Unkind Society (Analysis of Frankenstein and R.U.R)
It is extremely necessary for an individual to remain connected with the society in his life including family, friends, community, and strangers. In this way, the social environment offers him the kindness and consideration to enjoy a sense of belonging in his social circle. However, if a person is not accepted by society, what happens? In this paper, I will explain how authors use literature to show the effect of lacking the sense of belonging in society. Both Frankenstein and R. U. R (Rossum’s Universal Robots) are complex creatures demonstrating an unusual structure and ambience in the novel. In Frankenstein, the three narrators are Victor Frankenstein, the scientist; his creation, the monster; and Robert Walton, relaying all the stories to his sister by letter. The dialogue shows the R. U. R as a particular form of theatre style.
In addition, the effect of an unkind society is clear. Rejecting an individual always result in that person’s negativity towards the society. The disastrous birth, suffering and guilt of the monster is also explained by Frankenstein. After the monster left Frankenstein’s home, he found a family living in a cottage on which he could spy unseen. His anger inflamed after he experienced the direct rejection from this ideal family when he finally picked up the courage to approach them. He states, “And should I feel kindness towards my enemies? No: from that moment I declared everlasting war against the species, and, more than all” (Shelley, 2012). As a result, he becomes the hunter and began a journey to hunt his creator. According to the monster, his creator gave him up and then the ideal family also rejected him. Those behaviors led to the lack of the sense of belonging. He felt alone and unaccepted but desired to find a group with similar features and experiences. After the failure of his desire, he started accusing his creator - Frankenstein. This whole experience describes the whole process of a person’s destruction. According to Bertrand Russell’s perspective, “Frankenstein’s monster is not, as he has become in proverbial parlance, a mere monster: he is, at first, a gentle being, longing for human affection, but he is driven to hatred and violence by the horror which his ugliness inspires in those whose love he attempts to gain” (Russell, 1979). The descriptions of both Frankenstein and the monster explain how a kind society provides the sense of belonging and how important it is to a person.
It is said that “to err is human, but to really mess things up you need a computer” (“Fantasy at large”, 2015). This quote is popular in computer sciences meaning that people can get the best help from the computer. However, machine has the trend as similar as human of providing both better and worse results. They can speak different types of language and answer human questions like “Siri”. However, can human treat Robots as their members? If not, what is the consequence when the robots are not accepted by human society? R. U.R describes this situation that how an unkind society lead robots to become killers. From the perspective of different narrators, the readers can feel the experiences of the real situations of robots living in an environment filled with rejection. One of the best examples in this regards is as follows:
Helena: Yes.
Domin: That’s good. But a working machine must not play the piano, must not feel happy, must not do a whole lot of other things. A gasoline motor must not have tassels or ornaments, Miss GloryMechanically they are more perfect than we are, they have an enormously developed intelligence, but they have no soul” (Capek, 2001).
Usually, robots are considered man-made machines with faces like human beings. However, this does not make them equivalent to humans as they do not have soul and emotions. They are just the products of factories to help human increase productivity. By definition: “'Robota' in Czech means work, 'rabota' in various Slavic languages also means hard work or servitude, from the old root 'rab' meaning serf or slave” (“Fantasy at large”, 2015). No one thinks that robots are the members of human species or enjoy human rights. For the same reason, R.U.R describes how this experience led robots to the road of becoming killers.
Robots are also treated in several other ways. For example:
“Domin: take Sulla into the dissecting room, and tell them to open her up at once.
Helena: Where?
Domin: Into the dissecting room. When they’ve cut her open” (Capek, 2001).
All things considered, the representation of killers in Frankenstein and R.U.R reflects how the authors use two different literature forms to describe an unkind society. This social discrimination of an ugly creature and robots made them killers in the end. It can be concluded that giving respect to others is really important as everyone enjoys a certain position in the society.
References
Capek, K. (2001). R. U. R. (Dover Thrift ed.). Dover Publications. Print.
“Fantasy at large--a true history of science fiction and moral imagination in the works of Karel Capek”. (2015, January 1). Retrieved April 6, 2016, from http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Fantasy at large--a true history of science fiction and moral-a0397453711
Russell, B. (1979). History of Western philosophy: And its connection with political and social circumstances from the earliest times to the present day. London: Unwin.
Shelley, M. (2012). Frankenstein (Broadview Editions ed.). North America: Broadview Press.
