Compare the two time frames of Never Let Me Go and Frankenstein.

The
novels by Mary Shelley andare set in two different eras. Shelley's
Frankenstein is strongly associated with early 19th-century Romanticism. The
exact time period of , although Ishiguro wrote it in the late 20th century,
is not specified, but it seems to be the not-too-distant future.

The novels
are very similar in evoking contemporary anxieties, including ethical concerns, about how to
define human existence and the proper place of science and technology.

Shelley portrays Victor Frankenstein on the border of science and religion as he takes
on the role of creator: he plays God. Victor also uses contemporary medical practices, which
made people anxious in his day, of using corpses. While others used the bodies to study anatomy
and physiology, he goes much farthertoo farin making new life. The creature also stands for the
alienation of the individual in the uncertain modern age. He feels human emotions, but others
reject him and see him as monstrous rather than human.

Ishiguro takes up the
theme of cloning, a post-World War Two scientific advance involving animals. He created a
fictional world in which cloning humans has become routine. We do not meet the scientists or
creators who make the clones, so their ethical dilemmas are not explored. Rather, the author
emphasizes the daily reality of the clones beings who, like Shelley's creature, struggle to
define their identity as humans or not.