Child Favoritism Essay

Do parents really have a favorite child? According to â€Å"The Science of Favoritism† by Jeffrey Kluger, yes, parents do have a favorite child although they try very hard to hide it. This article is about parents having a favorite child and the science behind it. It also talks about how nature plays a role in child favoritism, how favoritism is influenced by gender, and what it feels like to be the second best. Not only does Jeffrey Kluger bring up great points throughout his article but he has many examples of real life situations from interviewing people. For example, when going and actually watching various siblings and parents, Catherine Conger, found that â€Å"70% of fathers and 65% of mothers actually do have a favorite child† (Kluger 44-50). She says that â€Å"these numbers are probably even higher because parents try very hard to try and hide their favoritism† (Kluger 44-50). The author relates child favoritism to how it works in nature. Parents want their kids to be the best and most successful out of all the other kids. Just like with animals, parents will pick the strongest, healthiest child to be the favorite and this is mainly because of genes and reproduction. Douglas Mock says that â€Å"we are like the black-eagle who has more than one kid for insurance purposes† (Kluger 44-50). The second or third child would be considered insurance in case the first kid is not strong or smart enough, but if the first child is superior then the policy is terminated. With gender roles in favoritism, the author states that the mother may pick the first son as her favorite and the father may pick the youngest daughter as his favorite. Douglas Mock shows many examples of how this is true and writes that girls will follow in their father’s footsteps where as the boys will follow in their mother’s footsteps. When talking about being second best, the article shows how not being the favorite is very hard on a child. Clare Stocker did a study on 136 sibling pairs and found that the child being loved the less will usually develop depression and low self-esteem. This doesn’t mean that that most favored child will always be the most successful. Child favoritism can also damage the favorite child because they may be used to getting everything and may not develop certain skills. I find all this evidence very compelling, and being the second child and youngest of two sons, I believe a lot of what this article says is true. I also think a lot of it depends upon who the parents are and I don’t totally agree with some of the points made. Yes, my brother is bigger and stronger, but I am probably healthier and smarter. We both have our perfections and we both have our flaws but I would say we are both equal. That doesn’t mean our parents don’t have favorites, because I’m sure they do but I would say it changes from time to time. This article can be used by many people but there is a specific audience that can really benefit from reading this article. I would say the author was trying to reach either young couples thinking about starting a family, couples that have recently started a family, or couples that have already gone through parenting. He would try to reach young couples either thinking about a family or young couples that just started a family because it would be helpful for them to know this information and would hopefully lead to better parenting and decision making so their kids, either the second best or even the favorite, don’t end up totally damaged. The author would also be trying to reach couples that have gone through parenting and all their kids are grown up because maybe they need to help the child that wasn’t loved as much. I think that the author effectively addressed the target audience especially with all the stories and research he found and put in the article. Work Cited Kluger, Jeffrey. â€Å"Why Mom Liked You Best: The Science of Favoritism.† Time. 02 10 2011: 44-50. Print.

Jose Rizal: Reaction Paper Essay

Jose Protacio Mercado Alonzo y Realonda Rizal (June 19, 1861 – Dec 30, 1896) Is most venerated and acclaimed patriot in the Philippines recognized for his unselfish contribution in the historical and social transformation in the country, he is one of the National heroes of the Philippines together with Andres Bonifacio. He also writes El Filibusterismo and Noli me Tangere. Rizal as a child was a lover of a Literature arts and wrote a poem named â€Å"Ang aking mga kabata† . Rizal was born from wealthy Family in Calamba, Laguna and Seventh of eleven children of Francisco engracio Rizal and Teodora Alonzo Realonda de Quintos. Rizal had a Spanish and Japanese Ancestors. The grandfather and father of Teodora was a Half Spaniard engineer named Lorenzo Alberto Alonzo. His maternal great-great-grandfather was Eugenio Ursua, a descendant of Japanese settlers. Before he enrolled in Ateneo Municipal de Manila, Paciano Rizal advice Rizal dropped the last three names to make up his full name as â€Å"Jose Protasio Rizal†. Rizal writes â€Å"My family never paid much attention [to our second surname Rizal], but now I had to use it, thus giving me the appearance of an illegitimate child† Rizal first study under Justiniano Aquino Cruz in Binan, Laguna. Before he sent in manila he take entrance examination in Colegio de San Juan de Letran and at age 11, He enrolled at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila (now Ateneo de Manila), earn a Bachelor of Arts diploma and studied medicine at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, he continued his studies of medicine in Universidad Central de Madrid in Madrid, Spain, earning the degree of Licentiate in Medicine, make him eligible to practice medicine. He also attended the University of Paris and earned and second doctorate at the University of Heidelberg. The 25 year-old Rizal he finished eye specialization in 1887 under professor Otto Becker. By 1896 he was arrested en route to Cuba via Spain and imprisoned in Barcelona. He was sent back to manila to stand in trial and imprisoned in Fort Santiago by issued a manifesto. And sentence in death by court martial by Rebillion, sedition and conspiracy. At December 30, 1896 before his execution by the squad of Filipino soldier of Spanish, a backup force of regular Spanish army stood ready to shoot before he was shot he requested to be shot in looking at the  shooter and without a blindfold but they disagree but they agree on without a blindfold. Before be shot he shout his last word â€Å"consummatum est† (â€Å"it is finished) He was secretly buried in Paco cemetery in Manila with no identification on his grave but they mark the site with â€Å"RPJ† his initials in reve rse.. â€Å"He who does not love his own language is worse than an animal and smelly fish† -Jose Rizal – This quotes means if we use our own language to communicate with the same Filipino we will understand what we talk and to share. But we use other language to communicate to other countries to share ideas and talk to them.

Happy Ending by Margaret Atwood Essay

In this essay, I examine the short story, â€Å"Happy Endings,† by Margaret Atwood and how the Canadian author tackled the topic of love and the different ways it is portrayed in relationships and marriage, as well as examined writing styles as used in the story. For my conclusion, I will elaborate on the importance of love and romance in making marriages last as well as emphasize on the cruciality of coming up with an original and authentic literary work. In this story, Atwood focused on both the mechanics of writing and the effects of gender stereotyping, as well as challenged writers who rely on the stereotypical characterization of men and women and to the reader who accepts such gender typing. At the same time, she challenged other writers to more closely examine typical literary convention. Happy Endings has six story versions that present a different scenario of what Through analysis of â€Å"Happy Endings† by Margaret Atwood happens to the main characters, John, Mary, Madge and Fred. Three main themes surface from this story. These themes are that the story depicts middle-class values; portrays marriage and romance; and illustrates writing conventions. Touching on middle-class values, Atwood represents these values in her story as an element of the society. In doing so, the characters in the story manifest them even in the more troublesome aspects of the stories. In tackling marriage and romance, the story revolves around the fulfillment that marriage brings. Using material success and ease of life as the criteria to define a successful marriage, John and Mary certainly have built one. Romance, on the other hand, also emerges as an important theme. The various versions of the story mimic the trajectory of cliched romance novels, which end with the hero and the heroine living happily ever after. Atwood also parodies some typical plots of romantic novels, which include murder, suicide, infidelity, and disease. Lastly, Atwood also dealt with writing conventions in the story by way of experimentation. Atwood’s text in the story is self-referential as she explicitly refers to events that have happened earlier on, as well as the mechanics and elements of writing. Both directly and indirectly, Atwood addresses the whole notion of how an author develops a story. In addition, Atwood’s work also challenges writers to compose authentic works. From the above information and opinions, I conclude that for a more different and effective way of writing, authenticity is important for writers to value. I also conclude that love in marriage or any kind of relationship needs romance to be its companion in order for these relationships to last as romance is the oil that keeps friction from wearing out the relationship. References BookRags and Thomson Gale. (2006). Happy endings study guide. Retrieved February 28, 2008, from http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-happyendings/

Outsourcing Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Outsourcing - Term Paper Example For instance, a company may outsource non-strategic functions to companies that specialize in such fields of work. Additionally, outsourcing also includes the transferring of assets and employees to another firm. The term outsourcing extends over both domestic and foreign outsourcing, and it sometimes also involves the relocation of a firm elsewhere; this is known as off-shoring. The company that provides outsourcing services is commonly called as service provider Organizations enter into a business agreement with third-party service providers that involves an interchange of payments and services. Outsourcing helps firms perform efficiently in their core functions and minimize costs incurred and shortage of skill in disciplines where they deem outsourcing appropriate. Since the early 21st century, businesses have exceedingly outsourced to firms in foreign countries; this is commonly known as off-shore outsourcing. In consequence of the widespread practice of outsourcing, several appe llations have been designated to refer to various parts of the relationship between the discipline of outsourcing and firms, such as strategic outsourcing, multi-sourcing and near-shoring. Outsourcing offers more room or elasticity in controlling unnecessary expenses and spending where it is indispensable. Outsourcing gives organizations the advantage to spend on only the services that are absolutely needed and also the precise periods or times in which they need them. This reduces the expenses incurred on hiring and training of employees (Haugen, Musser and Lovelace, 2009). The biggest transition in outsourcing has come from the rapid increase in the number of firms or small groups of professionals using computer technologies to utilize outsourcing as a source or path for building pragmatic service providing businesses or systems that can be operated from any part of the globe where internet access is available. Such service providers are preferred by large firms for ephemeral empl oyment of experts in specialized disciplines so as to have their projects or services worked on and delivered completely virtually or online. This suggests that there is a rapidly growing increase in the number of such businesses that function completely online that outsource to offshore firms to work and complete the work contracted out to them before the final service or project is sent to the end user. This is commonly practiced in website designing. Albeit outsourcing has been practiced by corporations so long work specialization has remained an important part of industry, it is rather recently that there has been a surge in outsourcing by organizations for the execution of non-strategic or non-core processes such as data entry, or billing. This is owing to the fact that such processes could be more efficiently executed by companies that specialize in the aforementioned fields respectively; this makes it more time and cost effective for organizations. Some companies outsource se rvices for the execution of particular business functions, while others outsource services for the execution of entire processes. Outsourcing may take many forms but the two most common forms of outsourcing are: Business Process Outsourcing, BPO, and Information Technology Outsourcing, ITO. Furthermore, Business Process Outsourcing incorporates human resource outsourcing, HRO, call center outsourcing and accounting and finance outsourcing. Such processes for

