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DIVERSITY/PHYSICAL DISABILITY
We are programmed by nature to be wary, and even afraid, of things that are strange to us. Therefore knowledege is necessary to overcome our natural insticts and prejudices when faced with diversity. Knowledege can come from exsperience or can be passed on by teachers, parents, friends or various media.
Mary Shelley's monster demonstrates perfectly the common attitude to diversity when even the monster's creator runs off in terror from what he has made. Victor's instinctive reaction is caused by his lack of knowledge and understanding. In this version of the story by Arcadia Productons it is Mary Shelley who tells him that he must look below the surface and explore what is undermeath, that the physical appearance is only one aspect of a "creature" and that the most important part cannot be seen.
IMMATURITY AND IRRESPONSIBILTY
In Shelley's novel, Victor is a young medical student,but also a spoilt young man and he is immature in many of his thoughts and decisions. As a matter of fact when the Creature comes to life Victor is horrified by its appearance, and runs out of the room. He is like a child who doesn't understand the consequences of his actions. He leaves the Creauture alone in the world, a few days old instead of taking care of him and educating him: the Creature means nothing to Victor, as a matter of fact he never gives him a name or any sort of identity.
ETHICS
One of themes running though the novel is ethics that is the discipline concerned with what is morally good and bad, right and wrong. The book poses a dramatic question which still holds nowadays : the moral responsability of the scientist when his discoveries go beyond his capacity of control i.e. when he finds himself exploring the limits of human knowledge.
SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES
Mary Shelley was influenced by the scientific discoveries of the first part of the nineteenth century. The English novelist followed above all the principles of Galvani.During these years the term "galvanism" was very used because electricity was considered a mysterious power, with which it would have been possible to give again life to dead.
Galvani, Luigi (1737 -- 1798)
Physiologist, born in Bologna, Italy. He studied at Bologna, where he became professor of anatomy (1762). Investigating the effects of electrostatic stimuli applied to the muscle fibre of frogs, he discovered he could also make the muscle twitch by touching the nerve with various metals without a source of electrostatic charge, and greater reaction was obtained when two dissimilar metals were used. He attributed the effect to "animal electricity'. His work inspired his friend Volta, leading to the production of the electrical battery, and also initiated research into electrophysiology. The galvanometer is named after him.