Mid-Term Exam Essay

The Question: "Through a close reading of the texts, compare how Shelley’s Frankenstein and Stoker’s Dracula treat the concept of scientific/technological advancements. What is the relation between science/technology and the horrific activities within each gothic novel?"
Question posed by Prof. Chris Vaccaro.

The Answer:
At the beginning of time, there may have been a point at which technology has been a grand thing. As far as we know, no one looked at the wheel and exclaimed it the work of the devil– not that they knew what a devil was in those days. However, fire probably did have such a reputation. Even today, warnings against technological advancement exist. Movies such as Jurassic Park and GATTACA seek to point these terrors out. Articles in even scientific journals tell us that while some things might be cool that cloning mammoths and smilodon (saber-tooth cats) are not exactly at the top of the list in terms of safety, even if it is possible. Some of us may think that these warnings are brand new, but novels such as Dracula by Bram Stoker and Frankenstein by Mary Shelly will prove many people wrong. Ludite propaganda has been around for a while. Science and technology, while sometimes seen in a good light in Dracula, is something that people feared when both of these books came out, a theme that continues into today.

Dracula is a good place to start for many reasons. One of these is simply the fact that while there, the warnings against technological advancement are fewer and further between here. Many of these technological advancements are easier to see when you take the vampire out of Dracula and dump him elsewhere. Blood transfusions, a barely developing technology is used in more modern vampire fiction than any other– Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, the “Buffy’ verse” , and Dead After Dark by Charlaine Harris, just to name a few. A blood transfusion is one of the few times through out the entire text that we see modernity as being a good thing.

However, once you get past blood transfusion in the first place, technology just seems like a bad idea. You’re fighting an ancient, possibly immortal (depending on your definition) creature. Turns out that in these situations, the older the object (and apparently the more holy– though this could also be an age reference), the better it is for defeating a vampire. What are the ways to kill a vampire and how are these related to age? Crosses and sunlight are directly linked to God, which some might consider the true immortal because he cannot die. Stakes and garlic are firmly rooted in the earth, which most believe to be older than anything present on it. A beheading would separate the vital thinking part from the rest of the brain. Whether or not that has anything to do with immortality remains to be seen, though I assume it’s a bit hard to exist as just a head. Then again, the older the weapon used to behead, the better, right? (I wonder if anyone should have told Buffy this before she tried to behead a vamp with a car door.) Sunlight, the last one, is linked to the only thing other than God that is ever considered older than earth. All considered, we still have yet to look at a piece of literature that is more likely to point out the dangers of modern technology.

While Count Dracula had existed for some very long and unknown amount of time, Doctor Frankenstein is at fault for the creation of his creature. We all know this. Doctor Frankenstein knows this. Even Mary Shelly knows this (thought I suppose to her, it’s much more obvious). Frankenstein is one of the first ever books to point out the problems with creating life. There is a slight undertone here of the dangers of creating life naturally, but the real argument is creating life unnaturally. While the method at the time was scientifically unsound, the idea remained. What would happen if you could create life like this? We continue to watch, read, and hear warnings of this kind. Jurassic Park made it pretty clear, and the current arguments in the science world over the morality of creating smilodon, mammoths, giant sloth, and even Neandertals rings true for Mary Shelley’s original argument. Power gained from science corrupts. “If the study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections, and to destroy your taste for those simple pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, then that study is certainly unlawful, that is to say, not befitting the human mind.” (33) This is a standard that must be maintained in all circumstances, because as far as technology goes, that is the real way to judge if you are going just a bit too far. Then again, with modern standards today, this might be just a little too difficult for some people to tell.

If anything, for it’s age, Frankenstein is one of the best loved and most referenced cautionary tales. Perhaps had a Doctor Frankenstein really existed, the cautionary tale would be more closely listened to. And yet, here we are, in an age where science is such a part of our lives that even the common individual would think scientific pursuits a good idea. Perhaps even a real Doctor Frankenstein’s story would be ignored in this day and age. The ludite propaganda is seen again and again through out history, and yet we never seem to listen. Most recently, and of particular pertinence as it came from England, was a couple of episodes of Doctor Who in which the inception of the cybermen was introduced. The ideas that had been planted in their heads combined with emotional inhibitors had made it possible for these human 2.0s to exist. However, this was again a cautionary tale. What technology can do– eliminating gender and death so that every human is the same– takes out the malleability factor. When the emotional inhibitor was disabled, the cybermen would die because they knew what they had become and their reaction to it caused them to lose their will to live. History repeats, cautionary tales repeat, we ourselves repeat our past mistakes. So why not step back and listen for once, even to a story as old as Frankenstein. We could learn some very valuable lessons.
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The quote is from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Norton Critical Edition, Copyright 1996.