Mary Shelleys Frankenstein - The Individual and Society Essay

Frankenstein The Individual and Society The creatures ambiguous humanity has long puzzled readers of Mary Shelleys Frankenstein. In this essay I will focus on how Frankenstein can be used to explore twain philosophical topics, social contract theory, and gender roles, in light of ideas from Shelleys two philosophical p bents, William Godwin, and Mary Wollstonecraft. What Does it Mean to be Human? Individual and Society One historically important tradition in social and political doctrine is called Social Contract Theory. It gives a way of thinking about what it means to be human, raising fundamental questions such as what is human nature, in itself, asunder from society? Are people fundamentally equal, and if so, why, in what ways? What justifies organisational authority? In what sense be people free and independent if their lives are ruled by laws and governmental authorities? Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), and John Locke (1632-1704), were English philosophers who approache d these questions by hypothesizing a state of nature. Try to imagine what a person would be like if he or she lived outside of any governed society. Hobbes thought that people would be isolated, desperately afraid of harm from others. Life would be, in Hobbes memorable phrase, poore, solitary, nasty, lascivious and short. Locke wasnt quite so pessimistic. He thought that in the state of nature, people would be fairly sociable, and would establish private property and trade. Both Hobbes and Locke thought that peril in the state of nature would lead people to join together and give to a governmental authority the right to make laws and punish offenders. Hence, for them, government is based on a social contrac... ...manly virtues are, in fact, weaknesses. Wollstonecraft insists, The most perfect education, in my opinion, is such an exercise of the understanding as is best calculated to spike the body and form the heart....It is a farce to call any being virtuous whose virtues do no t result from the exercise of its own reason (103). When women are socialized to be feminine, when their reasoning powers are not developed, and when they have no option but to be economically dependent on men, their characters will call on perverted, and they will become servile or manipulative. Works Cited Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Emile. 1762. translated by William Boyd, New York Columbia University, 1956. Shelley, Mary. 1818. Frankenstein. New York W.W. Norton & Co., 1996. Wollstonecraft, Mary. 1792. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. New York Penguin Books, 1992.