Joblessness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Joblessness - Essay Example Apart form the recession, dynamic changes like globalization and free trade has had a negative impact on the employment situation in the United States. Jobs have been outsourced at the cost of employment back home, leaving many people in a state of joblessness. This paper studies the impact of joblessness among the middle and upper aged population in the United States with reference to sociological perspectives. Middle aged joblessness results in financial and psychological stress, but has one advantage in the sense that such persons are better equipped to teach their children how to cope in the ‘new risk economy’. During the course of this research, four arguments will be discussed. The first one is that, the new risk economy is harsher on middle aged and older employees with regard to being jobless. The second is that, in times of recession in the economy, qualification, experience and age is given preference over youth and lack of experience. The third argument is that joblessness will lead to lower levels of commitment and will result in unemployed middle aged and older workers to become free agents. The fourth is that the life course of the jobless has changed drastically when shifting from the Fordist era to the new risk economy era. According to Goldsmith et al, unemployment has two adverse effects on the society, the economy, and the individual and their families. For them, â€Å"one is the output foregone that could have been produced if unemployed workers had been productively employed. The second is the psychological damage suffered by unemployed workers and their families† ( Goldsmith, Veum & Darity, 1996). Companies are now looking at minimizing costs in order to remain competitive, and one of the ways in which this is accomplished is through reduction in the number of employees. Increasing globalization coupled with

Financial data analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Financial data analysis - Essay Example A clear linear relationship is not evident, which could be an indicator that WHEATHD is a poor predictor of WHEATSF. Figure 1: the plot of WHEATSF against WHEATHD Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate Change Statistics R Square Change F Change df1 df2 Sig. F Change 1 .421a .177 .174 27.2183 .177 53.344 1 248 .000 Table1: Model regression summary Table 1 above presents a summary of the regression summary. From this, adjusted R squared is 0.17, a figure that is very small indicating that the model is not very good in predicting the dependent variable as it is highly subject to chance rather than statistical relationship between the two variables. However, the p-value is less than 0.01, an indicator that the model is statistically significant, or rather we have enough evidence to assert that WHEATHD has some predictive power on WHEATSF. Coefficientsa Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients t Sig. B Std. Error Beta 1 (Constant) 500.582 24.519 2 0.416 .000 WHEATHD(P) -.443 .061 -.421 -7.304 .000 Table 2: a. Dependent Variable: WHEATSF(P) Coefficientsa Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients t Sig. B Std. Error Beta 1 (Constant) 532.035 17.694 30.069 .000 WHEATSF(P) -.400 .055 -.421 -7.304 .000 Table 3: a. ... itable statistical technique to use, but I surmounted this by examining the expected outcome to decide on the best method (Hyndman and Koehler, 2006). PART II In this part, 1- 250 sample values are used to forecast the subsequent 11 values. Using excel to forecast In using excel spreadsheets to do the forecast, we highlight the raw data and insert the scatter plot. Then, we insert the trend line in the scatter plot and subsequently format it to include the trend line equation. The trend line equation is then used to substitute the values of x for the 11 series periods that are sampled for prediction. The following table shows the values of x and the substituted values y. Y=532.03-0.4x x Y (Forecasted) Actual 308.5 408.63 443 311.5 407.43 446.5 314.5 406.23 450 313.5 406.63 447 319.5 404.23 451.5 324.5 402.23 451.5 324.5 402.23 451.5 333.5 398.63 461.25 337.5 397.03 465.75 324.5 402.23 460.75 327.5 401.03 462.5 Sum 4436.53 4991.25 Figure 2: Excel scatter plot with the equation fitted in. Using eview The raw data for the prices are input in the software and a forecast generated automatically. The output, which is shown in figure 3, comes with a table with forecast errors already computed. The table alongside shows statistical arithmetic that is associated with this particular model, including a number of methods for calculating the forecasting errors. Figure 3: Forecast for 251 - 261 Sample Figure 4: graph before model 1forecast Figure 5: graph after model 1 forecast Forecast errors Forecast errors are the estimations of the probability that the results of the forecast deviates from the actual values. Fore example, looking at figures 4 and 5 of the first forecast model, it is clear how the forecast values differ slightly from the actual values. A number of errors that

To what extent is the Aeneid symbolism of the Augustan regime and the Essay - 1

To what extent is the Aeneid symbolism of the Augustan regime and the association between Augustus and Aeneas - Essay Example Symbolically, the course of the epic mirrors the real historical events that connect the death of Julius Caesar, the chaotic struggle of power that followed, and the rise to of the Augustan regime. The establishment of the Augustan regime was a culmination of political tragedies and uncertainties that followed the death of Julius Caesar. The demise of Caesar led to the emergency of power struggle between Augustus on the one hand, Antony, and Cleopatra on the other. The lengthy power struggle led to the emergence of Augustus as the lone victor. He proceeded to consolidate power and establish a prosperous reign over the Roman Empire. In the estimation of many historians, the triumphs and challenges that he encountered and his eventual end as the ruler was not only a testament of his bravery and fighting spirit but also a measure of wisdom and courage, which comprised the hallmark qualities of leadership as understood within the Roman context. As such, it might be argued that many of the challenges encountered by Caesar were a manifestation of his drive towards the establishment of a strong empire that would quell the unease and the unrest that followed the assassination of Juliu s Caesar. Comparably, the character of Hector, as understood within the element of symbolism, stands in for Julius Caesar. Although Julius Caesar is remembered more for his wisdom than for war antics, the great respect, admiration, and adoration, he commanded mirrors nearly perfectly with the kind of honor that Hector enjoyed among the Trojans. Repeatedly, Virgil shows the manner in which Hector’s spirit helped propel Aeneas to great heights of victory and courage2. In essence, a part of Aeneas was attached to Caesar in a way that affirmed the latter’s support and endorsement to the former. Aeneas derived courage and strength from the inspiration

Obesity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 7

Obesity - Essay Example Apart from the social stigma that one may have to suffer, the health implications of obesity are much more expensive. According to Crawford (para, 2), 20% of population of all but fifteen states in the USA are obese and this number is increasing by the day. We all need to protect ourselves from obesity. B. Reason for listening: Obesity is becoming more and more common in the society and most of us have had or will have to deal with this issue either in ourselves or in people we love and care about. According to Childhood Obesity Facts (Para 1) obesity among children has doubled over the last thirty years. Obesity is not just a cultural issue, it is not just about the physical looks but rather it is a matter health. C. Credibility: Credibility: I have had some of my friends who have been affected by this issue. I can confidently say that I have experienced firsthand (or at least second had) the issues affecting obesity. Obesity is a cruel thing to deal with (Maureen). D. Enumerated Preview: Obesity is a serious issue with so many factors surrounding it. In this forum though, I wish to discuss three major issues which are pertinent with regard to the issue of obesity. These issues include, poor eating habit (fast food culture), laziness (lack of physical activities), and poverty which makes it harder for poor families to afford healthy food. II. The human body has its natural mechanisms of dealing with various issues. As disused above, when an individual takes in carbohydrates (energy-giving-foods), the extra energy is converted and stored in the form of fat thus resulting in fat accumulation. This means that people can reduce fat accumulation through exercise to burn the stored fats. There are vicarious ways of exercising which include; III. Poverty is probably at the apex of the issues influencing increasing rates of obesity in the United States as statistics show that poorer families are at a higher risk of obesity than those which are economically

Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 55

Philosophy - Essay Example How ought it be conducted? Provide a clear argument answering this question. Refer to at least five philosophers we have studied in the course of your answer. In your answer, be sure to demonstrate knowledge of the material by explaining ideas and using specific support and please use only this material Required Philosophy exists in different branches of thoughts that address different philosophical area of focus. Some of the branches and their areas of focus in include the following, epistemology this is the study of nature and knowledge (Lawhead). Epistemology expresses the relationship between beliefs, truth and theories that justify such beliefs and truth. The other area of concern is the metaphysics, this involves the study of aspects of reality and illustration of these features includes existence (Lawhead). Ethics include the other branch involved in study of philosophy addressing thing that people have to do and how they should to them. The final branch of philosophy include the logics, this involves precise reasoning to determine the components of good and bad reasoning in addition to determining the effectiveness of reasoning. Ethics as an essential branch of philosophy that is important in improving human life, thus it has a major principal of influencing human well-being in their world. Aristotle was an influential individual in the establishment of ethical concern as guidance in the human relation. Aristotle in support of Plato’s ideas regards some virtues as being ethical, for instance, these virtues include the following, temperance courage and justice (Bhaskar 120). According to Aristotle, there are things that an individual need to possess for them to live a happy life, they include virtue, pleasure, honour friendship and wealth (Das 82). Accusations of these things have to be in a morally decent way that does not conflict with the virtues of the society. For effective coexistence, it is also

Predicatability of Stock Returns and Dividends Coursework

Predicatability of Stock Returns and Dividends - Coursework Example It requires time, patience and systematic work. Over a period of time, most investors become reasonably healthy, while some of them even succeed in becoming enormously rich. Quite often, in fact usually, they end up making more money than most speculators and gamblers. J. Paul Getty was -one such outstanding example. He became the world's richest man and accumulated a vast fortune of over U.S. $ 2 billion but it took him over fifty years of consistent and steady investing to do so. It would be useful for you to ponder over what he says: Don't misunderstand me. It is possible to make money and a great deal of money-in. the stock market. But it can't be done overnight or by haphazard buying and selling. The big profits go to the intelligent, careful and patient investor, not to the reckless and overeager speculator." (Navjot 57) In the stock market, the heart of the investment process consists of selection, timing, and price. It is all a question of selecting the right company, buying shares in it at the right time and price, and subsequently selling them at the right time and price. Success on the stock market will therefore hinge on your ability to take the right decisions with respect to selection, timing and price. However, these decisions alone will not enable you to make the amount of money you want. That will depend on the following four factors: (i) The amount of money you initially invest; (ii) The period over which the money is invested; (iii) The rate at which the invested capital appreciates in value; and (iv) The income you receive from your invested capital during this period. Therefore, to achieve investment success you should keep these four factors in mind while taking decisions on selection, timing and price. But this is not all. Successful stock market investing goes for beyond selection, timing and price. It involves the setting of personal investment objectives, formulating an investment plan and adopting a suitable investment strategy. The overall objective of every investor is to make money. To go further, it is to make of every investor is to make money. To go further, it is to make money at a rate that beats the rate of inflating. In other words, the board objective of all investment is to increase, or at

