Outline

Nohemi Hernandez

Guerrero

February 25, 2009

Humanities

Outline:

I. Thesis: In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, we see how the invention of someone could affect the whole world we live in, humanity itself could extinguish and our initiative to have machines do things for us could be to blame.

II. Intro: Look at the world around us, each day new technology comes up, new cell phones, the new iPod, cooking utensils, cars and crazy machines you didn’t think you needed but when you see it, you want it, because life could be better if you had it.

a. Explain industrial Revolution, introduce it:

i. Though the Industrial Revolution is usually related to the human species altering the way they live by creating things, the Industrial Revolution also divided classes and it’s framework of existence. For example…[people work; changes](Hinshaw, vii)

b. Mary Shelley’s interpretation:

i. Shelley introduces us to Victor Frankenstein’s life. A man of science. Victor is fascinated by the promise of science and new inventions. He creates life, fueled by arrogance: “A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me.” (Shelley, 51)

c. Victor’s obsession to create a being that will owe life to him (Shelley,51)

d. Destruction to all his family thanks to his arrogance, selfishness and secrecy.

III. Body: Historical Background; Consist of the application of new sources of power to the production process.

a. Increase amount of specialization & organization which led to coordination growth in work unit: constituted the organizational care of the Industrial Revolution

i. Victor’s creation is supposed to be a superior being, smarter, faster and powerful.

b. 2 Central Features: Revolutions in technology and in the organizations of production.

c. Economic and social transformations

ii. The creation is run loose in the world and is spying on some cottagers he has found, trying to talk and acts like them. It is from these people that he learns to read, talk and fully understand humans. Though when he presents himself to them they reject him and he angers at his deformity. He goes from being a creature with no knowledge living under a tree, to an intellectual being that constructed his own home using the resources among him.

IV. Conclusion

a. Positive and negative effects of Industrial Revolution (Urbanization vs. Child Labor and Pollution)

b. How did The Creature affect Victor’s life and his surroundings