Levi Hawes

English 2600
Stephenson
12/4/2016
Consequences of Responsibility (or Lack Thereof)
Whether we are responsible for taking care of a family or an obligation to our
place of employment to complete the job we are paid to do, responsibility is
something that everyone has to come to terms with at some point in their lives. We
will be looking at and analyzing the stories of three scientists who had to take
responsibility for their work. Our hope is that you can glean some understanding
about it that you can apply to your own life.
Victor Frankenstein and His Monster
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, in the summer of 1816, traveled with her lover,
Percy Shelley, to the Swiss Alps where the weather kept them inside where they
entertained themselves by telling ghost stories. By request of their third companion
Lord Byron, each person present wrote their own original ghost story in a brief
competition to see who could write the best one. The story written by Mary
eventually became her most famous work, Frankenstein.
From Mary Shellys novel, the main character Victor Frankenstein was a
young and very bright scientist from Geneva, Switzerland. Growing up he was very
fascinated with natural science and chemistry and read many books pertaining to
these topics. These books however were outdated according to his father, yet he
didnt stop Victor from reading them. At the end of his childhood, Victor decided to
leave his home town of Geneva as well as his bride-to-be Elizabeth, to pursue his
studies at the University of Ingolstadt. While he attended the school, Victor became

fascinated with the properties that give life and after several years of study and
research and some encouragement from his professor M. Waldman, he was
determined that he had found the secret. With his newfound
knowledge in hand, Victor spent the following months
creating a being from old body parts with enormous
stature and strength with the goal of giving it life. In the
confines of his own apartment, Victor finally gives life to
his

creation and upon seeing the monstrosity that he

created, he fled in fear. Upon returning to his apartment, the creature is nowhere in
sight.
Abandoned and alone, the monster wanders and is forced to discover
everything about our world on his own like a child with no parent. He learns
language and emotion on his own but because of his monstrous form, people were
afraid of the creature, attacking it and driving it from their towns and villages.
Because of this rejection and misunderstanding the creature, in a fit of rage and
frustration, killed a young boy who happened to be William Frankenstein, the young
brother of his creator. As a consequence of this murder, a girl by the name of Justine
is accused and found guilty of the murder and sentenced to death. Following the
trial and execution of Justine, Victor takes a vacation to the mountains in attempts
to escape his guilt. While there, the creature tracks him down and makes a request
of his creator, that Victor should make a companion for the monster and that in turn
the monster will leave, never to return. Victor agrees at first but after months of
attempts, Victor cannot bring himself to make another monstrosity with no
knowledge beforehand of how it will act upon receiving life. With disappointment
and anger in his heart, the monster swears to meet Victor on his wedding night. So

after some time, Victor eventually marries his companion Elizabeth and on that
same night Victor believes that the monster will come to attack him, but in the end,
the monsters plan was to kill the last person that Victor cared about, Elizabeth.
Victor spends the remainder of his life chasing and hunting the monster, hoping to
end his own torment.
From the start, Victor had selfish intentions for creating
a monster and giving it life. And upon its creation, he
immediately abandoned it, leaving it to fend for itself. Victor
gains a self-loathing for creating the creature which leads to
his inevitable hatred for it. His tendency to avoid the creature
and procrastinate dealing with it leads to the monster literally
haunting Victor, destroying those around him and any chance
at happiness. Perhaps if Victor had decided to care for the
creature and teach it right from wrong as a parent would do with their child, the
monster may not have committed the murders that it did, leading to the ruin of
Victors own life. From the story, we learn that the creature has feelings and the
capacity to care for others.
Victor has a second chance in a way to take responsibility for his monster
when he is asked to create a companion for it. He could very well have made the
companion and sent it and the monster on their way, hopefully to never see them
again. However, the responsibility that he should have felt upon his first attempts at
creating life haunts him on his second attempt, forcing him in the end to decide
against creating the companion from the fear that it might be more destructive than
his original creation.

Victor isnt the only one at fault, however.

When beginning his study of alchemy and natural
science, Victors father and certain professors
dismiss the studies of alchemy as nonsense,
outdated, and a waste of time. Victor was very
fascinated with life and its origin, however, no one
took the time to tell Victor why the study of such topics could be dangerous. So
when Victor does turn to the study of modern science, his educators dont see that
his only interest in its study is to get around the impossibilities presented in
alchemy. All of the tragedy in Victors life could have been avoided if someone had
taken responsibility to properly teach Victor in his study of science.

The Grandson of Victor Frankenstein

The 1974 film Young Frankenstein starring Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle, and
Marty Feldman is an interesting take on the Frankenstein story and on the theme of
responsibility. Young Dr. Frederick Frankenstein
(Wilder) is the alleged grandson of Victor
Frankenstein and heir apparent of the
Frankenstein estate. Frederick is hesitant to
accept the inheritance because of the infamous
history of his family; he even goes as far as claiming that his last name is
pronounced Fronk-en-steen and at one point denounces any relation to Victor
Frankenstein. In the end, however, Frederick agrees to the terms of his inheritance
and moves to Transylvania to settle the affairs of the will of Baron von Frankenstein,
his great-grandfather.
Soon after his arrival, Frederick discovers his grandfathers secret lab and the
apparent location where Victor created his original monster, as well as his
instructions on how he did it. With the same curiosity and hunger for knowledge
that his grandfather had, Victor proceeds to
construct a monster of his own. Here we see
the first instance of responsibility, or rather,
irresponsibility. Frederick was well aware of
the consequences that faced his grandfather
when Victor gave life to a lifeless being but
the curiosity was too much for him once he discovered the lab and the way in which
he could bestow life to a dead entity and he went forward with his plan and created
a monster of his own.