Army Profession of Arms Essay Example for Free

Army Profession of Arms Essay The Profession of Arms Campaign is mandated by John M. McHugh, secretary of the Army, and Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, Army chief of staff, to assess the state of the Army and take a critical look at how the past decade of war has impacted the military and civilian workforce. â€Å"The overall objective of the campaign is for Soldiers and leaders to refine their understanding of what it means to be professionals expert members of the Profession of Arms after over nine years of war and to recommit to a culture of service and the responsibilities and behaviors of our profession as articulated in the Army ethic,† Dempsey said. Another Army leader talked about what the campaign means for all those serving in the Army, whether Soldier or civilian, and how it is designed to help transition from the past decade of continuous conflict into a still-uncertain future. â€Å"The Army has decided to introduce the campaign for the Profession of Arms to develop leaders of character and competence required to meet the dynamic challenges of the 21st century,† said Lt. Gen. Robert L. Caslen, U.S. Army Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth, Kan., commanding general. â€Å"This campaign is designed to define and reinvigorate what it means to be a professional in the Profession of Arms. As we embark on this mission, we must reflect on the values and traits that define and distinguish us as a unique profession.† Lt. Gen. Richard P. Formica, U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command commanding general, has initiated a command-wide review of what it means to be in the Profession of Arms. This review is part of a broader Army wide effort and leaders across the command are getting involved in this open collaborative process to solicit and capture feedback from its Soldiers and civilians. This campaign will also be a teaching opportunity to help better understand what it means to be in this profession and what it means to be in public service that distinguishes a profession from a career. For the workforce at USASMDC/ARSTRAT, the Profession of Arms Campaign is a chance to give input to the Army on how the past decade has influenced, both good and bad, those serving their nation in wartime. â€Å"For the Army as a whole, this is a chance to assess a lot of what impact the last 10 years of being at war has had on our workforce. It is a chance to take note of what we need to do right now, what we need to do in the future and what direction we need to go in, and I think this could have a great effect on SMDC as a whole,† said Lisa Ratley, Concepts Division, Future Warfare Center-Battle Lab. â€Å"We will conduct some roundtable groups and town hall-type meetings with civilians, officers and noncommissioned officers that will take input from everyone. â€Å"This is a great opportunity for SMDC to gather input and have something to say to the Army as a whole,† she added. In the Profession of Arms Campaign, there are five ‘cohorts’ that the Army is looking at. They are officers, noncommissioned officers, warrant officers, junior enlisted Soldiers and civilians. The campaign focuses on three questions: What does it mean for the Army to be a Profession of Arms? What does it mean to be a professional Soldier? After nine years of war, how are we, as individual professionals and as a profession, meeting these aspirations? â€Å"The Army chief of staff and secretary of the Army are concerned about what effect the last 10 years of war is having on the Army,† said Donald Long, FWC-BL. â€Å"They want to assess the impact of it and to keep ahead of what has actually changed, and how do we implement fixes to any problems or issues that may come up so we can continue to be a professional Army. â€Å"The Profession of Arms Campaign was officially going to end in December but the commanding general of SMDC wants to extend it to include the next 18 to 24 months of professional development for the civilians, Soldiers and officers in the command to provide professional development on what it means to be a professional in this Profession of Arms,† Long added. The Army has also sent out 20,000 surveys to civilians across the Army to get an input from the workforce. â€Å"To me, working for the Army is not just a job, it is an understanding that we are here to serve the American people,† said Ginny Partan, FWC-BL. â€Å"I think the Profession of Arms Campaign is going to help us bridge the gap between 10 years at war and where we need to head in the future. It is going to help us take a hard look at ourselves, across the spectrum from Soldiers to civilians, to see what we are doing right and where we can improve so that we are better in the future.†

Research-based Reading Program Essay Example for Free

Research-based Reading Program Essay The Texas Reading Initiative has outlined a fairly comprehensive statement on the value of reading and the significance of infusing the habit of literacy among the young. Besides teaching/conducting a reading program per se, the quality, depth and integrity of such teaching methodology is equally important. This is the main reason why most reading advocates have bannered the discourse of a â€Å"research based† reading program rather than the traditional teaching methodology for teaching children how to read. It works on the emerging assumption that teaching the young is delicate enough for the reading teacher to adapt a research-based method. The paper on Components of a Research-based Reading Program, part of the Red Book Series by the Texas Education Agency, outlines the fundamental attributes of the recent development of teaching reading among the young. It is composed of a deeper understanding of the recesses of a child’s mind, its formation, development and predictable growth (Hilgard, 2001). Generally, the essential attributes of these Twelve Essential Components comprise an advanced understanding of adult-child training and communication: the Teacher-Trainer, the channel and the recipient (the child). These maybe the basic attributes of ordinary communication but an analysis of the paper can reveal that the communication framework is actually the basis of this research-based program, not to mention that the concept of code interpretation and language are involved and mentioned in that paper. The two ends of this communication curve, the Teacher-trainer and the child are the live working elements of this reading program, which makes the simplest components. What is generally interesting in these Twelve Components is the channel element and how the child decodes the communication. The paper frequently discusses the concept of language and how the child perceives instruction from the teacher, which is its whole point. This is the brunt/meat of the teaching methodology, where the paper discusses â€Å"opportunities† and â€Å"strategies† to aid child development. Such things are stated on the paper as to how to exploit the nature of the language channel, where educators strategically use the oral component to understand the written language-the act of reading. According to the authors, by the oral way, the child is directed into opportunities for appreciating sounds, its differences and â€Å"referents†, a concept used by linguists. They say that children may read aloud and â€Å"understand their building blocks† (www. tea. com), which we assume as auditory building blocks. This may imply that to reinforce one’s reading, one has to learn how to speak it first, using the auditory logic of the language’s construction, thus utilizing the nature of the child’s brain to absorb these â€Å"building blocks† into communicative memory (www. childdevelopmentinfo. com). And of course, there is the written format to contend with. This is where the recipient can visually decode using some of the strategies. Decoding in this context means visually playing with the language construction (â€Å"wordplay† as the paper says) through â€Å"blending† and what they call â€Å"word families† and writing patterns. On a lighter note, there is nothing new about the research-based reading program offered by the Texas Reading Initiative. The allegedly â€Å"new† methodology works much like teaching a foreign language to students in the collegiate level, but in the child’s case, localized and specialized for a kindergarten or grade-schooler. The same opportunities and teaching strategies have existed in basic foreign language class in university, and child psychologists seem to find it effective if made easier for children. Reference: Child Development Institute. Reading Improvement. Retrieved January 27, 2008, from http://www. childdevelopmentinfo. com/store/reading-improvement. htm. Hilgard, E. R. (2001). Introduction to Psychology. New York : Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Saviour Siblings Debate

Saviour Siblings Debate A saviour sibling is a child who is born via pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). This shows any fatal diseases in embryo screening, to find a tissue type match for the existing sibling so that stem cell transplantation can take place with the newborns umbilical cord. Many people believe that this is unethical because it doesnt consider the newborns rights, or simply because some cannot understand what parents go through. This is often questioned because it is typically thought of as wrong and that it will lead to designer babies being born and that the sibling will be treated as a commodity. My response to this is that the arguments presented against saviour siblings are flawed, in that not allowing a saviour sibling to be created would result in deaths of many children worldwide and will therefore conclude that there is nothing unethical about it at all, rather its unethical to do the contrary. Since, would it not be unethical to fail to protect people who are able to be protected in this way, would avoiding this not mean we are posing a threat or harm to their life purposefully? In this essay I will discuss how creating a saviour sibling is ethical and parents are doing the most loving thing possible and providing the gift of life, but more importantly saving a life. The main argument against saviour siblings being an unethical procedure is that the dismissing of PGD will result in many childrens deaths, of which most could have been saved, if a saviour sibling was born. It is unethical to say that a child being brought into the world is for purpose only; it is much more than that. As Sheldon and Wilkinson point out, You have to have a very powerful reason to resist the means by which a childs life can be saved (p.533). They show that saying it is unethical because of a slim possibility the child may be treated differently is highly judgmental, and is not reason enough to dismiss the concept of saving lives. It is more unethical to not help someone who is severely ill; it would be allowing the pain to continue at your will. Those who choose to save a life are extremely loving and ethical to consider it in the first place, as it would be heartbreaking to watch a sick child and be helpless. No-one who has not been in that position is in any place to comment on it being unethical, saviour siblings are available as a last resort to save a life and reduce suffering where possible. Modern day medicine is created and technology advanced for these sorts of purposes. The argument defends the idea of a saviour sibling being ethical on the grounds that saving a life is always going to be better that not saving a life. That latter would be more unethical. The process involves motivation and so the parents are highly unlikely to be anything but supportive and loving throughout the process, and especially toward the new baby. Parents are faced with a hard decision of choosing ways to help their child, and when most options are exhausted saviour siblings can be the only option to severe illnesses. Overall, the circumstances surrounding them initially shows that they thought a life was worth fighting for and a saviour sibling would endure the same amount of care. It would be a strange thing to do of the parents, to then think of him/her as a purpose only since the result of saviour would oversee the so called means of existing only because of an end which is needed. In response to my argument, those who prohibit saviour siblings on ethical terms always stand by the main point that the child would be treated as a commodity since they would be unwanted after they have served a purpose of saving a sibling. The main concern is that it is unethical since the childs welfare and rights are not taken into consideration and would be treated differently especially if the saviour sibling was to end up not saving their life. How would the parents then treat the child? Some say that they would see it as a failure, and love it less because he/she did not fulfill their sole purpose of benefiting the sibling. This leads onto the next point, that saviour siblings are treated as a means to an end and this is extremely unethical to do so. It is wrong to create children under certain proposals for an outcome, and Kants Dictatum points this out, Never use people as a means, but always treat them as an ends(Harris, p.398). Treating the child as a means of saving a sibling, rather than an end in themselves is to create a child which is not done for a selfless reason and therefore unethical. If the child was to find out that this was why they existed, then he/she would certainly have psychological problems as they would always wonder what its life would have been like had they not been born in this way. The problem is of course, that people do conceive children in this way, for means, since the only outcome of creating a saviour sibling is to help someone else. However it is rightly argued against it, that in by saying a childs life would be bad is unfair, since how would anyone be able to know this? Just because they were born under circumstances, does not mean that it would be so. There must be a valid reason for saying this, or be able to at least show why this would be true. And more to the point, how by denying a saviour sibling on ethical terms is more harmful than children dying; it couldnt be that it is worse. As seen here, Psychological research studies have identified that children brought up through assisted reproduction technology have just as close a loving relationship with parentsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦(Harris, p.399). No parent would go through the pain of it just to end up treating the saviour sibling as an object, or in an unmoral way. There would be more love for him/her, and equally no reason to just treat them as an end to suffering, but rather as a blessing in itself that they have a new child to love and one which has helped their other child. No one ever seems to question the motives of people who have children to save failing marriages, or to have a brother or sister for their current childs benefit of having someone to play with. These are surely more trivial reasons, which apparently are more acceptable than those, which save lives. It is wrong to say creating a saviour sibling to save a life is unethical but creating a child for instrumental purposes suiting the parents is ok, it only benefits the parents needs, but a saviour sibling will always benefit everyone. Aside from the views argued, there are further implications. The main consideration is that its unclear as to what should constitute as an unethical reason for having a saviour sibling, and who is to be judge of this. Certainly though, it cant be said that saviour siblings cause parents to pick designer characteristics such as blue eyes and brown hair, since there are regulations in place which would never allow this for this procedure. Freeman states, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦PGD was developed it was envisaged that embryos would be selected for their own intrinsic merit and not for utility to another person (Harris, p.391). This intrinsic merit must be to save a life and live as a healthy child, and not to please the parents by having certain designer features to their future child. Much thought goes into these views, and it would mean that it would be just as much of a thoughtful process for parents. It is never the case that a parent endures the process of saviour sibling creation for characteristic means or to then treat the child as a sole purpose only. There is no moral or ethical equal between a saviour sibling and producing a child for designer reasons, as that would be an insignificant purpose. It is not the done thing by good parents, it is not in their nature and they would not have considered the process had they been uncaring, unethical and non-loving. Parents are hard done by this criticism of not taking into consideration their childs welfare and all possible problems. The benefit of saving a life is always going to surpass reasons of saviour siblings being born as a commodity with no proof of how they will live; it has little substance to the question of it being unethical. I would challenge anyone to deny the views and processes a parent goes thr ough, when their child is dying in front of them, not one reason could be more unethical than not saving a life when it is possible.

