「責任」一詞與相關議題，包含責任屬性、規範、歸屬、履行，其對於人際關係以及個人與社會之關連的影響，除了反覆出現於瑪莉•雪萊的作品中，也可於其生平窺探之。本論文主張瑪莉•雪萊於首部小說《科學怪人》中，藉由是否有法律的干預探討「責任」相關問題及其對於人際關係的影響，以表達規範責任的困難。正文兩章獨立但相互呼應。第一章探討人造人與弗蘭肯斯坦的親子角力，以及兩人的衝突如何說明責任規範因缺乏法律干預所產生的困難。第二章討論賈絲汀的審判、莎菲父親與菲利克斯冤案、弗蘭肯斯坦的拘押，及其與日內瓦治安官之接觸，同時說明即使法律干預，責任規範依舊困難重重。小說中瑪莉‧雪萊並未透露個人偏好或提出具體解決方案，因此，可推論其主旨僅為呈現責任規範之複雜性。

“Duty” and its related issues recur and permeate Mary Shelley’s life and her oeuvre. From her experiences and her work, we observe questions about the determination, namely, assignment and enforcement of duty, as well as how these questions both affect human relations and reflect the interaction between the individual and society. Focusing on Mary Shelley’s first novel Frankenstein and its relevance to her early life, this thesis examines the role of the law—its absence as well as presence—in shaping personal relationships and determining duty. It argues that, by raising these questions about duty in the novel, Mary Shelley calls attention to the difficulties in determining duty regardless of whether or not the law intervenes in a given case. This argument is developed first through the parent-child struggle between Frankenstein and the Creature. As an artificial creation of life without legal recognition, the Creature has no right to legitimately demand the enforcement of Frankenstein’s parental duty, and his failure accordingly presents the problem without legal involvement. Second, the various trials in the novel, including that of Justine, Safie’s father and Felix, and Frankenstein, along with his interview with the Genevan magistrate, illustrate the paradoxical role of the law in organizing irresponsibility/non-responsibility while assigning responsibility. These unfavorable portrayals of the law attest to the difficulty in determining duty even with legal intervention. By demonstrating the dilemma without showing personal preference or providing definite solutions, Mary Shelley in Frankenstein presents emphatically the complications in the determination of duty.

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