k. Both scientists seem crazy and have a God-Complex. Frankenstein states, “A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me (pg 155).” They both attempt to undo God’s work. Aylmer and Frankenstein worked relentlessly on their experiments, completely disregarded the outside world and allowing no one in while they worked. To Aylmer, his experiment was everything to him, it meant more to him than his wife and therefore he had the ability to control her for the sake of his experiment. Frankenstein spent his whole life trying to run away from his experiment, it controlled him. Neither of them had any forethought and because of that, their subjects suffered. Aylmer and Frankenstein exhibit similar qualities and at the same time show how very different they are.John Steinbeck’s character Dr. Phillips is a very different from the other two scientists but he still shares some similar qualities. Like Frankenstein, Dr. Phillips shows how careless he is with his work by missing a series of tests with mating starfish because he was busy watching the woman watch her snake eat a rat in his laboratory. There was a woman in Dr. Phillips life too, just like in Aylmer’s. But in Dr. Phillips’s case the woman controlled him and she was more important to him than his experiment. He thought she was repulsive at first, but once she leaves for good, he wants her back, which is a quality that Frankenstein exhibits too. Unlike the other two scientists, Dr. Phillips ego was in the realm of reality.The different time each story was written and the authors varying knowledge in science can account for the differences in the way each scientist is portrayed. Both Frankenstein and “The Birthmark” were published in the early nineteenth century, whereas “The Snake” was published about one hundred years later. Society and the views...
