TITLE:
The Cost of Exploration: The Age of Exploration Metaphor in Frankenstein
AUTHORS:
Saiyan Ji
KEYWORDS:
Frankenstein, The Age of Exploration, Mary Shelly
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.12 No.11,
November
10,
2025
ABSTRACT: By analyzing the dual narratives of Frankenstein’s scientific exploration and Walton’s geographical expedition in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the study points out that Frankenstein’s experiment to create life and Walton’s Arctic expedition replicate the ambition of conquering the unknown during the Age of Exploration, but lead to disaster due to the neglect of ethical responsibility. This mirrors the costs of resource plunder and ecological destruction in colonial expansion. Frankenstein’s act of manipulating life with corpses as “resources” analogizes the instrumental rationality of colonizers who treated the New World as an exploitable object, exposing the ethical vacuum when science becomes a tool of power. Through the dual narratives, Shelley warns that the civilizational progress promoted by the Age of Exploration was essentially built on systematic exploitation and ecological crises. The novel not only reflects on the scientific mania of the Industrial Revolution but also reveals the deep logic of colonial expansion: the conquest of the “unknown” without ethical constraints will ultimately lead to self-destruction.