macbeth. :: essays research papers

Macbeth English Units  ½ Shakespeare essay: Macbeth Topic: â€Å"The instruments of darkness brought about Macbeth’s downfall.† Do you agree? William Shakespeare’s Macbeth demonstrates the ultimate downfall of a tragic hero manipulated by evil. The forces of evil, namely witches, initiate Macbeth’s downfall, seducing him with the concept of power, firing up his ambition to become king. However, despite their obvious involvement, Macbeth delves deeper into the darker side of his nature on his own, seeking evil and wading further into his imagined river of blood. His downfall was brought about by the instruments of darkness – they planted the idea of Macbeth’s rising power in his head and their influence saw him fall from a noble man to a tyrant of a ruler but regardless of this it was his own conscious choice that ultimately led to his fall from grace. The three witches who introduce the play immediately strike the audience as representatives of evil, instantly establishing Macbeth as their ‘victim’, one whom they have chosen to involve in their plans. In the first act, Macbeth is shown to be a noble, cousin to the king, a valiant and worthy man: â€Å"Brave Macbeth – well he deserves that name†, just as the witches are shown to be malicious, evil creatures, recounting their cruel dealings. In his meeting them, the suggestion of his royalty is quickly seeded – their words provoke him and set in motion his demise. In the forth act, he is shown to have walked even further down the path of corruption to the point that he no longer shows the qualities of a good man in his seeking of the witches themselves – seeking the instruments of darkness, and thus embracing evil. Their original meeting with him sparked his ambition, and it is of his own accord and conscious choice that he seeks them out â⠂¬â€œ it is no influence of theirs that leads him to meet with them a second time. Consequently, without the interference of the witches, Macbeth would not have begun his unforgivable massacre but his own corrupted nature takes him further than the initial prompting of the witches. In originally finding Macbeth and prophesising his ascension to power, the witches take partial responsibility in Macbeth’s downfall as they began the entire process of Macbeth’s rise and fall. After the initial suggestion of Macbeth’s royalty, however, comes the encouragement of Lady Macbeth. Her involvement leads Macbeth to the murder of Duncan, his cousin and king, his first steps into his ultimate downfall.

Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and The Social Pressures of Adolesc

Although we live in modern times, stigmas regarding gender identity cease to exist. These biases are prevalent within various cultures. Male and female adolescents are stifled from expressing themselves based on how they personally relate to their own femininity or masculinity and sex roles. The cause of this constriction of emotions is due in large part to these young people being coerced into obeying the rules of society. In addition, societal constructions seem to totally disregard the physiological and biological aspects of adolescent puberty. We acquire sexual orientation and gender identity during adolescence due to puberty, culture and our surrounding environment. For instance, puberty takes place over several years in which physical growth and psychological changes occur, concluding in sexual maturity. The average onset of puberty is at age 10 or 11 for girls and age 12 or 13 for boys. Physiological changes in body composition, the individuals’ height and weight are some of the most significant parts involved in pubertal maturation. Boys develop an adams apple, girls begin their menses, and the growth of pubic hair begins to surface. These changes are influenced by hormonal activity. Hormones play an organizational role, preparing the body to behave in a certain way once puberty begins. Puberty begins with hormone production, which in turn causes a number of physical changes. This is triggered by the pituitary gland which secretes hormonal agents into the blood stream, initiating a chain reaction. The male and female gonads are subsequently activated, which puts them into a state of rapid growth and development. The testes primarily release testosterone, and the ovaries predominately rel... ...hy T. F. (2005). The Search for the Gay Gene. Brittish Medical Journal. 330, 7498, 1033-1036. National Mental Health Association, (2005)., What Does Gay Mean. . retrieved April 10, 2012, from http://www.nmha.org/whatdoesgaymean/whatdoesgaymean.pdf Regan, C. & Fogarty, K. (2010). Understanding Sexual Minority Adolescents. University of Florida IFAS Extension, Vol. 1. retrieved April 10, 2012, from http://www.edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fy749 Volpicelli, J. & Szalavitz, M. (2000). Recovey Options The Complete Guide, How You and Your Loved Ones Can Understand and Treat Alcohol and Other Drug Problems . US & Canada: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.. Ward, E. G. (2005). Homophobia, Hypermasculinity and the US Black Church. Taylor & Francis Group, Vol. 7, No. 5. retrieved April 11, 2012, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4005477 Watson, J. B. (2008). Behaviorism. Tuscon, AZ: West Press.

The Key to A Successful E-commerce Site Essay -- Consumerism Business

The Key to A Successful E-commerce Site Despite the rapid growth of E-commerce sites, 43 percent of the them fails, and the difference between the success and the failure is consumer experience, according to Ecommercetimes.com. The Dotcom Survival Guide reported there is still one resource left untapped that can save dotcoms from failure. It's the one resource that historically is most ignored in favor of ads, press, and flashy features yet it's the one resource that can lead dotcoms to survival. That resource is customers. Customers can provide the revenues needed to attain profitability. Customers can give the word-of-mouth marketing to drive traffic. Customers can give the feedback needed to continually improve the website. Customers are a dotcom's most important resource. To survive, dotcoms must improve their customer experience. WHAT IS CONSUMER EXPERIENCE? The customer experience is the combination of everything that the customer sees, clicks, reads, feels or interacts with on a site. Part of this is certainly the usability but so are other components: the site's business goals, its merchandising, the wording and messaging on the site, the use of graphics and color, the flow of pages in core processes, the choice of features to offer or not, and the dot-com's own team and its processes to create and refine the site. The customer experience includes everything from the home page, to the shopping and buying process, to the fulfillment of products. It is the key to a E-commerce site’s survival. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF A GOOD CONSUMER EXPERIENCE? The sites that generate the best customer experiences get more "sticky" traffic, higher revenues, and a stronger brand. In contrast, the sites with bad cust... ...ors have a good experience on a site, they'll return as loyal customers and encourage others to do the same. In other words, creating a good customer experience will create a good online brand. CONCLUSION The good customer experience is the key to an E-commerce site’s survive. Companies who learn how to create a good customer experience online will lead, indeed dominate, their respective markets. Good customer experience will help customers experience less frustration, more productivity, and more compassion from the industry; good customer experience will help E-tailers enjoy higher revenues, increase productivity, maintain strong brand, and encourage customer acquisition and retention. REFERENCES www.verticalnet.com www.ecommercetimes.com www.istrategy.com www.creativegood.com www.goodexpereince.com www.visualinsights.ocm

Analysis of Barbie Doll Essay

The Devastation of Social Pressure One would think that growing up would be a fun, not a worry in the world, happy experience. Yes, that is the way it should be, but that’s not always the case, especially for women. As girls season into women they realize they not only have to face the fact that they’re in a patriarchal society, but also the influences and pressure they face in the social aspect of things, such as their looks and body image. There is so much competition amongst girls, especially when transitioning into a woman and through most of their adulthood. So instead of being able to enjoy life and absorbing the true quality of it, we are side tracked with superficial, stereotypical, shallow thoughts and images of how we think life is supposed to be. Although, who’s to say what’s right and what’s wrong with the way we interpret things? Marge Piercy, who wrote the poem â€Å"Barbie Doll†, has a very strong view of how destructive social pressure can be to a girl through her transitioning stages into a woman. She expresses how the Barbie doll, the toy figurine that woman idealize, is, in fact, a method of corruption to a young girl. First and for most we must understand who the persona is in the poem, which is a woman, and more specifically Marge Piercy herself. She is observing a young girl going from Wolfe 2 childhood, adolescents, adulthood and then death in a roundabout way. Starting with the first stanza, of four, the persona explains of a young girl, and her playing with a doll, the Mattel’s Barbie doll to be precise. This doll is to be described as tall, blonde hair, blue eyes and it has the perfect body. The girl, â€Å"†¦presented dolls that pee-pee/and miniature GE stoves and irons/ and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy† (2-4). The words iron, stove, and lipstick are all play-things for the girl, but are also identity markers. Such that the doll represents the ideal body image, the iron and stove tells us what type of work is expected of the girl when she becomes an adult (keep in mind that this poem was written in the nineteen seventies and that woman in the work force was still a very small percentage, thus women were still very domesticated) and the lipstick is to imply a sexual innuendo. In the last line in the first stanza the girl goes through puberty and no time is wasted before a classmate judges and criticizes her, â€Å"You have a great big nose and fat legs† (6). Going through puberty is a stage of growth. Adolescents become more aware of their social standing and sexual being. As we read further, the doll, she once played with, will create a major impact on her; in the aspect of her body image and the pressure she faces from her peers. In the second stanza we see how the woman is dissatisfied with herself even though she is â€Å"healthy and tested intelligent/possessed strong arms and back/ abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity† (7-9). The persona continues to say, â€Å"She went to and fro apologizing/Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs† (10-11). The traits that this woman possesses, is in every way correct; however, she is so sure her physical traits are unacceptable to the culture. No matter what she sees in the mirror or what she hears, this won’t change her opinion about herself image. She has been brainwashed about her looks and she doesn’t think she is good enough. She goes around apologizing to everyone about the person she has become, believing there is no way she can change, at least in a healthy manner. In the third stanza we read how society is forcing the woman to change her healthy ways, physically, into something she isn’t. She does what she can to fit into society by, â€Å"†¦play[ing] coy/ exhorted to come on hearty/ exercise, diet, smile and wheedle† (12-14). She had so much pressure from every direction, she felt obligated to try and conform her body into what society viewed as ideal, which we know of as the Barbie doll toy. This idea was short lived. Instead of standing her grounds and accepting the individual that she is, she drowns. Society got the best of her, â€Å"Her good nature wore out/ like a fan belt† (15-16). She gave up and paid the ultimate price to be accepted in society, â€Å"†¦she cut off her nose and her legs/ and offered them up† (17-18). Now that she has removed her flaws she temporarily relinquishes her depression, weakness, and anxiety. Now that she has met the, impossible, unrealistic, standard, she can permanently wash her existences away and leave her shell of beauty behind. In the final Stanza, Piercy highlights the theme of the poem. Simply put, women aren’t accepted into society unless they represent the ideal woman. Now that the woman is free of body flaws and has had a makeover, she can be accepted into her culture even though we know this isn’t her true self. What must this say about the society she has been exposed to? In order to survive in this specific culture, if we’re not perfect, is to become someone we’re not. So not only do we have to try to live up to a standard that is not comprehendible but we also have to be fake. In the middle of the last stanza Piercy explains, â€Å"with the undertaker’s cosmetics painted on/a turned-up putty nose/dressed in a pink and white nightie† (20-22). The woman now has the superficial , but perfect, looks. She is manipulated (physically) so she can finally be recognized. Letting a society make this woman frail and surrender to being her own individual shows a lack of values and morals within herself. Having our own opinions, life experiences and ethics make us who we are and if we were all the same or are held up to the same expectations what would life be like? Would we all act like robots? Clones? As the woman has been re-configured, shallow talks are amongst her, â€Å"Doesn’t she look pretty? everyone said/Consummation at last/To every woman a happy ending† (23-25). Mission complete, she achieved her goal; she is pretty, unflawed, and looks like the ideal woman.

