Essay/Term paper: The fear of science

Essay, term paper, research paper:  World Literature

The Fear of Science


To live in the today's world is to be surrounded by the products of
science. For it is science that gave our society color television, the bottle
of aspirin, and the polyester shirt. Thus, science has greatly enhanced our
society; yet, our society are still afraid of the effect of science. This fear
of science can be traced back to the nineteenth century where scientist had to
be secretative in experimenting with science. Although science did wonders in
the nineteenth century, many people feared science and its effects because of
the uncertainty results of science.

Our thrist for science can be traced back through many decades.
However, the nineteenth century society felt that science was a great
investment towards a better life. This investment in science gave the
nineteenth century society the discovery of light waves and radio waves, the
electric motors, the first photograph and telephone, and the first publication
of the periodic table. Science also caused an uproar in society when Charles
Darwin published The Origin of Species, which became the scientific basis for
the study of the evolution of humans. Many people in the nineteenth century
detested Darwin's theory of the evolution of man because it went against their
religion, which believed that God created the world. Science, soon, developed
the big bang theory, which states that earth was created by the attraction of
atoms. The nineteenth century society was afraid of science because it
contradicted their beliefs, and was afraid that the results of science would
lead to the destruction of mankind. Thus, the study of science was limited
because of fear of its effects.

The fear of the effects of science was expressed in literature. Novels
like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the Time Machine, and Frankenstein showed the
dangers of science and that science would soon lead to the destruction of
mankind.

The novel Frankenstein is about a man name Victor Frankenstein who
wanted to tamper with life and death by "exploring unknown powers, and unfold
to the world the deepest mysteries of creation." (Frankenstein, pg.40) He
acquired the knowledge of science when he attended the university of Ingolstadt,
and once the knowledge of science was gained, Frankenstein went to his secret
laboratory to create a creature with gigantic stature. At first, Frankenstein
had doubts about creating a human being; however, with "the improvement which
every day takes place in science and mechanics, [he] was encouraged to hope
[his] present attempts would at least lay the foundation of future success."
(Frankenstein, pg.47) Once Frankenstein created his human being, his dream was
vanished because he had accomplished his dream. His dream of creating a human
being soon turned into a nightmare. For Frankenstein created a monster who had
no identity, and was willing to murder all of Frankenstein's loved ones if
Frankenstein did not create another female creature. Victor Frankenstein
refused to create another female monster to accompany his monster. Thus, the
monster felt that he had no choice but to take away Frankenstein's family, just
to show how Victor Frankenstein would feel being alone in the world. The
murder of William Frankenstein (Victor's younger brother) caused Victor to
believe that his own creature had murdered his younger brother because "nothing
in human shape could have destroyed that fair child." (Frankenstein, pg.74)
Frankenstein knew from then on that he had "turned loose into the world a
depraved wretch, whose delight was in carnage and misery." (Frankenstein,
pg.74) Frankenstein's monster caused "the death of William, the execution of
Justine (a servant of the Frankenstein since childhood, who was framed by
Frankenstein's monster), the murder of Clerval (Frankenstein's closes friend
since childhood) and lastly [Victor's] wife (Elizabeth Lavenza)." (Frankenstein,
pg.213) Frankenstein not only blamed the murders of his loved ones on his
monster, he blamed himself for creating the monster. Throughout Frankenstein,
the words "friend, monster, daemon, vile insect, enemy, and abhorred devil"
were used by Frankenstein to describe the monster which he had created. In a
way, the monster is protrayed as science and Frankenstein's fear of and hatred
towards the monster or science is expressed throught Frankenstein. Thus,
Frankenstein is a novel which proved to society that science is dangerous. That,
we should not tamper with life using science since it will only lead to
disaster.

Another novel which expressed society's hatred and fear of science
through literature is the Time Machine. The story is about a Time Traveller
who believed that there was no difference between Time and any of the three
dimensions of space except that the consciousness of a human being moves along
Time in a single direction from the beginning to the end of his or her life.
He secretly experimented with his theory by building a machine that could
travel in any direction through Space and Time. Like Frankenstein, in the Time
Machine, the Time Traveller had doubts about his creation of the time machine,
for, he knew that the time machine could destroy him. When he did succeed in
time travelling, his machine was stolen by the Morlocks, and he was afraid that
he would be stuck in an unknown world forever, he expressed that his invention
of the time machine was useless. As he says,
The thought of the years I had spent in study and toil

to get into the future age, and now my passion
and anxiety to get out of it. I had made myself the most
complicated and the most hopeless trap that a man devised.
(Time Machine, pg.48) H.G Wells's Time Machine gave the nineteenth
century society an insight into what the future holds, and shared that people
should be afraid of the effects of science because science could end one's life.
The Time traveller in Time Machine returned to tell his adventures which none
of his friends believed. Thus, he was so determine to bring back proof, that
he went to the future. However, during his second journey in time, the Time
traveller "just vanished three years ago, and as everybody knows now, he has
never returned." (Time Machine pg.117) In the Time Machine, the effect of
science caused the Time traveller to be captured within Time. Thus, the
creation of the Time machine caused the disappearance of a human being which
led people to fear science because it could lead to the destruction of
hunmanity.

Another novel in which the immense interest in science led to the death
of a human being and provoked its readers to fear the effect of science in the
nineteenth century is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Basically the novel is about a
doctor name Henry Jekyll who wanted to expriment (using science) with the
theory that every man has a dual personality, that there will always be an evil
side and good side of a person. In proving his theory, Dr. Jekyll mixed up a
potion using chemicals that would break the chain of good and evil. The evil
side, Edward Hyde, could enjoy all the wicked pleasures and execute all of Dr.
Jekyll's angry, and vengeful wishes, yet, Dr. Jekyll does not have to be afraid
of his conscience. Since Mr. Hyde was pure evil and was affected by science,
Stevenson tells his readers that science is evil through Hyde's actions, and
through the characters like Utterson whose descriptions of Hyde is immense
horrifying. As he says,
Mr. Hyde was pale and dwarfish; he gave an impression
of deformity without any namable malformation, he had
a displeasing smile, ..., and he spoke with a husky
whispering and somewhat broken voice, ...God bless
methe man seems hardly human! (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde pg.20) Like
Frankenstein, the words "evil, satan, and devilish" were all used to describe
Mr. Hyde. Thus, the point which Stevenson might be getting across to his
reader in the nineteenth century is that science is evil and satanic, which
everyone in the society should be afraid of.

The nineteenth century society was not the only society that is afraid
of science. Even now, our society is afraid of the effects of science. Take
for instance the creation of nuclear energy plants around the world. These
nuclear energy plants can do wonders to our society; however, many people are
afraid of the fact that if there was an accident in the plant the whole nuclear
plant would blow up. This accident in the nuclear plants can eliminate many
cities around them. Science makes the destruction of humanity possible. For
instance, the nuclear atom bomb which was fired on Hiroshima by the U.S.A
caused many deaths and mutants resulted in the surviving generations of the
bomb. Movies like Jurassic Park display the dangers of science, and the money
wasted in building a park that is filled with danger. Thus, like the
nineteenth century society, our fear about science have not died out.

Although science enchanced the nineteenth century, it (science) was
feared by many because of its uncertain effects. According to Chemistry Today,
"science is a human activity which is directed towards gaining new knowledge
about the composition and the functioning of matter, both living and
nonliving." (Chemistry Today, pg.2) In other words, science is justified if a
single "new fact (appears) and adds a brick to the bright temple of human
knowledge." Because science is so extensive and its effect is uncertain,
mankind will always fear science. After all, our thrist for science can led to
the destruction of mankind