Prose context

Question 1

How can Karl Marx’s theory of alienation be applied to Never Let Me Go?

Answer 1

The clones bodies are owned by the state which accounts for their uncanny ‘weekly medical check’ at Hailsham at the fact it is ‘much, much worse’ for them to smoke than the Guardians. This alienation manifests itself in a sense of disconnect from their bodies and physical impulses particularly in the mechanical way in which Kathy describes sex and the comical way in which the clones refer to ‘unzip(ping’ organs from their body.

Question 2

Utilitarianism

Answer 2

Greatest good for the greatest number of people (coined by 19th century philosophers, Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill)

Question 3

2

What quotations from Frankenstein and Never Let Me Go reflect a utilitarian ideology?

Answer 3

• ‘what glory would attend discovery if I could banish disease from the human frame’ (Frankenstein when discussing the power of knowledge and what he hopes to achieve’
• ‘their overwhelming concern was that they…. Did not die from cancer, motor neurone, disease, heart disease’ (Miss Emily about society, the use of listing emphasises the vast benefits that the clones have for society)

Question 4

What quotations from ‘Never Let Me Go’ could you use to explore the context around IVF and designer babies and the debates that surrounded this?

Answer 4

‘that’s largely all you were to most people. Shadowy objects in test tubes’-dark imagery, dehumanising
‘superior intelligence, superior athleticism’

Question 5

How does the contextual backdrop of scientific advancement (e.g age of Enlightenment, Galvanism in the 19th century) and therapeutic cloning in more recent years manifest itself in the two novels?

Answer 5

Both contain scientists (Morningdale and Frankenstein) who attempt to usurp God and transgress scientific boundaries.
In both texts, we see the products of scientific advancement-in NLMG it is to society’s benefit, in Frankenstein to its detriment
Frankenstein functions as a clear warning whereas NLMG is a warning about what follows AFTER the science rather than the science itself

Question 6

2

What is physiognomy and which quotations reflect the 19th century focus on physiognomy?

Answer 6

• Judging someone based on physical features, especially facial, a popular ideal in the 19th century
• “Beautiful! Great God!” “horrid contrast with his watery eyes”

Question 7

What quotations and moments could you use to reflect the contextual backdrop of othering, prejudice and discrimination?

Answer 7

the juxtaposition between the creature’s humane narrative and Walton’s and Frankenstein’s biased one
‘creature’ ‘vile insect’ ‘wretch’-derogatory terms
‘we did it to prove you had souls at all’
repetition of ‘reared’ in NLMG and repetition of gnashed in Frankenstein
Use of ‘creature in both texts

Question 8

4

Which quotations from both texts reflect the backdrop of scientific advancement?

Answer 8

• ‘penetrate the secrets of nature’ (Frankenstein before creating the creature)
• “The world was to me a secret which I desired to divine.”
• “Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge” (Frankenstein at the end of the novel)
• ‘he’d taken his research much further than anyone before him, far beyond legal boundaries’ (Miss Emily about James Morningdale)

Question 9

How can the tabula rasa theory be applied to both texts?

Answer 9

The creature’s acts of benevolence especially for the De Lacey’s versus his burning of the cottage and murder of William once he becomes corrupted through his contact with society (also works for the noble savage)
It is harder to apply to NLMG as, due to Kathy’s non-linear and fragmented narrative, we don’t have full access to her childhood yet Tommy could be symbolic of innocence and the clones seem essentially good compared to those in power

Question 10

What is tabula rasa?

Answer 10

• the theory that the (human) mind is at birth a “blank slate” (John Locke)
• ‘I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend”

Question 11

Which quotations allude to Paradise Lost (which Shelley also used for her epigraph to foreshadow the key themes of the novel)

Answer 11

“I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel…”
‘Satan had his companions, fellow-devils, to admire and encourage him; but I am solitary and abhorred.’

Question 12

Shelley subtitled the novel ‘the modern Prometheus’. Why?

Answer 12

Both Prometheus and Victor steal a knowledge that man was never meant to have from the rulers of the universe. The novel suggests that this power should belong only to God, or nature.

Question 13

William Godwin (Shelley’s father) was an influential philosopher and political thinker. What was one of his beliefs?

Answer 13

That everyone should act only for the good of mankind; otherwise, selfishness would lead to the breakdown of society.

