In my opinion, the major common motif in Frankenstein and R.U.R. is: what does it mean to be “human”?
1) Appearance
Victor Frankenstein's creature is gigantic and does not look like a regular human being at all, with his monster-like features. The robots in R.U.R. look so much like humans that even Helena could not tell or believe that Sulla was a robot.
2) Character and Individuality
Frankenstein's creature has his own personality and character, whereas the robots in R.U.R. do not--they are all very mechanical and the same. The robots do work in an everyday, mundane fashion, and even during their rebellion, they seem to all be the same. Domin and the others are frightened upon seeing the army of robots surrounding them, because they all look the same, which makes it haunting. Also, when they kill the humans, all of the robots only have one thing in mind, which is to kill off the humans, and they don't seem to differ from one another very much.
3) Attitude and Independence
The creature in Frankenstein can fend for himself. He also has his own attitude and personal opinion, unlike the robots. The robots are simply clones of each other, and they don't have distinct personalities.
4) Realization that they are different
The creature definitely realizes that he is different, mostly through the way people (such as Victor and the townspeople the creature encounters) shun and are disgusted by him. The robots do not realize they are different from humans until the end, when they notice that they are physically stronger.
5) Morals/feelings
The creature has morals and feelings, although it may not seem like it, as he murders so many humans. However, if people had treated him more nicely when he was first exploring and getting to know his surroundings and the world, he might have ended up as a kinder being. The robots do not have morals or feelings whatsoever in the beginning, until they are modified. At the end, Robot Primus and Helena fall in love with each other, and are willing to sacrifice themselves for one another.
6) Physical capabilities/ability to feel physical pain
The creature is undoubtedly a lot stronger than humans, and he can also feel physical pain. (For example, he was in pain when he was shot while trying to save a drowning girl.) The robots, however, cannot feel physical pain.
7) Ability to reproduce
The creature longs to have a partner, but for company and not necessarily to be able to reproduce. He simply is lonely. However, the robots want to reproduce and take over the world (at the end of the play). They try to make Alquist succeed in finding a way to recreate robots.
8) Gender
The creature is referred to as "he" and the robots as "he" and "she", giving them a gender and making them more similar to humans. If they were not given genders, they would be more like items and not living beings.
9) Ability to take over mankind
The creature probably could kill off humans if he had more of his kind to do it with him, thanks to his superhuman physical capabilities. The robots actually do take over and almost completely wipe out the entire human race (except for Alquist). Both have some kind of capability to take over mankind.
10) Created by humans/"god" figure
Both the creature and the robots were created by humans. This makes Victor Frankenstein and Rossum look like "god" figures. In fact, Rossum had the intentions of playing a god-like role by creating the robots, but Victor didn't necessarily care for that. He just wanted to decipher how to create new life, and he was successful.
11) Purpose of creation
The creature was created as Victor's experiment to find out how to breathe life into an inanimate being. Rossum's robots were created to do work for humans, in hopes that we would not have to work anymore.
12) Isolation/effect on the rest of the world
Both the creature and the robots were created in isolated areas. Victor closed himself off in his lab, and Rossum started on an island. (Young Rossum also locked Old Rossum up in his lab for a long time, which is another example of isolation.) However, both the creature and the robots greatly affected the outside world. The creature murdered a number of innocent people, and the robots murdered all humans on the planet (except for Alquist).
13) Treatment
The creature was not treated like a human, mostly because of his gigantic and monstrous stature. The robots were treated as (and created to be) slaves, constantly doing work for the humans. Both were not treated equally compared to humans, ending in chaos. The creature torments Victor by killing his loved ones after Victor refuses to make him a female companion. Rossum's robots rebel against their human creators/authorities, and end up killing off the entire human race.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Frankenstein: What does it mean to be human?
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, one of the major topics is what defines and qualifies a being as a human. Victor Frankenstein’s creature is not human because it was created, not born, has a non-humanlike appearance, and has superhuman abilities.
Victor Frankenstein describes the process of his creation, hoping that he “might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at his [my] feet” (38). The creature’s “dull yellow eye” (38) opens, and “a convulsive motion agitated its limbs” (39). The creature was created by Victor, and is therefore not human. Humans are thought to have been created through evolution and by the course of natural events on Earth over the past millions of years, not by the hands of a human himself.
The creature’s appearance is definitely not that of a regular human being, which causes it to be shunned and detested by humans that it encounters. It describes itself as “endowed with a figure hideously deformed and loathsome” (96) and knows that it is “not even of the same nature as man” (96). Even the creature can tell that it is not human, because of the difference in its appearance and in the way people respond to it.
The possession of superhuman abilities makes the creature seem even less humanlike. It tells of its own capabilities in contrast to those of humans: “I was more agile than they, and could subsist upon coarser diet; I bore the extremes of heat and cold with less injury to my frame; my stature far exceeded theirs. When I looked around, I saw and heard of none like me” (96). Because of the complexity of the human body, there are many restrictions and limitations to what humans can physically do. However, the creature is able to do many things that humans cannot do, which makes him different from people.
