typically take out some of the key parts of the novel. Yes you have a monster, made out of the body parts of various corpses, brought to life by a scientist who later regrets ever making the creature after chaos ensues. However, despite these changes that have occurred in some versions of the story, the central message can still be found that was present in the original book.


During the time in which Shelly wrote this novel, there was a great desire to understand the world around us and find out just what was scientifically possibly. Because of this, the idea of a devoted scientist accidentally creating a horrific monster was something that was bound to catch people's interest. However, there's is much more to it than that. The central message of Frankenstein can be summarized by some of Victor Frankenstein's last words to Robert Walton in the epilogue, "Seek happiness in tranquility and avoid ambition, even if it be only the apparently innocent one of distinguishing yourself in science and discoveries." Essentially, if you are a scientist, be aware of the impact that what you're doing will have, because their could be negative consequences that you did not consider that could affect the world. If that's the case, maybe it's better left untouched.



This message continues to resonate with us, perhaps a little more so than it did in Shelly's day, in the modern age. There have been many stories told through different mediums that have continued to relay this message to us in a few different ways. Perhaps the most popular example that I could use is the Jurassic Park franchise (pictured above). If you're somehow not familiar with this movie series, I suggest you watch it immediately. Instead of a monster, the movie shows scientists managing to clone dinosaurs, effectively bringing them back to life. But this, of course, was not a good idea on the scientists' part. To quote the movie, "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."


The reason this sentiment is just as applicable in our day as it was in Shelly's day is that we live in an ever changing, ever growing world. As humanity continues to live, we will continue to learn and uncover new information. However, just because we find that something is possible, that doesn't mean we should do it. We've already seen poor decisions negatively affect large portions of the world, so it's important that we don't anything else with such huge risks. This kind of story will continue to be told, as it will always be relevant, but we should recognize Frankenstein as being one of the first to do so and make initial awareness possible.

Image Credit: https://www.slashfilm.com/jurassic-world-ride/, Property of Universal Studios