Question 14

5

Science

Answer 14

• Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ might act as a mouthpiece for the Romantic movement’s fears regarding the Enlightenment Era, with its scientific ambition to understand the natural world and humanity through sheer reason threatening to erode religious and moral principles.
• Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ was written to the backdrop of great scientific breakthroughs, with Luigi Galvani proposing the scientific concept of galvanism - reanimating dead matter using electricity.
• Mary Shelley’s novel ‘Frankenstein’ was written amidst debate regarding the ‘life-principle’ which was seen to attack Christian beliefs in its implication that humans can create life, undermining the idea of an immortal soul.
• Kazuo Ishiguro was writing to a backdrop of scientific innovation; in 1996, Dolly the Sheep became the first mammal to be cloned from an adult embryo. The fact that the novel takes place in the “late 1990s” so the epigraph informs us, it highlights how Never let Me Go is an “alternative history conceit” with a more advanced scientific timeline evident in how human-cloning is already occurring on a mass scale by this point. Cloning itself has been described as a ‘Frankenstein science’ as it revitalised concerns around tampering with nature.
• Kazuo Ishiguro was writing in a more secular period, with his concerns being directed more toward governmental authorities. During WW2, the Nazi party carried out unethical scientific experimentation on those they regarded as sub-human eg. members on the Jewish population were subjected to bone transplants; Ishiguro reinforces the moral evil of a government authority justifying their oppressive, harmful regime for the sake of scientific innovation.

Question 15

3

Gender/women

Answer 15

• When ‘Frankenstein’ was first published in 1818, it had to be done so anonymously due to the risk of Shelley losing custody of her children, as the subject of horror and murder were seen as unbefitting for a women. Being on the receiving end of censorship suggests that Mary Shelley deliberately omitted female voices from her novel to convey the restrictions of feminine expression enforced by contemporary society.
• Mary Shelley’s mother, Mary Wollstonecraft wrote one of the first examples of feminist literature ‘Vindication for the Rights of Women’ which proposed that women should have equal social and economic opportunities - a radical notion to its contemporary readership.
• Kazuo Ishiguro wrote Never Let Me Go during the third wave of feminism whose emphasis was on celebrating female sexuality and individuality; this normalisation of feminine expression and independence results in the novel feeling ungendered.

Question 16

2

Responsibility

Answer 16

• At the time that Shelley was writing ‘Frankenstein’ the idea of Calvinism was popularised, stating that people were predestined for heaven or hell - that we are born morally good or bad; Shelley criticises this concept when coupled with physiognomy - a prevalent practise in her period of writing - whereby physicality is equated to morality; her characterisation of the creature entirely subverts these ideas, with his outward appearance not being indicative of his initial disposition, and his fluid morality.
• Within the more secular context Ishiguro was writing in, he explores the philosophy of existentialism which proposes that we are responsible for creating purpose/meaning in our lives, with human beings having agency over their belief systems and morality - a sentiment antithetical to Calvinism. The clones however are conditioned to believe they lack control over their own existence, to highlight society’s oppressive regime.

Question 17

2

Education

Answer 17

• Mary Shelley was likely influenced by her father, William Godwin’s proto-anarchist philosophy, which stated that social institutions fail as they impose pre-conceived ideas onto man, making it impossible to see things as they really are; this manifests as prejudice against the physical monstrosity of the creature that in turn ignites his wrath.
• Kazuo Ishiguro explores something in the same vein of philosophy, with Baudrill’s simulacra being apparent in how the clones do not interact with reality as it is, but rather a simulation imposed upon them of freedom, autonomy and choice that proves unsustainable as they progress through society’s oppressive regime.

Question 18

2

Labour

Answer 18

• Shelley’s depiction of Victor and the creature’s relationship mirrors that between the proletariat and the product of his labour, with Marx saying that “the greater this product the less he is himself” evident in how Victor wastes away in his creation of the creature; under a Marxist reading, this dynamic may convey Shelley’s critique of society’s treatment of the working class, or perhaps more widely the pursuit of scientific achievement at the detriment of one’s health.
• Ishiguro also criticises the harmful effects of materialism; amidst the backdrop of the 2000’s hyper-consumerism, Ishiguro can be seen to use the novel as a mouthpiece to his concerns regarding the destructive nature of capitalist societies symbolised in how the clones donate their organs, becoming less themselves in the most literal sense as they succumb to the commoditized lifestyle their dystopian society encourages - offering themselves as the product.

Question 19

2

Creation and divine aspirations

Answer 19

• In her 1831 introduction Shelley suggests that Victor’s main crime is his “frightful” attempt to create life, and in turn “mock” the work of God. Nonetheless, what her Christian contemporaries may label as Victor’s hubris is punished not by a vengeful divinity, but rather his neglected creature. We can attribute this secularisation to Shelley’s atheist beliefs, which may instead frame Victor’s act of creation as a transgression of nature (an idealised force within the Romantic movement to which she belonged) and failure to fulfil parental responsibility to one’s offspring.
• Ishiguro approaches the theme of creation from a similarly secular stance, with science allowing natural processes like sexual reproduction and pregnancy to be easily bypassed. Like Victor procedure assembling the creature, the clones are ‘lab-grown’ as synthetic fetuses; this transcends current technological abilities and legalities, with scientists only being allowed to cultivate human embryos up until 14 days. In depicting an oppressive society who exploits artificial creation, Ishiguro warns us how it can undermine the value we put on human life.