The origin of life is a topic that has been debated for almost a century. Most scientists agree that there was once a common ancestor that all humans share; that common ancestor links all humans genetically and scientifically. However, the creature’s origin of life does not involve this common ancestor, because it is merely Victor’s creation. Its body parts came from humans, but that does not imply that it is actually a human being. Even in appearance and in abilities, the creature is very unlike humans—it is over a foot taller than the average human man, does not depend on nutritious and specific foods, and can withstand extreme conditions with little to no damage to its body. The human body is so complex and intricate that Victor must not have been able to exactly clone a human being. Therefore, the creature cannot be human, due to its very unusual characteristics and physical features.
Victor Frankenstein describes the process of his creation, hoping that he “might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at his [my] feet” (38). The creature’s “dull yellow eye” (38) opens, and “a convulsive motion agitated its limbs” (39). The creature was created by Victor, and is therefore not human. Humans are thought to have been created through evolution and by the course of natural events on Earth over the past millions of years, not by the hands of a human himself.
The creature’s appearance is definitely not that of a regular human being, which causes it to be shunned and detested by humans that it encounters. It describes itself as “endowed with a figure hideously deformed and loathsome” (96) and knows that it is “not even of the same nature as man” (96). Even the creature can tell that it is not human, because of the difference in its appearance and in the way people respond to it.
The possession of superhuman abilities makes the creature seem even less humanlike. It tells of its own capabilities in contrast to those of humans: “I was more agile than they, and could subsist upon coarser diet; I bore the extremes of heat and cold with less injury to my frame; my stature far exceeded theirs. When I looked around, I saw and heard of none like me” (96). Because of the complexity of the human body, there are many restrictions and limitations to what humans can physically do. However, the creature is able to do many things that humans cannot do, which makes him different from people.
The origin of life is a topic that has been debated for almost a century. Most scientists agree that there was once a common ancestor that all humans share; that common ancestor links all humans genetically and scientifically. However, the creature’s origin of life does not involve this common ancestor, because it is merely Victor’s creation. Its body parts came from humans, but that does not imply that it is actually a human being. Even in appearance and in abilities, the creature is very unlike humans—it is over a foot taller than the average human man, does not depend on nutritious and specific foods, and can withstand extreme conditions with little to no damage to its body. The human body is so complex and intricate that Victor must not have been able to exactly clone a human being. Therefore, the creature cannot be human, due to its very unusual characteristics and physical features.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Reponse to "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce
In Ambrose Bierce’s short story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, he uses a random, non-chronological order of events and shifts in the point of view to add suspense and keep the reader interested. The story opens in the third person objective point of view, allowing the reader to take in the setting and situation in a general sense before seeing it from the main character’s point of view. Through close detail in describing the setting, Bierce makes the reader able to picture all of the events and the serious, grave atmosphere at the bridge.
At the end of part one, the story slowly transitions into part two in that the point of view begins to switch to third person subjective, showing Peyton Farquhar’s last thoughts. In part two, we are “brought back in time”, and it feels like reading a storybook that begins with the cliché phrase, “Once upon a time…”, as the author brings us into the background information behind the scene that was just presented in part one. Chronologically, part two should go before part one, but it slowly and gradually makes the reader more aware of the situation, while Bierce gives us the background information piece by piece. It is as if he wants to lure the reader in by grabbing his or her attention and keeping him or her hooked on the story, by providing moments that may cause a spark in the reader’s brain and link the many fragments and pieces of the story together.
In part three, Farquhar keeps imagining ways to escape his execution. Again, through strong detail and descriptions of Farquhar’s elaborate thoughts, the author makes it so that the reader feels as though Farquhar is really escaping. The point of view in this part is entirely in third person subjective. The non-chronological sequence of events can be a bit confusing to the reader, because there is simply so much going on. Then, the author holds this bit of confusion and the suspense until the very last sentence, when he finally reveals to the reader that these plans of escape were merely in Farquhar’s head—he was executed and the story ends quite abruptly.
At the end of part one, the story slowly transitions into part two in that the point of view begins to switch to third person subjective, showing Peyton Farquhar’s last thoughts. In part two, we are “brought back in time”, and it feels like reading a storybook that begins with the cliché phrase, “Once upon a time…”, as the author brings us into the background information behind the scene that was just presented in part one. Chronologically, part two should go before part one, but it slowly and gradually makes the reader more aware of the situation, while Bierce gives us the background information piece by piece. It is as if he wants to lure the reader in by grabbing his or her attention and keeping him or her hooked on the story, by providing moments that may cause a spark in the reader’s brain and link the many fragments and pieces of the story together.
In part three, Farquhar keeps imagining ways to escape his execution. Again, through strong detail and descriptions of Farquhar’s elaborate thoughts, the author makes it so that the reader feels as though Farquhar is really escaping. The point of view in this part is entirely in third person subjective. The non-chronological sequence of events can be a bit confusing to the reader, because there is simply so much going on. Then, the author holds this bit of confusion and the suspense until the very last sentence, when he finally reveals to the reader that these plans of escape were merely in Farquhar’s head—he was executed and the story ends quite abruptly.
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