Connection Post: Luddites Movement

The novel "Frankenstein" was written in the era of many upheavals and unrest of the European society.One of those moments was the 'Luddite Movement',brought about by mans quest for progress and improving,mankind's' way of life.Maybe the blame could be proportioned upon the shoulders of James Watts,for fine tuning and thrusting the steam engine into the limelight of the  year 1812 .This brought about social unrest,strikes,vandalism and literal chaos among lower classes of people who engaged in cottage industries for their way living and sustaining themselves.Price of progress?
 Here we are now with 'Frankenstein' the enthusiastic, brilliant scientist engaged in the search of creating 'Life' for the progress of mankind.Did he succeed ?, yes and no.He played God ? ; yes he did, "After days and nights of incredible labour and fatigue,I succeeded in discovering the cause of generation and life; nay,I became myself capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter". The results ? catastrophic! Victor with good intentions, or maybe not so good intentions, dabbled in the hierarchy of science,considered by many 'forbidden arts', created the perfect killing machine..oops! or should I have said monster.This son of victor went on a rampage and slaughtered quite a few people,needless to say more than enough people to say its similar to the 'Luddites Movement'.Good intentions, for progress and man steps back into his primal birth and rage.Each creator or scientist started off with good intentions,only for man to fall short of the original intention.The warning ?,The bi-product of progress is not always the end result sought after .You have been warned!

THE LUDDITE MOVEMENT

In 1776 , James Watt was responsible for the most significant improvements of the "Steam Engine".Giving birth to the "steam engine" prompted the era of progress of the railroad.So much so,with the incoming change of progress ,there would always be 'naysayers, and the critics of the revolution to come.Among the fuss kicked up by the 'steam engine' poet William Blake called those same  steam engines, "those dark satanic mills".Slowly but surely the  vast outbreak of those 'satanic mills'  caused many cottage industries to  suffer at the hands of the revolution of the steam engine.The year 1811 saw an economic depression,which frustrated the already down trodden,working class among the lower class masses.Therefore, many of the people employed by the cottage industry lost their jobs,which then prompted the outcries of the masses for justice .This was the birth of the 'Luddites movement'.There were many strikes,pilferage and vandalism of the new found steam engine factories,which led to the local militia being introduced,to quell the uprising.Source,( http://www.connected.org/is/luddites.html)Before you knew it the 'Luddite Movement had spread through Europe,mainly France & England.This novel should provide interesting reading,a different view and prospect of the 'Luddites Movement'

Forbidden Knowledge

"Yet so simple,that while I became dizzy with the immensity of the prospect which it illustrated,I was surprised that among so many men of genius who had directed  their inquiries towards the same science,that I alone should be reserved to discover so astonishing a secret." Shelley,Mary.Frankenstein Chapter IV:Page 52, 1818 Ed

This section of Frankenstein was a key turning point in the life of  Frankenstein s' creator.The word creator is deliberately used as ""God created man in his own image".
Creativity of life by god: in my mind is one of the  aspects of forbidden knowledge that man should never tamper or pursue.Science is yet another filed man struggles to utilize to uncover the vast secrets of the universe and the world of life God created.Yet Man is never satisfied with what he has been given and in his quest for the "never ending truth is always miles beyond this comprehension.In my opinion Frankenstein plot is a mild warning for those who dare,and those who believe they are above all.We are shown the consequences of what started as a "Pet Project",evolving into an obsession.There were genuinely good intentions as normal sought by the good doctor in all his aspirations ,but the drunken stoop of godlike powers in making his own version of life and satisfying his own personal curiosity,made him oblivious to the consequences of such an action,which is the case today .Within us all lives this quest for recognition ,power,acceptance among our peers and greatness clearly betrays our primary goal to live and be satisfied with what we have as fellow human beings .We have the power of procreation within us,yet we make mockery of it as we ourselves give birth to children ,who we design as our own monsters of the future.Therefore Frankenstein is not so farfetched after all,if we truly understand the message and compare it to our everyday lives,who knows what the future holds and what man may yet design as progress or shall I daresay,some things of life are better left alone.

Natural Philosophy

Aristotle states,there are four causes of Natural Philosophy,which are matter and form,motion and change.The first two matter and form consists features and the behavior of the entity they form or make up.This means that in any entity being natural has volume weight shape density ,which is its natural state.This also constitutes that anything with the a fore mentioned features and characteristics has a shape a form a container to hold and display those attributes.
The other two "motion and change" is supported by the theory,  that in building a house one has to make it out of materials which are either concrete, sand, stone,or the combination of them.Each particular item has it own intrinsic characteristics.To be precise one cannot make a house out of liquid water therefore the motion and change of these items present one with the idea of motion and changes brought about by matter and form.These principles have been the scourge of man to define and expound upon as each idea has its own merit and controversy to pursue on this corridor of defining what humans are governed by in Science and Nature.(Source :
Bodnar, Istvan, "Aristotle's Natural Philosophy", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2010 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2010/entries/aristotle-natphil.  )