Joy Luck Club Essay

Based on a book of the same name published by Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club tells the stories of four Chinese women and their daughters who were raised in America. While the film focuses a great deal on the relationships between the mothers and daughters and how their stories intertwine, as well as the history of each person and the trials they went through both in China and America, it also showcases some Chinese cultural and religious beliefs. Religion, folktales, culture, and superstition were all prevalent in much of the daily lives of the women, shaping how they interacted with and raised their individual children as well as how they viewed themselves. In this paper, I will be focusing on how the different beliefs and customs were displayed in the film and how their lives were formed around and changes by them. Some of the major stylistic elements of the movie were the presence of jade jewelry on most of the women and the bright red color that was frequently worn on clothes or decorating rooms. Red stands as a symbol of fortune and joy in China, and is fitting for The Joy Luck Club, and reflects the ingrained superstition in the society. Jade in Chinese culture has a long history dating back to 5000 B. C. Confucius claimed that there are eleven virtues in jade, and that â€Å"The wise have likened jade to virtue. For them, its polish and brilliancy represent the whole of purity; its perfect compactness and extreme hardness represent the sureness of intelligence; its angles, which do not cut, although they seem sharp, represent justice; the pure and prolonged sound, which it gives forth when one strikes it, represents music. Its color represents loyalty; its interior flaws, always showing themselves through the transparency, call to mind sincerity; its iridescent brightness represents heaven; its admirable substance, born of mountain and of water, represents the earth. Used alone without ornamentation it represents chastity. The price that the entire world attaches to it represents the truth. To support these comparisons, the Book of Verse says: â€Å"When I think of a wise man, his merits appear to be like jade. † In addition, there is a Chinese saying that states â€Å"Gold has a value; jade is invaluable. † Jade also symbolizes purity, grace, and beauty, and sometimes denoted power in historical times as well as being the title for the Jade Emperor, who was the Supreme Deity of Taoism. In a pivotal moment of the movie, daughter June is given a jade necklace that has been passed down generations by her mother Suyuan. This symbolizes both her mother’s love and belief in her and shows how highly valued familial ties are in Chinese culture. The ties that bind family together in Chinese society can be seen very strongly throughout The Joy Luck Club. There were some conflicting values seen between the women raised in China and their daughters raised in America. This dichotomy helped to show how even though they were in America, the mothers expected the girls to understand and obey them following the rules of Chinese requirements. For example, as a child Waverly gets into an argument with her mother in which her mother states, â€Å"There are only two kinds of children: those who are obedient, and those with own mind. And only one kind of child live in this house. Obedient kind. † Waverly sees this as an unfair imposition upon who she is as an individual, while her mother simply accepts this as a fact of how life and family is. Even through the disagreements and understandings, the girls exhibit strong traits of their mothers’, which are not just hinged on how they are raised. Rather than just focusing on the nurture aspect, the mothers believed powerfully in spirits and curses, and their daughters followed them to some extent. Waverly believes that words her mother said to her cursed her as a child because she allowed them to undermine her own individual beliefs in herself. This is something that I found very interesting, as the majority of the Western world would explain that away with psychology while the East appeared to believe that she might actually be cursed, but the curse wasn’t permanent. In another case, Ying-Ying believes that her daughter is emotionally weak because she had no spirit of her own to give Lena when she was born, and this leads her to make many of the mistakes that Ying-Ying did. This belief also seen in An-Mei’s mother, who committed suicide to protect her daughter and believed that the remnants of her own weak soul would pass to her daughter and make her stronger. The superstitions of the family she was wed into were detailed, as the husband believed that An-Mei’s mother may return to haunt him, and thus An-Mei was protected by her ancestors. I found the parallels between Western and Chinese culture here to be very interesting, as the younger girls tried to separate themselves and integrate their upbringing with their mothers’ expectations. Tradition and ancestor veneration was clearly represented in several cases, the most obvious of which being the case of Lindo’s marriage. Trapped and unable to properly conceive a child, she tricks her husband’s family into believing that the matchmaker had made a mistake by assaying that the ancestor appeared to her and threatened her because another girl in the household was pregnant with his â€Å"spiritual† child, and was fated by the ancestors to marry Lindo’s own husband. Through the arousal of duty to the ancestors, Lindo is able to escape her marriage. An-Mei’s mother fell subject to the belief of tradition – she tried to save her own mother in turn by feeding her soup with her own flesh in it, because in the cultural context sacrificing the â€Å"pain of her flesh† was the honorable thing to do, even though she had been disowned by her family. This scene made me wonder why the sense of duty only seemed to run from the current generation to their own ancestors, rather than from the older family towards the younger generations. The importance of tradition led the mothers to try and teach their children to â€Å"desire nothing†¦swallow pain and eat [their] bowl of bitterness†, even as they attempted to provide their daughters with the means to break out of the cycle while still honoring beliefs. There was so much amazing symbolism and cultural representation, both Chinese and American, in The Joy Luck Club. The hopes that each of the women had resting on their children, the religious and cultural beliefs that they carried with them, and the strength exhibited by each of the women astounded me, and I hope to learn more about Chinese faith in the future.

