The Fear Of Science Essay Research Paper

The Fear Of Science Essay, Research Paper

The Fear of Science

To live in the today’s world is to be surrounded by the products of

science. For it is science that gave our society color television, the

bottle of aspirin, and the polyester shirt. Thus, science has greatly

enhanced our society; yet, our society are still afraid of the effect of

science. This fear of science can be traced back to the nineteenth century

where scientist had to be secretative in experimenting with science.

Although science did wonders in the nineteenth century, many people feared

science and its effects because of the uncertainty results of science.

Our thrist for science can be traced back through many decades.

However, the nineteenth century society felt that science was a great

investment towards a better life. This investment in science gave the

nineteenth century society the discovery of light waves and radio waves,

the electric motors, the first photograph and telephone, and the first

publication of the periodic table. Science also caused an uproar in

society when Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species, which became

the scientific basis for the study of the evolution of humans. Many people

in the nineteenth century detested Darwin’s theory of the evolution of man

because it went against their religion, which believed that God created the

world. Science, soon, developed the big bang theory, which states that

earth was created by the attraction of atoms. The nineteenth century

society was afraid of science because it contradicted their beliefs, and

was afraid that the results of science would lead to the destruction of

mankind. Thus, the study of science was limited because of fear of its

effects.

The fear of the effects of science was expressed in literature.

Novels like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the Time Machine, and Frankenstein

showed the dangers of science and that science would soon lead to the

destruction of mankind.

The novel Frankenstein is about a man name Victor Frankenstein who

wanted to tamper with life and death by “exploring unknown powers, and

unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation.” (Frankenstein, pg.40)

He acquired the knowledge of science when he attended the university of

Ingolstadt, and once the knowledge of science was gained, Frankenstein went

to his secret laboratory to create a creature with gigantic stature. At

first, Frankenstein had doubts about creating a human being; however, with

“the improvement which every day takes place in science and mechanics, [he]

was encouraged to hope [his] present attempts would at least lay the

foundation of future success.” (Frankenstein, pg.47) Once Frankenstein

created his human being, his dream was vanished because he had accomplished

his dream. His dream of creating a human being soon turned into a nightmare.

For Frankenstein created a monster who had no identity, and was willing to

murder all of Frankenstein’s loved ones if Frankenstein did not create

another female creature. Victor Frankenstein refused to create another

female monster to accompany his monster. Thus, the monster felt that he had

no choice but to take away Frankenstein’s family, just to show how Victor

Frankenstein would feel being alone in the world. The murder of William

Frankenstein (Victor’s younger brother) caused Victor to believe that his

own creature had murdered his younger brother because “nothing in human

shape could have destroyed that fair child.” (Frankenstein, pg.74)

Frankenstein knew from then on that he had “turned loose into the world a

depraved wretch, whose delight was in carnage and misery.” (Frankenstein, pg.74)

Frankenstein’s monster caused “the death of William, the execution of

Justine (a servant of the Frankenstein since childhood, who was framed by

Frankenstein’s monster), the murder of Clerval (Frankenstein’s closes friend

since childhood) and lastly [Victor's] wife (Elizabeth Lavenza).”

(Frankenstein, pg.213) Frankenstein not only blamed the murders of his

loved ones on his monster, he blamed himself for creating the monster.

Throughout Frankenstein, the words “friend, monster, daemon, vile insect,

enemy, and abhorred devil” were used by Frankenstein to describe the monster

which he had created. In a way, the monster is protrayed as science and

Frankenstein’s fear of and hatred towards the monster or science is

expressed throught Frankenstein. Thus, Frankenstein is a novel which

proved to society that science is dangerous. That, we should not tamper with

life using science since it will only lead to disaster.

Another novel which expressed society’s hatred and fear of science

through literature is the Time Machine. The story is about a Time Traveller

who believed that there was no difference between Time and any of the three

dimensions of space except that th

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