The Beauty of Nature
I’ve noticed a common theme of nature, and its restoring effects. In The Artist of the Beautiful whenever Owen is depressed and has given up on this creation, he goes back to nature and is revitalized and has a new vigor to complete his dream of putting spirit it machinery. He also devotes his life to this because he wants to create something that resembles nature. This project turns out to be a butterfly, something at exemplifies the beauty of nature
In Frankenstein, Victor turns to the healing effects of nature when he is troubled by the monster. Being alone in the outdoors relaxes him and allows him to feel at peace. In Rappaccini’s Daughter, tampering with nature is evil, the plants that Rappaccini created are evil.
The stories seem to convey the message that anything natural is good and anything unnatural is bad. However I believe that this idea has changed with the time. Unnatural things are no longer bad, in fact sometimes the unnatural is better then the natural. Tampering with plants is now very common; most of the things we eat have been tampered with. When did this change occur and what caused it?
In Frankenstein, Victor turns to the healing effects of nature when he is troubled by the monster. Being alone in the outdoors relaxes him and allows him to feel at peace. In Rappaccini’s Daughter, tampering with nature is evil, the plants that Rappaccini created are evil.
The stories seem to convey the message that anything natural is good and anything unnatural is bad. However I believe that this idea has changed with the time. Unnatural things are no longer bad, in fact sometimes the unnatural is better then the natural. Tampering with plants is now very common; most of the things we eat have been tampered with. When did this change occur and what caused it?
posted by Malen at 4:50 PM
5 Comments:
I'd argue that "tampering" with nature became more accepted as the ideas of experimental science became wide spread. I believe that this fear of altering nature came from the fact that much of the common scientific knowledge of today was still unknown at this time period. Back when Hawthorn and Shelley were writing these pieces, the principles of genetics and inheritance were unknown. In fact, Darwin published the "Origin of Species" a few decades after Shelley's "Frankenstein."
Yup, it's interesting that in Hawthorne and Shelley's respective time periods, the science they describe in their works was far from being realized; thus, the way they portrayed these experiments was probably reflections of fears of the unknown. Today, now that we have seen what science can do, we want to get as much as we can out of it. When it comes to vitamin enriched food, we seem to buy it with a certain amount of glee (because we know that in different circumstances, this extra nutrition would not have been possible).
During the respective time periods in which Hawthorne and Shelley wrote their pieces of literature, I think that scientific experiments were being conducted merely to find out more information about the world we live in the and the different species that inhabit it. Many years have passed and many breakthroughs have been in these same scientific fields. I think that the change from thinking of tampering with plants as unnnatural to something quite common happened when the public realized that the pros of these combinations outweigh the cons. Farmers have found ways to combine fruits to eliminate seeds without compromising taste or aesthetic qualities, as well as to improve taste. I also believe that we place more focus on the edible or asesthetic qualities of plants rather than their medicinal or poisonous qualities.
Good question, Malen, about when modified plants (or the modification of other flora/fauna) became more acceptable. We might be able to get at that question as the semester goes on...
I do agree that it has become far more acceptable to tamper with plants, yet there still is a lingering fear among most populations. Personally, I believe it is an irrational fear of the unknown. Mixed species of plants create tastier fruits and healthier plants. These are now common in the developed world. however, genetically modified foods still scare people. These foods could end hunger in the third world, yet have significant restrictions placed upon them. The fear of the unkown in nature has not disappeared despite many advances.
Post a Comment
<< Home