Dr. Frankenstein as Scientific Hubris

I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the Thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful Engine, show signs of life and stir with an uneasy, half-vital motion. Frightful must it be, for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world. His success would terrify the artist; he would rush away from his odious handiwork, horror-stricken. He would hope that, left to itself, the slight spark of Life which he had communicated would fade; that this Thing, which had received such imperfect animation, would subside into dead matter; that he might sleep in the belief that the silence of the grave would quench forever the transient existence of the hideous corpse which he had looked upon as the cradle of life. He sleeps; but he is awakened; he opens his eyes; behold! the horrid Thing stands at his bedside, opening his curtains and looking on him with yellow, watery, but speculative eyes.

Notes:

From the author's introduction to her book.

Folksonomies: science antiscience hubris

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Frankenstein

Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Shelley , Mary Wollstonecraft (1994-09-06), Frankenstein, Univ of California Pr, Retrieved on 2012-01-02

Source Material [books.google.com]

Folksonomies: fiction science fiction