Frankenstein and Science

Chapter 1 Introduction Christa Knellwolf and Jane Goodall When Evelyn Fox Keller wrote that ‘Frankenstein is a story first and foremost about the consequences of male ambitions to co-opt the procreative function’, she took for granted an interpretive consensus amongst late twentieth-century critical approaches to the novel. Whilst the themes had been revealed as ‘considerably more complex than we had earlier thought’, Fox Keller concludes ‘the major point remains quite simple’. The consensus might be characterised a little more broadly than this – as a view that the novel is about masculinity and scientific hubris – and has led to an enduring use of the title as a byword for the dangerous potential of the scientific over-reacher: It was in this vein that Isaac Asimov coined the term ‘the Frankenstein complex’ to describe the theme of his robot stories in the 1940s, and The Frankenstein Syndrome is the title for a colle ction of essays on genetic engineering published in 1995. This collection takes a very different approach to the novel, seeking to reopen the question of how science and scientific ambition are portrayed in the story by offering a range of historical perspectives, based on detailed accounts of areas of scientific knowledge that are relevant to it. Frankenstein was published in 1818, in a cultural and political climate fraught with contrary ideals. The editors of this collection take it for granted that a successful work of literature is always overdetermined and that it is neither possible nor desirable to formulate a precise and conclusive interpretation of any work of fiction. The wealth of debates and controversies that were going on at the time when Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein make it an urgent task to provide a space in which these discourses can be heard once again. If we listen carefully for the contextual arguments into which the assessment of the benefits and dangers of a new discovery were embedded, we may have to relinquish the assumption (implicit in Fox Keller’s statement and explicit in the majority of late twentieth-century interpretations) that this is a novel with an anti-Promethean message. In doing so, we can gain a more complex understanding of the cross-fertilisations between radical politics and the dramas of scientific exploration. Of course, not every scientist subscribed to radical politics. But considering that most scientists investigating completely new areas of interest had very little sense of where their discoveries would lead them, questions about their consequences were uppermost in people’s minds. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, utopian thinking about the vast social benefits made possible by scientific innovation was a powerful force for good. Advances in 2 Christa Knellwolf and Jane Goodall anatomy, chemistry, electricity, engineering and the exploration sciences were saving lives and creating vast new economic possibilities, besides giving rise to some of the darker forms of human exploitation associated with the industrial revolution. An intelligent appraisal of these consequences required the kind of analytical vision that strikes us in Frankenstein. The end of the eighteenth century is a turning point often called a ‘second scientific revolution’, which Patricia Fara sees as characterized by new levels of confidence in the commercial and social impact of scientific research. 3 One of the definitive influences on this cultural change was Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802). Darwin was a figure larger than life: a pragmatist and idealist, a prolific writer of exuberant verse, a polymathic inventor and a medical practitioner with an uninhibited brief to experiment on his patients. As co-founder and ‘recruiting sergeant’ for the Lunar Society from the 1760s, he presided over the most formidable powerhouse of scientific talent in eighteenth-century England. 4 Members included Josiah Wedgewood (1730–95), Mathew Boulton (1728–1809), Joseph Priestley (1733– 1804) and James Watt (1736–1819). They made breakthrough discoveries in steam power, chemical manufacture, optics, geology and electricity. 5 The driving enthusiasms for their world came from the prospect of its immediate application in industry and commerce. If steam power was the most profitable field of research in terms of its immediate industrial impact, electricity was revolutionary in a more comprehensive and spectacular way. It was electricity that epitomized the Promethean spirit of the age and the American statesman and inventor Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) who ‘snatched the lightning from the heavens and the scepter from tyrants’, and came to symbolize all that was most inspiring about it. In a now famous letter written in 1787 and addressed simply to ‘Doctor Franklin, America’, Erasmus Darwin addressed him as ‘the greatest Statesman of the present, or perhaps of any century, who spread the happy contagion of Liberty among his countrymen; and †¦ delivered them from the house of bondage, and the scourge of oppression’. 6 The declamatory verve of this new scientific rhetoric inspired future generations. Mary Shelley’s father, William Godwin (1756–1836), admired Erasmus Darwin and shared his ideals. Her mother Mary Wollstonecraft (1759– 97), an incisive social analyst with a passion for the advancement of knowledge, developed her own style of Promethean statement in praising the revolutionary quest for a new order of intellectual life: But the irresistible energy of moral and political sentiments of half a century, at last kindled into a glaze the illuminating rays of truth, which, throwing new light on the mental powers of man, and giving fresh spring to his reasoning faculties, completely 7 undermined the strong holds of priestcraft and hypocrisy. Introduction 3 Darwin’s verses were a strong influence on the early writings of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822), but the Shelleys and their circle were of a new generation who had to come to terms with the more horrific legacies of revolution in France, and with the reign of virulent backlash politics in England. The backlash began violently, with the gathering of ‘Church and King’ mobs who targeted those associated with all forms of new knowledge and ideas. Joseph Priestley was the subject of a campaign of public vilification, which culminated in the trashing of his laboratory in July 1791, on the second anniversary of the storming of the Bastille. The intellectual climate in 1818, when Frankenstein was published, was fraught with political agendas and Mary Shelley’s place in it needs to be understood in relation to the allegiance of ideals and principles that bound her to her parents (to whom the novel is dedicated) and to a peer group in which the charismatic influence of Shelley and Byron were paramount. A reading of the novel as simply anti-Promethean, which has been fashionable through most of the twentieth century and especially through the influence of some feminist critics in the 1980s and 90s, fails to take account of the implications of anti-Promethean views for someone in Mary Shelley’s cultural circumstances, and of many of her own overt pronouncements. To a feminist in Wollstonecraft’s era, the idea that bold discovery and the quest for enhanced human power was against the interests of women would have been anathema. In the Romantic period, Prometheus was the hero of all those who sought liberation from oppression. In many respects, Frankenstein criticizes an attitude towards knowledge that came to be identified with the Enlightenment. Subsequent views have either eulogized its grand achievements or condemned its megalomaniac aspirations. Neither of these approaches has shed light on the broad palette of different approaches to the study of nature. In order to understand the full complexity of the period we, therefore, need to distance ourselves from a simplistic retrospective view that the Enlightenment was a period with a homogenous agenda about technological progress and the advancement of knowledge. The eighteenth century was no doubt dominated by monolithic movements that revised and modernised philosophical theories at the same time as planting the seed for the shared values of a democratic and prosperous society liberated from the shackles of superstition. Scholars like Ian Hunter have convincingly argued for the existence of multiple Enlightenments, whose agendas emerged from strongly conflicting ideas about the nature and purpose of human existence as individuals and members of society. The secularising influences of the age of Enlightenment tend to be upheld as key achievements. Although it is fair to say that the period radically curbed the Church’s direct influence on civic matters, the secularisation of public administration was unable to undermine the Christian foundation of European society. It is true that some members of the Enlightened intelligentsia embraced atheistic principles, but this was by no means a general development. So, it is 4 Christa Knellwolf and Jane Goodall ossible to subdivide the multiple Enlightenments into the category of the empirical rationalists, on the one hand, and those who explore arcane and occult matters, on the other. Here it has to be noted that it is a response to the weakening of the power of the Church that lay investigators could encroach on its traditional prerogatives when they examined aspects of psyche, mind and consciousness and, by doing so, rejected the idea that those parts of the human being which were traditionally described by the term ‘soul’ should be excluded from empirical, physiological analysis. Importantly, though, science bridges the divide between sober empiricism and attempts to subject metaphysical issues to the scrutinising eyes of logical analysis. The hybrids between rationality and metaphysical speculation, called into existence by the crossovers between these two types of science, are a fertile backdrop to Victor Frankenstein’s introduction to the world of science. The locations of Frankenstein have been chosen with utmost care. Victor’s birthplace in Geneva positions him in the stronghold of Calvinism. At the same time, it alludes to the fact that Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) returned to this small republic on Lake Geneva as a refuge from the vices of France. Another significant setting for the formation of Victor’s mind is Ingolstadt, a Bavarian town with a recently founded university (1759) that adopted progressive principles and aimed to achieve social reform. Ingolstadt became famous throughout Europe in the early 1780s for a particular brand of Enlightenment: the order of the Illuminati who describe themselves simply by the Latin word for Enlightenment. It is true that Frankenstein does not contain any direct references to the Illuminism, or its founder Adam Weishaupt (1748–1811), but it is telling that the dates of Walton’s letters to his sister, ‘17—’, refer its action back to an anonymous time of the eighteenth century. It therefore seems to be fair to conclude that the pursuit of superhuman objectives must be located in the decade before the French Revolution, when all of Europe was intoxicated with a heady ferment of reformatory ideas and utopian visions. Weishaupt had been educated as a Jesuit but rejected this rigid form of Catholicism and became the first layman to be appointed for the chair of canon law at the University of Ingolstadt (1773). The contribution to the intellectual life of his university, though, was not sufficient for him. Sharing Victor Frankenstein’s immense craving to better the lot of mankind, he embarked on negotiations with the Freemasons. His unyielding temper rendered such a rapprochement difficult, so that he founded a new secret society, which was, however, modelled on this society. The joint efforts between Weishaupt and Adolf von Knigge (1752–96) guaranteed the enormous success of the new society between 1780 and 1782. Disagreement between the two leaders, along with public scandals and denunciations that the society was aiming for political sedition rather than the advancement of human welfare and scientific knowledge, caused serious suspicions. In 1787, the Bavarian government went so far as to forbid it under penalty of death. Introduction 5 The stated goals of the society of the Illuminati were to improve society through the cultivation of sensibility and the practice of scientific research. These objectives were shared by most contemporary intellectuals and it, therefore, attracted the leading lights of German intelligentsia, including Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749–1832), Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744–1803) and Friedrich Nicolai (1733–1811). They joined as a means of dedicating themselves to an organised study and cultivation of human nature. The initiatory oath of new members of the order revolves around humanitarian principles: ‘I profess, and also pledge, that I will eagerly grasp every opportunity of serving humankind, will improve my knowledge and willpower, and will make generally available my useful recognitions, in so far as the welfare and statutes of this particular society will demand it of me. ’10 While pursuing similar goals as the philosophes, a group of French intellectuals dedicated themselves to the compilation of comprehensive information about the arts and the sciences to be collected in the one reference work of the Encyclopedie (1751–72). 1 The group of intellectuals around Denis Diderot (1713–84) and Jean D’Alembert (1717–83) aimed to spread knowledge as a means of breaking down privileges and abuses by church and nobility, which is why they advocated a strictly empiricist approach to science. While Weishaupt admired these spokespeople for reason and rationali ty, his own society embedded the practice of rationality and benevolence in an atmosphere of ritual. He also combined his commitment to pioneering scientific exploration with the exploration of the more esoteric borderlines between material and non-material phenomena. The emotional dimension to his practice of reason and rationality, for instance, consisted of the adoption of classical names for all members of the society. Weishaupt called himself Spartacus and Knigge was Philo. Weishaupt’s taste for secrecy led him to refer even to places by pseudonyms, ‘Athens’, for instance, standing for Munich and ‘Thessalonica’ for Mannheim. The veil of mystery also provided a cover for some serious agitations for the ‘elaboration and propagation of a new popular religion and †¦ the gradual establishment of a universal democratic republic’. 