FRANKENSTEIN

English gothic novel, written by

Mary Shelley
published in 1818

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 Introduction
Gothic novels focus on the mysterious or supernatural take place in dark, often
exotic, settings. Frankenstein is the first science fiction novel

He was very often used in the cinema (more than 80 times) only to frighten and
usually the focus is on this monster who tries to kill his creative father and that
scares people

To Resume :
Dr Victor Frankenstein is a brilliant scientist, interested in natural philosophy,
electricity, chemistry and mathematics.
He is obsessed with the idea of gaining control over life and death, refusing the
limits of contemporary science.
He created a dæmon of gigantic proportion from assembled body parts taken
from graveyards, slaughterhouses and dissecting rooms, and was frightened
when he sees the fruit of his insane fantasy
Immediately after creating the monster, he falls into a depression and fear.
The monster's rejection from society pushes him to commit murders
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 PARTICULAR SUBJECT

I think Frankenstein is a perfect example of how science was perceived at the time when
electricity had just been started. It is a novel that deals with the drifts of science / progress
and the desire to be and to take oneself for God the Creator, to be stronger than nature by
pushing back its limits and which could have been written today instead of 200 years ago
This novel addresses a subject that is topical:

Should we allow all manipulations and their drifts in the name of

science?
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 PARTICULAR SUBJECT

If we make a parallel between the book and the current world:

 
1 - Can be assembled organs of different provenances : YES
In the book, Frankenstein makes a creature by assembling beautiful selected pieces
of body parts and piercing them with electric current.
Today, we are able to graft not only organs from other human beings but we begin to create
artificial organs and graft them.
The philosopher's stone could be the use of embryonic stem cell capable of
repairing any organ or bioficial organ making by 3D printers.
It could be possible to create, Individual functional morphologically adapted organs

ex : 3D Artificial Heart
 https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1np3sk_le-premier-coeur-bioficiel-dans-10-ans_news
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 PARTICULAR SUBJECT

2 - Can we give life back? NO

In the book, Professor Frankenstein revives his monster.
Today science does not allow this.
Nevertheless, in a study published in 2012, scientists were successful in
recovering mesenchymal stem cells (one of several types of adult stem cells)
from cadavers and recreating cartilage, bone and fat.
However, it is still far from being able to give life to an entire organism.  

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 PARTICULAR SUBJECT

3 - What are the risks of scientific drift today?  

"Only those who have experienced them can conceive the seductions of science.
Marie Shelley describes here perfectly the sirens that attract all the scientists.

In France, the laws of bio-ethics were created to limit the drifts. (2004 law)
• Cloning, reproductive or therapeutic, is prohibited.
• Research on embryos and embryonic cells is in principle prohibited.
 
Some countries have no laws or very different laws. In the United States, for example, a
team of researchers managed to clone a human embryo. It is currently only therapeutic
cloning;
The embryos are not reimplanted and are only used to create embryonic stem cell lines that
can subsequently perform cell therapy.
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 QUESTIONS TO THE CLASS

As sometimes in books or science fiction movies, reality catches up

with fiction!!!!

 Could genetic manipulations lead to this kind of creation?Doit on

tout autoriser au nom de la science?

 Can we consider that Dr. Frankenstein is more monstrous than his

creature?
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 Extract
 Extract chapter 17
  
 The being finished speaking and fixed his looks upon me in the expectation of a reply. But I was
bewildered, perplexed, and unable to arrange my ideas sufficiently to understand the full extent
of his proposition. He continued, "You must create a female for me with whom I can live in the
interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being. This you alone can do, and I demand it
of you as a right which you must not refuse to concede." The latter part of his tale had kindled
anew in me the anger that had died away while he narrated his peaceful life among the
cottagers, and as he said this I could no longer suppress the rage that burned within me. "I do
refuse it," I replied; "and no torture shall ever extort a consent from me. You may render me the
most miserable of men, but you shall never make me base in my own eyes. Shall I create another
like yourself, whose joint wickedness might desolate the world. Begone! I have answered you;
you may torture me, but I will never consent." "You are in the wrong," replied the fiend; "and
instead of threatening, I am content to reason with you. I am malicious because I am miserable.
Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind? You, my creator, would tear me to pieces and
triumph; remember that, and tell me why I should pity man more than he pities me? You would
not call it murder if you could precipitate me into one of those ice-rifts and destroy my frame,
the work of your own hands. Shall I respect man when he condemns me? Let him live with me in
the interchange of kindness, and instead of injury I would bestow every benefit upon him with
tears of gratitude at his acceptance. But that cannot be; the human senses are insurmountable
barriers to our union. Yet mine shall not be the submission of abject slavery. I will revenge my
injuries; if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear, and chiefly towards you my arch-enemy,
because my creator, do I swear inextinguishable hatred. Have a care; I will work at your 8
destruction, nor finish until I desolate your heart, so that you shall curse the hour of your birth."
 Videos

 Film 1931 :
 http://www.allocine.fr/video/player_gen_cmedia=19450267&cfilm=6038.htm
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 Film I Frankenstein 2014 :
 http://www.allocine.fr/video/player_gen_cmedia=19538461&cfilm=145721.h
tml