An Experiment with an Air Pump :: Shelagh Stephenson Science Technology Essays

An Experiment with an Air PumpIs it ethical or withal helpful to try to impose order on a slipshod existence? Is it right to exemplify God, to steal the limelight from the cosmos? earth used to ponder existence, further with the increasing possibilities of science, we now ponder our mightiness over existence. In An Experiment with an Air Pump, Shelagh Stephenson uses symbolism associated with Isobel as a voice of foreboding in a society enraptured by the possibilities of science (3). Stephenson associates Isobel with a biddy, a pile of b whizzs, and a sheep to reveal the tincture side of the light, the scientific revolution.The play commences in 1799 when Fenwick risks the life of Harriets raspberry bush in order to conduct an experiment with an air pump. Later in the play, Armstrong puts a different life on the line for the intoxication of baring (3). This time the life is human. From the moment Armstrong sees Isobel he wants to examine her beautiful spikelet in all its d elicious, twisted glory (85). His infatuation with Isobel has nothing to do with matters of the heart, but he proceeds to woo her because of his sheer lust for science.Upon nurture of Armstrongs motive, Isobel attempts to hang herself. As Isobel lies helpless on the floor, fighting for one last breath, Stephenson illustrates that Isobels heels flutter almost imperceptibly (92). Later, everyone gathers around Isobels dead body much like they did around the fluttering bird in the first experiment. But this time Isobel, in her coffin, has taken the buttocks of the bird in the air pump(96). The detail that now a dead Isobel symbolizes the bird implies that this time the experiment has gone dreadfully wrong. The fact that the second experiment fails harbors a much more solemn minute than if the first had failed. If the bird in the first experiment had died, tears would throw off been shed hardly until the purchase of a new bird. Not only does Armstrong sacrifice a human life in the name of science, but he symbolically diminishes all that the bird and Isobel represent. Isobels death implies the destruction of freedom, will, and humanity.Stephenson also associates Isobel with a sheep, to represent what can be lost in a future of industry, science, wealth, and reason (15). Harriet writes her own play within this play in which the future is exalted as a new capital of Israel (15).