Obsession gone wrong Essay

It is frequently said theres a thin line between custodytality and insanity. From Einstein with his shaggy pilus and stuck-out tongue to Archimedes running more or less the driveway naked shouting eureka aft(prenominal) qualification a discovery, unrivaled undersurfacet help just now prevail with who constantly do that statement. bloody shame Shelley, Nathaniel Hawthorne, John Steinbeck and Jeremy Bernstein every wrote stories of scientists who were tout ensemble geniuses they all told had given over age of account into their fields.Yet, nearly of them acted irrationally without considering the consequences of their actions (Frankenstein Aylmer), some did things against their record (Frankenstein Phillips), and you couldnt help alone question the sanity of otherwises (the narrator in Bubble and yawp Aylmer). In Mary Shelleys Frankenstein, captain Frankenstein was forced to come about days and nights in vaults and charnel-houses. Of course, no one forced hi m to he was driven by the competition to discover the ancestry of life.And when he did, an even greater ambition control him to create and give life to a gay universe and eventually, a bare-assed species would bless me as its creator and source m either happy and excellent personalitys would owe their being to me. To make this dream a reality, he subjected himself to m whatever experiences that the neighboring homosexual would find extremely repulsive and disgusting. In his own words, practically did my human temperament turn with loathing from my occupation. But the ambition always overpowered his human personality. A well-favored summer came and passed, but he was excessively busy with his stu break ins to notice.He had also disjointed touch with his family and friends, even though he knew his father would be anxious. It was telling on him, too. He had become emaciated, and many insomniac nights had his eyes bulging from their sockets. He deteriorated to the des ign that he became a nervous, solitary wreck, and a fever came upon him every night. Nathaniel Hawthorne in his defy The Birthmark said the scientific protagonist Aylmer had devoted himself too unreservedly to scientific studies to be weaned from them by any second passion.His love for his young wife might prove the stronger of the two, but it could hardly be by intertwining itself with his love for experience and uniting the strength of the latter to his own. Aylmer had a young, beautiful wife unfortunately Georgiana had a tiny flaw on her face, which made her imperfect in his sight. From then on, his fixing was to get justify of the birthmark from her face, and he had come to hate it so oftentimes that the sight of it made him shudder. Other men saw the birthmark and saw apricot and charm, Aylmer saw it and saw a defect, a representation of all imperfections.Even Aminadab, Aylmers research laboratory assistant, said that if she were my wife, Id never part with that birthm ark. Because the birthmark was in the shape of a tiny hand, it was often remarked that it was the print of a fairys hand on her cheek, which made her founder such(prenominal) sway over all hearts. However, Aylmer was a man of science, and most achievable did not believe in fairies and all the whatnot, and so he considered the birthmark as a frightful object, causing him much trouble and horror than Georgianas beauty, whether of reason or sense, had given him delight. In other words, his horror at the birthmark for making Georgiana imperfect became stronger than his appreciation of Georgianas beauty. hike along in the story, Aylmer became extremely devoted into creating a mixture to get absolve of the birthmark that he secluded his wife. Once, Georgiana followed him into his lab and was frightened, not by the scientific apparatus, but by what she saw of her husband. He was grim as death, anxious and absorbed. Georgiana once wondered if she could revenge him, and realized t hat she couldnt, as his spirit was ever on the march, ever ascending, and each flashbulb required something that was beyond the scope of the flashgun before. Dr Phillips in John Steinbecks The snake was a man who could kill a thousand animals for hit the sackledge, but not an insect for pleasure. He had no problem with cleanup position for study, as was shown when he was petting cats and provide them in one minute, and in the next put one of them into a putting to death chamber for biological science classes.His research about the starfish also shows that. But we know killing animals is not in his nature when he felt that it was profoundly impose on _or_ oppress to put a rat into the rattlesnakes cage, deeply sinful when the strange woman asked him to establish the snake. It was something he did regularly himself, when he inevitable to feed the snakes, but because the snake had already had its rat for the week, Dr Phillips felt sickened. Probably because he felt the rat was going to die for no reason. For science, Dr Phillips went against his nature.Jeremy Bernsteins Bubble and yawp is the story of a mathematician who had become so analytical it was comical. For example, normal people evince the scariness of ghosts in ghost stories instead, he tries to pardon ghosts as apparitions caused by atmospheric densities. He always tried to draw a mathematical and scientific parallel to everything he saw. He calculated probabilities of events, and even wondered if it was possible to measure feelings. What these four scientific heroes had in common was obsession.Victor Frankensteins obsession was to become a creator of reality Aylmers obsession was perfection, as express by insufficiencying to get rid of his wifes birthmark Dr Phillips numbed his nature for the study of science, he was obsessed with biology and the narrator in Bubble and Squeak had become too mathematical and scientific for his own good. Science in its nature is rather addictive. The more you discover, the more you want to discover Its like a never quenching thirst for knowledge. In the words of Victor Frankenstein, in a scientific pursual there is a continual food for discovery and wonder. It is as a result of this persistent pursuit of science that many inventions that we take for sound judgemented(p) today, the same inventions we cant appreciate living without, were created. However, the danger is in permit our pursuit of knowledge or any other thing control us, such that we do things that are against our nature, or hold out to appreciate the simple pleasures of life. As Victor Frankenstein eventually learnt, A human being in perfection ought always to husband a calm and peaceful mind and never to allow passion or a transitory desire to chafe his tranquility.I do not think that the pursuit of knowledge is an exception to this rule. If the study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to leave office your affections and to destroy your taste fo r those simple pleasures in which no alloy can peradventure mix, then that study is unlawful, that is to say, not benefitting the human mind. (Shelley 40) SADE MABA HUM 101 reach CITED Lynch, Robert Swanzey, Thomas and Coakley, John. The Example of Science. 3rd ed. capital of Massachusetts Pearson Custom Publishing, 2003. Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 30th ed. revolutionary York New American Library, Penguin Group (USA) Inc. , 2000.