12 It was also a fertile environment for the observation of phenomena of psyche and soul. Although Weishaupt and Knigge are not directly recognisable in Shelley’s imaginary depiction of Ingolstadt, there are some revealing links between the heyday of Illuminism and the novel’s scientific culture. A striking coincidence is that the jubilant vision of scientific progress expressed by Professors Krempe and Waldheim positions them in the decade of the 1780s, which was also the time when Antoine de Lavoisier (1743–94) ousted the long-established belief that combustion was a process that released phlogiston – a colourless, tasteless and weightless substance believed to be present in every object as a latent principle waiting to be released. Lavoisier demonstrated the inconsistencies of the phlogiston theory in 1783 and published his own theories in 1789, demonstrating that conservation of mass is a fundamental principle not just in mechanical physics but also in chemistry. Lavoisier, importantly, proved the viability of quantitative 6 Christa Knellwolf and Jane Goodall approaches to chemical processes, including respiration and other vital processes of the human body. 13 In Frankenstein the clash between the old and the new theories is pitched as a contrast between the ‘modern masters’ and ld alchemists. 14 After Krempe’s scornful response to Victor’s interest in their ‘exploded systems’ (29), the benevolent Waldman explains that ‘these were men to whose indefatigable zeal modern philosophers were indebted for most of the foundations of knowledge’ (31). The key figures in the alchemical tradition mentioned in the novel – Albertus Magnus (c. 1206–80), Cor nelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (1486–1535), and Paracelsus (Theophrastus von Hohenheim, 1493–1541) – do not simply feature as scholars who made groundbreaking contributions to the history of science. Once he has lost his fascination for the old alchemists, Victor Frankenstein rationalises his attraction to their ideas as a craving for ‘boundless grandeur’ (30). Prior to studying at Ingolstadt, he describes his early quests for the ‘philosopher’s stone and the elixir of life’, and goes on to flesh out the moment of success: ‘what glory would attend the discovery, if I could banish disease from the human frame, and render man invulnerable to any but a violent death’ (23). If he has really studied the writings of these authors, he must have a more complex understanding of the symbolic qualities of key alchemical concepts, like the philosopher’s stone. The text of the novel is quiet about whether he ever pondered the capacity of this most cherished of substances to enable a mystic union between self and world. We can, therefore, only speculate if he was initially attracted to the authors of alchemical works because they embraced a holistic view of nature, which foregrounded strong resemblances between physical and metaphysical phenomena. It should also be noted that many scholars who broadly belong in the alchemical tradition explored the borderlines between mind and matter. Striking investigations of topics as diverse as social deviance, the origin of the Devil, the true skills of magicians, black and white magic, witchcraft, and the power of poisons and remedies are collected in the work of Johann Weyer, Agrippa’s most prominent disciple. 5 If stripped of its religious-demonic framework, Weyer’s insight into the psychology of delusions, obsessions, sexual deviance, as well as a whole range of ailments that would come to be classified as nervous diseases during the Romantic period, is truly remarkable. It, therefore, is no surprise that Romantic writers had a certain penchant for the works of the old alchemists. Mary Shelley’s father, William Godwin, himself embarked on a book-length study entitled Lives of the Necromancers (1834),16 in which he assessed their true achievements in a strictly sec ular light. As a stolid rationalist, Godwin must have wanted to cool his period’s enthusiasm for what he would have described as irrational obfuscation. Interest in the principles of life – the nervous system, the psyche and the soul – however, provides a connection between Weishaupt’s Illuminati, the ‘modern masters’ and the old alchemists. But as is illustrated by the fact that Weishaupt fell into general disgrace while Lavoisier came to be hailed as the founder of modern chemistry, the line between respectable pursuits and politically and otherwise Introduction 7 suspect explorations of the non-material aspects of human existence was easily crossed. 17 Nowhere was this boundary more richly confused than in the dramas of intellectual adventure conceived by Coleridge, Goethe, Shelley, Byron and other leading poets of the Romantic movement, in whose imaginative company Mary Shelley’s story was conceived. * There were strong elements of the uncanny about many of the scientific experiments that caught the public imagination during the first two decades of the nineteenth century. The legacy of Luigi Galvani (1737–98) was continued through the work of his nephew Giovanni Aldini (1762–1834), who in 1803 experimented on the corpse of a criminal recently executed at Newgate, to macabre effect. Electrical charges caused one eye to open, the legs to jolt and the hand to raise itself as if in greeting. In the same year, Aldini published a series of descriptions of his experiments, including some work on severed heads: The first of these decapitated criminals being conveyed to the apartment provided for my experiments, in the neighborhood of the place of execution, the head was first subjected to the Galvanic action. For this purpose I had constructed a pile consisting of a hundred pieces of silver and zinc. Having moistened the inside of the ears with salt water, I formed an arc with two metallic wires, which, proceeding from the two ears, were applied, one to the summit and the other to the bottom of the pile. When this communication was established, I observed strong contractions in the muscles of the face, which were contorted in so irregular a manner that they exhibited the appearance of the most horrid grimaces. The action of the eye-lids was exceedingly striking, 18 though less sensible in the human head than in that of an ox. But for the precision of its laboratory detail, this reads not unlike a scene from Mary Shelley’s novel. At the other end of the vitalist spectrum from the prospect of reanimation was that of spontaneous generation. In the same year as Aldini was engaging in his grisly, jaw-dropping work at the gallows, Erasmus Darwin’s imaginings were all light and life: And quick contraction with ethereal flame Lights into life the fibre-woven frame – Hence without parent by spontaneous birth Rise the first specks of animated earth. 19 The most notorious experiments in spontaneous generation were those conducted by Andrew Crosse (1784–1855) at his house in the Quantock hills in 1836, long after the publication of Frankenstein, but a diary entry by Mary Shelley indicates that she and Percy Bysshe Shelley attended one of Crosse’s early lectures in London on December 28, 1814. Crosse spoke and gave demonstrations on the topic 8 Christa Knellwolf and Jane Goodall of ‘electricity and the elements’, describing in detail his methods of directing lightning currents in order to employ their power to generate light and motion. 0 The early nineteenth century was a time when the magic and mystique of science was crossing paths with an accelerating succession of immediately useful discoveries, and it was impossible to determine which of a range of mind-boggling prospects might become an actuality. The industrial revolution was in its most intensive phase. Human mobility was accelerated beyond all prev ious imagining, and concepts of geographic distance were correspondingly transformed. Richard Trevithick (1771–1833) built the first passenger steam carriage in 1801 and his steam locomotives were revolutionizing freight transport from 1804. In 1807 the first steamship passenger service to America was introduced. In 1816 the Leeds-Liverpool canal was completed. Work and productivity were likewise accelerated, with doubleedged consequences, as the bulk of manufactured goods grew exponentially, but so did the burden on those whose lot it was to operate the ‘dark satanic mills’. 1 A succession of riots and a growing movement of organized protest were features of this timespan, leading up to the Peterloo massacre in Manchester in early 1819. William Wordsworth, reflecting in 1814 on the transformations he was witnessing, tried to express both sides of the account: I grieve, when on the darker side Of this great change I look; and there behold Such outrage done to nature as compels The indignant power to justify herself; Yea, to avenge her violated righ ts, For England’s bane. And et I do exult, Casting reserve away, exult to see An intellectual mastery exercised O’er the blind elements; a purpose given, A perseverance fed; almost a soul Imparted – to brute matter. I rejoice, Measuring the force of those gigantic powers That, by the thinking mind, have been compelled To serve the will of feeble-bodied man. 22 Mary Shelley was part of the Romantic movement, socially and intellectually, and her view of science was accordingly influenced by the heightened perspectives of her contemporaries. Her protagonist, Victor Frankenstein, is a figure torn between the two kinds of vision expressed here by Wordsworth, and there are no easy conclusions to be reached about the inherent values and dangers of his enterprise. * Introduction 9 The main objective of this collection of essays is to bring to life the challenges and complexities of science as they are reflected in the novel. We have, therefore, brought together contributors who can offer readings of Frankenstein in light of the most relevant areas of the period’s scientific knowledge. Rather than focussing exclusively on the individual fields of enquiry which were to establish themselves as the core disciplines of modern science, this book is based on a broader understanding of science. On the one hand, it reminds the modern reader of the controversial aura of, for example, early studies in electricity, and on the other hand, offers a glimpse of the fluid boundaries between pioneering explorations of nervous diseases and esoteric speculations about the existence of analogical resemblances between mind and matter. The scientific advances of the Romantic period could not have been as farreaching and rapid without related efforts to disseminate the new knowledge amongst a wide spectrum of interested parties. Women and children, in particular, became a crucial target audience for the numerous publishers attempting to profit from the ever-rising interest in inventions and new insight into the secret workings of nature. Publications about the people, animals, plants and landscapes encountered by naval expeditions were a similarly popular topic of interest. Owing to William Godwin’s own involvement in the market of scientific popularisation, Mary Shelley learnt about her period’s technological advancements and scientific theories from her earliest years. Much of the knowledge she acquired as an avid young reader with an early penchant for writing was filtered through to her via scientific popularisations and textual hybrids between fact and fiction. Patricia Fara opens this collection of essays with an overview of scientific publications written for a lay audience and available during Mary Shelley’s formative childhood years. Considering that early nineteenth-century women could still only really enter the history of science as readers, illustrators and translators, Ludvig Holberg’s novel about Niels Klim’s journey through a subterranean world (1742) encouraged its female readers to feel at home in the spaces between fact and fiction. Holberg’s novel, along with Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1725), which demonstrated a similar preoccupation with contemporary science, is a revealing early fantasy about the imaginary exploration of alien spaces, mingled with an analysis of double standards and the social objectives behind scientific ventures. Eighteenth-century novels about scientific innovation are, therefore, shown to provide an important foil for Mary Shelley’s imaginative portrayal of a scientific hypothesis. The next chapter, written by Judith Barbour, offers detailed insight into the precise nature of the knowledge disseminated hrough the Juvenile Library? a serialised encyclopaedia published by William Godwin after 1807. Not surprisingly, the household of a writer, publisher and bookseller teemed with intellectual debates about the rationale and implications of new systems of scientific categorisation. Such discussions enthusiastically explored the Linnean order of plants al ong with other attempts to revise the long-established ‘great chain of being’, a rigid hierarchy that assigned a place to all living beings and embraced beings as diverse as mites and slugs, on the one hand, and God and his angelic 0 Christa Knellwolf and Jane Goodall vassals, on the other. 23 Attracting young men with radical sentiments or otherwise unconventional attitudes, Godwin’s home was also a hub for discussions about the social changes made possible by the secular perspective of contemporary science, disencumbered by the crippling notions of mainstream morality. Controversies about mankind’s purpose were considered in light of, for instance, Georges Buffon’s (1707–88) accounts of the resemblances between the human physical frame and that of apes and other primates. The young Mary was, therefore, immersed into a heady intellectual climate that encouraged her to speculate about the reforming potentials of contemporary science. Percy Bysshe Shelley, an influential figure in her father’s circle of friends, was intrigued by the roaming imagination of the young Mary – so much so that the couple decided to elope in 1814. The early dialogues between the precocious child and the already established writer were to grow ever more intensive and, as Barbour argues, inspired the dramatic momentum required for transforming Mary’s fantasy about an artificially created being into a speculative drama about the consequences of contemporary science. In the late eighteenth century, the understanding and experience of space began to change in response to the accumulation of a vast bulk of new information about the geography of far-flung places. In parallel with this development, unprecedented efforts to grasp the secrets of the human mind, psyche and soul probed into the inner spaces of human existence. It goes without saying that the attempt to map and chart the phenomena of the mind could not follow equally objective principles. As Christa Knellwolf’s chapter explains, the inability to draw an objective map made it difficult to proceed. However, it also provided scope for imagining a vastness of imaginary space that reflects the minute infinities revealed by contemporary microscopes. At issue, however, are not the microscopic dimensions that will be the concern of twentieth-century microbiology, but the limitless nature of consciousness and imagination. The parallels between inner and outer space bears special salience for the setting of Frankenstein: The immense distances traversed, particularly in its narrative frame, position the novel’s eponymous hero in both an emotional and a geographic desert. The impossible spaces of the narrative and physical setting of the story, then, raise questions about whether the uncompromising realisation of ideals and absolutes is achievable for an ordinary human being. Contemporary debates on the sanctity of human life are a key concern of Frankenstein. Anita Guerrini’s chapter argues that early nineteenth-century debates about vivisection were motivated not only by the nascent sensitivity towards the sufferings of animals, but also responded to long-standing, religiously motivated