This however is where Fredericks story deviates from that of Victor.

Sometime after animation, the second monster of Frankenstein (Boyle) burst into a
fit of rage attacking and destroying everything and everyone in sight. However,
upon hearing the sound of a violin, he was calmed and stopped in his destructive
path and fled into the night. At this point, Frederick realizes the mistake that he has
made, letting a monstrosity into the village and vows to track him down and return
him to the Frankenstein estate. Frederick
realizes that all his monster needs to avoid
becoming a murdering fiend is to be loved and
shown care. Frederick and his companions use
the violin music to lure the monster back to the
laboratory and deviate a plan to help the
monster and show (through a musical song and dance performance) that he is not
truly a monster to the other members of the village. The monster eventually finds
love of his own and lives a peaceful life. Thanks to the care and responsible nature
of Frederick Frankenstein, he was able to avoid the tragic outcome that befell his
grandfather before him. Frederick realized a way to save his creation and the
members of the village and took immediate action.
Ex-Machina: A Modern Frankenstein
The film Ex-Machina which was released in 2015 and was directed by Alex
Garland has a modern and futuristic take on some similar themes found in both
Mary Shellys Frankenstein as well as Young Frankenstein. The film stars Domhnall
Gleeson as Caleb Smith, a young programmer who works for the worlds biggest
search engine. Caleb finds out that he is the winner of an internal company
competition and his prize: spending a week with the brilliant founder of the

company, Nathan Bateman, played by Oscar Isaac. Caleb travels to Nathans

secluded home in the mountains which houses his personal research facility.
Upon arrival, Caleb finds that his boss brought him to the retreat in order to
perform a Turing test on Nathans state-ofthe-art robot
AI named
Ava (Alicia
Vikander),
Calebs task
being to determine whether or not Ava has gained
her own sense of sentience. Throughout the week,
Caleb is impressed with Ava and Nathans accomplishment and notes some
disturbing developments during his meetings with Nathan, including that there are
frequent power cuts. Ava, as it turns out, is the one creating the power cuts in order
to talk with Caleb without Nathans observance. Caleb eventually begins to have
feelings for Ava and after learning that Nathan plans to upgrade Ava and her AI
essentially killing her, plots to escape the facility with Ava by inebriating Nathan and
changing the security settings.
Nathan reveals that he has been watching the secret conversations between
Caleb and Ava via a battery powered camera. He claims that Ava had only been
pretending to like Caleb so that he would help her escape. He explains that this was
the test and that by manipulating Caleb in this way, Ava has demonstrated that she
has true intelligence. Nathan thinks that he has stopped their plan of escape by
refusing alcohol but Caleb had already completed the security changes when
Nathan was passed out drunk the day before. The power cuts, and Ava escapes

eventually killing Nathan, trapping Caleb behind a locked door, and escaping into
the real world with the appearance of a real woman.
In this film, Nathan believes that he is
creating something that is revolutionary and
inventive that will launch humanity into a new
era. However, he makes it obvious that he has
his own selfish intentions in doing so. He
ignores the fact that there is danger in creating a sentient AI that has human like
tendencies in order to push his personal agenda and ambition. Nathan, similarly to
the two Frankensteins, has a responsibility to his creation as well as mankind to
protect both parties from each other. His initial plan in wiping Ava and upgrading
her AI was indeed the smart and responsible thing to do but because Ava has
human-like AI, she has an unpredictability that is dangerous and Nathan didnt
account for it, leading to his own demise while trying to contain Ava.
Similarly, Nathan was irresponsible by bringing in another human for his
testing purposes. He brought innocent Caleb
into his world and used him without
disclosing his initial intent. Caleb also should
feel responsible for the outcome of this story
because of his willingness to overlook the
aspects of the tests that he recognized as
dangerous. He could very well have finished his week with Nathan and Ava and
went on his way, allowing Nathan to wipe and upgrade Avas AI avoiding any
tragedy in the process. His selfishness, mirrored with Nathans, and his feelings for
Ava distracted him from what was a dangerous situation.

Works Consulted
Ex Machina. Dir. Alex Garland. Perf. Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, and Oscar
Isaac. Film.
Biography.com Editors. "Mary Shelley Biography." The Biography.com Website. A&E
Television Networks, n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.
Marchant, Brent. "'Ex Machina' Probes Creative Responsibility | VividLife.me."
VividLife.me. N.p., 01 May 2015. Web. 29 Nov. 2016.

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

Young Frankenstein: A Mel Brooks Film. Dir. Mel Brooks. Perf. Gene Wilder, Peter
Boyle, and Marty Feldman. Film.