attempts to ban experiments that pried into the mysteries of life – human and animal. The discovery and description of the nervous system, however, critically depended on the possibility of observing the physical locations of pain. Like Frankenstein himself, prominent scientists in the field found it difficult to cope with the gruesome aspects of vivisection and were unsure about whether they had a right to proceed with their research. Audiences were still eager to attend public Introduction 11 performances in anatomy but antivivisection debates shed important light on the contested public perception of anatomical-medical experimenters. Francois Magendie (1783–1855) – a French anatomist who regularly performed public dissections in order to demonstrate the body’s sensory functions – as a case in point, who illustrates a growing discomfort with the scientists’ wish to spy ever more deeply into the borderlines between life and death. So a further parallel between the real and fictional scientist emerges as an urgent concern of the novel, consisting of the fact that neither the real nor fictional scientist were horrified by the gruesome environment of the charnel house or suffici ently awed by the idea that a dead human body was the receptacle of a recently departed soul. Frankenstein’s creature is frequently referred to as a monster. While this trite stereotype fails to grasp the problems implicit in contemporary fantasies about the perfectibility of the human body and mind, it also ignores the fact that the monster posed enormous problems for the taxonomies of comparative anatomy, which is why teratology – the scientific explanation of the existence of monsters – emerged as an influential branch of contemporary science. Diverging significantly from the characteristics identified by received definitions of a particular species, Melinda Cooper argues that the nature and purpose of these alternative life-forms posed endless problems and questions. Were they simple variants of the normal representatives of a species, were they a sign that the health of a species had been undermined, or were they indications of special transformations waiting to manifest themselves in the imminent future? Such questions need to be raised in regard to Frankenstein’s so-called monstrous creation. Their relevance is further documented by the fact that debates about the problematic role of the monster must have occurred between the Shelleys and their friend William Lawrence (1783–1867), a leading figure in the controversy over whether the origin of life was the consequence of materialist or vitalist principles. As regards the philosophical conception of Frankenstein’s creature, the context of teratological controversies opens up a new understanding of the novel’s analysis of the origin and meaning of different forms of life. Allan K. Hunter’s focus on an evolutionary perspective leads to a very different interpretative approach, exploring the social and political implications of the creature’s life course. The evolutionary theories at issue here are those of Erasmus Darwin, whose untempered admiration for the revolutionary energies surfacing in America and France fed into his hypothetical modelling of the future state of life forms. Hunter’s essay examines the claim that Enlightenment science enabled new view of the human condition that comes into existence between a distant past and a distant future, and whose endless transformations generate cultural anxieties about the approach of a new evolutionary phase. Seen through the lens of Darwin’s revolutionary optimism and Godwin’s doctrine of perfectability, the creature is endowed with preternatural learning abilities, extreme powers of endurance and a body size that makes him dominant in any physical contest. Yet he is a lso transformable into a force of chaos and a generator of cyclic violence. His creation as a manufacturing process is thus a provocative reflection on the culture of 12 Christa Knellwolf and Jane Goodall manufacturing innovation in England at the time. These tensions and provocations are revealed in the novel’s controversial reception, which also illustrates a growing anxiety in England about the nebulous and excessive tendencies of French thought, compared to English pragmatism. With our taken-for-granted attitude towards electricity, it is a challenge for twenty-first-century readers of Frankenstein to appreciate the imaginative potency of electrical researches in the Enlightenment period. Mary Shelley’s novel capitalizes on the dramatic cultural and psychological impact of electrical discovery as well as its immediately spectacular manifestations. Amongst her contemporaries, electricity was regarded as a life science or, more than that, as the science of life itself. Ian Jackson emphasizes that the most popular and spectacular forms of electrical experiment involved human and animal bodies. Such experiments promised to unlock forces of unlimited potential that might change the destiny of the species, effecting a transformation of human being in metaphysical as well as material terms. When unseen electrical forces were made to cause visible objects and bodies to move, or emit sparks, or to attract other objects towards them, this created a meeting point between the perceptual frameworks of science and animism. Through Galvanic experiments in which the corpses of recent gallows victims were made to dance, these forces are specifically linked with the fantasy of reanimation. The agonies of conscience experienced by Victor Frankenstein also reflect the intensity of debates surrounding researches into electricity which, from an orthodox religious point of view, were dangerously impious, because to reveal those things in creation that were hidden from the human senses was to transgress divine intention. If the Creator had wanted them to be known, He would have made them evident in the first place. Against this view, there was the Newtonian defence that the study of nature, with the purpose of revealing the workings of God to man, is essentially pious because it enables fuller human admiration of divine perfection. The unashamed atheism of the Shelley circle, and their embrace of Prometheus as the greatest of mythical heroes, prompted a move away from defensiveness to the lyrical celebration of bold discovery. However, Jackson suggests that in Frankenstein, Mary Shelley is offering a more troubled view of scientific aspiration. Joan Kirkby’s analysis of the spiritualist ideas underpinning the story of Victor Frankenstein brings up the question of what was regarded as a ‘science’ in the early nineteenth century. Mesmerism combined elements from the knowledge domains of astronomy, electricity and magnetism, with interpretative frameworks belonging to the practices of clairvoyance and spiritualism. Major philosophical thinkers such as Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) and Arthur Schopenhauer (1788– 1860) interested themselves in the presence of spirits, and many of the works of eighteenth-century scientific writers include serious commentary on the permeability of the boundary between life and death. Leading spiritualists of this time, as Kirkby points out, were also leading scientists. Emanuel Swedenborg Introduction 13 (1688–1772) was led by his sophisticated interests in anatomy and the composition of matter to enquire into the specific location of the connecting point between body and soul. In this light, the anatomical work of Frankenstein, driven by an impassioned commitment to dismantling the boundary between life and death, takes on heightened implications. The themes of the novel can also be seen as closely linked with those of Percy Shelley’s major poems, in which a view of matter itself as spirit is xpounded with powerful conviction. The culture of collecting was one of the most significant forms of public engagement with the natural sciences in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. As Christine Cheater observes, some of the tensions played out in the novel are reflections of larger cultural tensions exemplified in the design and management of collections. Victor Frankenstein’s adventures take him from the extremes of conf inement, working day and night in his domestic laboratory, to some of the wildest and most remote landscapes of the world. Similarly, the quest for scientific trophies could lead to travels around the globe but also to the experience of confinement amongst the obsessive and personalised clutter of the cabinet of curiosities. There were tensions, too, between the curiosity driven projects of the private collectors or virtuosi and the growing commitment to expertise and professional specialization, with its attendant demands for greater exclusivity in the management and accessibility of collections. Cheater compares the careers of Ashton Lever (1729–88) and John Gould (1804–81) as exemplars of this transition and the tragic personal costs it sometimes entailed, suggesting that the disastrous conclusion of Victor Frankenstein’s enterprise shares some symptomatic elements. Scientific fictions about the existence of different forms of life did not begin with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Stories embraced in long-standing speculations about whether there are other worlds and, if so, what their inhabitants might look like, date back at least to Bernard le Bovier de Fontelle’s (1657–1757) scientific popularisation of Cartesianism. While early fantasies about the appearance of beings living outside or beneath the surface of the earth demonstrate little fear about the implications for their own world, Mary Shelley’s novel adds a decisively worrying twist to the theme. Sharing the planet with another species that is their own equivalent (or even superior) may be a prospect for which human nature is not ready, though in her later novel The Last Man, Shelley envisaged a world evacuated of the human species as a place of profound metaphysical emptiness. This work points towards a tradition of bleaker fictional renditions of the future. By the end of the nineteenth century, apocalyptic fantasies dominated the imagination of writers, such as H. G. Wells, disillusioned about the promises of science and their period’s irresponsible treatment of natural resources. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a work that stands at the beginning of such dark visions about the barbarities resulting from a science that is used in the service of megalomaniacs wishing to control the world rather than as a tool for the spread of Enlightenment ideas and values. It is time to reengage with the novel as a work 14 Christa Knellwolf and Jane Goodall that is filled with the energies of scientific aspiration, as well as misgivings about human failure to realise it. Notes 1 Evelyn Fox Keller, Secrets of Life, Secrets of Death: Essays on Language, Gender and Science (London: Routledge, 1992), p. 49. Anne K. Mellor probably offers the most fully developed of such readings in Mary Shelley: Her Life, Her Fiction, Her Monsters (London: Routledge, 1988). See Isaac Asimov, ‘Robots, computers and fear’, Introduction to Machines That Think (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1983), p. 1; Bernard E. Rollin, ed. The Frankenstein Syndrome: Ethical and Social Issues in the Genetic Engineering of Animals (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1995). Patricia Fara, An Entertainment for Angels (Cambridge: Icon Books, 2002), p. 22. Desmond King-Hele, Doctor of Revolution: The Life and Genius of Erasmus Darwin (London: Faber & Faber, 1977). Jenny Uglow, The Lunar Men: The Friends Who Made the Future, 1730–1810 (London: Faber & Faber, 2002). Erasmus Darwin, letter to Benjamin Franklin, 29 May 1787 in American Philosophical Society collection of Franklin Papers XXXV, 70; quoted in King-Hele (London: Faber & Faber, 1977), p. 79. Mary Wollstonecraft, An Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution, in Mary Wollstonecraft, Political Writings, ed. Janet Todd (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1994), p. 292. Ian Hunter, Rival Enlightenments: Civil and Metaphysical Philosophy in Early Modern Germany (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2001). For a historical background of eighteenth-century freemasonry, see Margaret Jacob, Living the Enlightenment: Freemasonry and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Europe (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1991). For a etailed historical analysis of Illuminism, see Richard van Dulmen, Der Geheimbund der Illuminaten: Darstellung, Analyse, Dokumentation, trans. Christa Knellwolf (Stuttgart: F. Frommann, 1975), p. 159. Denis Diderot and Jean Dâ₠¬â„¢Alembert Le Rond, eds, L’Encyclopedie, ou Dictionnaire raisonne des art et des sciences (Paris: Le Breton, 1751–72). For a discussion of the cultural context and objectives of the philosophes, see David Garrioch, ‘The party of the Philosophes’, in The Enlightenment World, eds Martin Fitzpartick, Peter Jones, Christa Knellwolf and Iain McCalman (London: Routledge, 2004), pp. 26–41. Compare the entry for ‘Illuminati’ in the Catholic Encyclopaedia online: [accessed 10 October 2007]. Antoine Lavoisier, Traite elementaire de chimie, presente dans un ordre nouveau et d'apres les decouvertes modernes, 2 vols (Paris: Chez Cuchet, 1789; repr. Bruxelles: Cultures et Civilisations, 1965). Mary Shelley, Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus: The 1818 Text (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1993), p. 30. All further references are from this text and are cited parenthetically. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Introduction 15 5 Johann Weyer, De praestigii s daemonum, trans. John Shea, in Witches, Devils, and Doctors in the Renaissance (Binghamton, NY: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1991 [1583]). 16 For the details of Godwin’s study, see Lives of the Necromancers: or, An Account of the Most Eminent Persons in Successive Ages, Who Have Claimed for Themselves, or to Whom Has Been Imputed by Others, the Exercise of Magical Power (London: Frederick J. Mason, 1834). 17 Also compare Robert Darnton, Mesmerism and the End of the Enlightenment in France (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1968); and Auguste Viatte, Les sources occultes du romanticism, illuminism, theosophie, 1770–1820 (Paris: Champion, 1965). 18 John [Giovanni] Aldini, ‘An account of the late improvements in galvanism, with a series of curious and interesting experiments performed before the commissioners of the French National Institute, and repeated lately in the anatomical theaters of London’ (London: 1803). Extracts from this document available online at [accessed 10 October 2007]. 19 Erasmus Darwin, The Temple of Nature (London: J. Johnson, 1803), Canto II, iv, lines 246–51. 20 Peter Haining, The Man Who Was Frankenstein (London: Frederick Muller, 1979), pp. 56–63. 21 William Blake, Jerusalem; quoted from Literature Online [accessed 10 October 2007]. 22 William Wordsworth, The Excursion, Book 8, pp. 243 and 244; quoted from Literature Online [accessed 10 October 2007]. 23 For a historical overview of the concept, see A. O. Lovejoy, The Great Chain of Being: A Study of the History of an Idea (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1948).