The Quest For Knowledge In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

In the quote from “Education in Frankenstein” by Hillary Englert it describes the character development of Victor, Walton, and the Monster which she believes is due to a self-guided education and passion for knowledge. Englert’s quote provides insight to the principles of the character’s development each with a different way of implementing their intellectual curiosities for their personal self-fulfillment. Each character desires to explore new ideas, seek pleasure from knowledge, and in their limitless imagination each of our archetypes the freedom to think, interpret, and explore what impassions them.

Victor even said “Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge”. He admits that he suffered from his relentless search of knowledge.

Depending on one’s ambition can lead to tremendous leaps of advancement for mankind or its inevitable destruction. Thus, Victor Frankenstein demonstrates that tragic

Previous to the existence of the monster, readers are introduced to an ambitious, benevolent Victor Frankenstein. He exuded an excitement and passion about learning, though only for very specific subjects. “My temper was sometimes violent, and my passions vehement; but by some law in my temperature they were turned not towards childish pursuits but to an eager desire to learn.” (Shelley 19) Though his studies on creating life artificially had eventually grown tiresome—“My cheek had grown pale with study, and my person had

Frankenstein wants the glorification and pride in being the first person to create life. Frankenstein sees himself in Walton, and Walton says, “ ...do I not deserve to accomplish some great purpose?...,but I prefer glory to every excitement that wealth place on my path”(10). Walton is a younger extension of Frankenstein and gives perspective to the ideas of the younger version of Frankenstein as he creates the creature. However, Frankenstein’s ambitions cost him dearly. The deaths of those around him make him suffer, but also the creation of the creature makes the creature suffer.

In Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein (1818), Shelley shows her audience that while acquiring knowledge leads to survival for the Creature and power for Victor Frankenstein, the path to obtain this knowledge leads to the destruction of one’s self. Education and knowledge have major negative effects on both of the characters’ attitude, perception, and decisions. The life experiences of each character is dependent on the amount of knowledge that the character possesses. Knowledge gives Victor Frankenstein a superiority complex, and it changes the Creature’s perspective of the world and the people in it. The Creature, like a baby, is brought into the world with no prior knowledge of how society behaves.

As Frank Herbert once said: “ Too much knowledge never makes for simple decisions.” This reigns true not only in Frankenstein, But also in everyday life. Coincidentally, learning too much can bring misery and dangers into your life. We can see this in scientists, like Victor, they learn too much knowledge and become mad, crazy, hurtful people. Knowledge like most things is good in moderation, when knowing too much, we become people who are darker and more wretched than our original

He starts his own plan to for revenge against the creature, but this makes him just as beastly as the monster. Victor makes it his life goal, to make the monster pay in any way he can. He wants him to feel lonely and isolated forever. The beast takes a lot out on Victor and makes him feel exactly the way he feels

Dejected by the loss to the American Revolutionary War, George III lost the land acquired overseas and his mental stability. Later on, it was said that he suffered from porphyria, experiencing hallucinations, eventually leading up to his doomed derangement in 1788. The king’s psychotic perception not only mirrors Victor’s maniacal mind, but also paints the setting for Frankenstein, acting as a catalyst to an era of unorthodox vision, pandemonium, and creativity. In the early-to-mid 1700s, literature revolved upon concepts that were “driven by ideas, events, and reason”(“Enlightenment and Romanticism: a Comparison”).

“I seek the everlasting ices of the north, where you will feel the misery of cold and frost, to which I am impassive. " That was the end part of Victor’s life, the curse of his creation compromised with Victor’s life. Even scientific innovations highly blessings to humanity if a person uses it wisely, but same knowledge can be a curse and can destroy a human race. For example, Nuclear bombs which destroyed Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan is an example of cursed knowledge. In the Frankenstein, curse generated by knowledge ultimately took the life of an ambitious, knowledgeable scientist, Victor,

He uses the little that he knows to fuel his hatred towards humans and his creator. This shows the exponential growth of the problems that Victor has created as a result of his desire for knowledge. Not only did he create the destructive monster, but now the monster is using a hunger for knowledge, the very thing that created it, to do even more damage. This root cause is linked to everything that is causing Victor’s suffering. The monster also compares his relationship to Victor to that of God and Adam, wishing that he had the same supplication to his creator that Adam did, “I remembered Adam’s supplication to his creator.

ENG-3U0 November 20 2015 Frankenstein: The Pursuit of Knowledge Throughout the course of their individual journeys, Victor Frankenstein’s extreme passion for gaining knowledge about creating life, Robert Walton’s curiosity to discover land beyond the North Pole and the monster’s eagerness to obtain knowledge about humans was the principal cause of each of their suffering. As such, In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the pursuit of knowledge is a dangerous path which leads to suffering. Victor Frankenstein develops a keen interest in discovering knowledge about living beings which ultimately results in his personal suffering as well as others suffering. To begin with, Victor embarks on an assignment through combining body parts and following various

Furthermore, the monster that Victor created also ledo to the misuse of knowledge. The monster was eager to gain knowledge to understand his faith. However, when the monster gains knowledge he is

Instead of starting at the beginning of his life, she begins at the end and allows him to tell his own story. Walton remarks to his sister that he found the man drifting on a sledge on a slab of ice, "nearly frozen…and deadly emaciated by fatigue and suffering" (15). By introducing him in this way, Shelley catches the reader’s interest from the start, causing them to wonder what brought this man to the arctic in such a condition. After Frankenstein catches Walton up on the events that brought him thus far, Walton provides Shelley a way to tell the end of the story as well. Because Shelley wrote these portions as letters, they remain separate from the rest of the narrative, making the switch between Walton and Frankenstein less awkward and opening the door to develop her story and characters in a

Victor became eager to learn and master the secret to life, he was fascinated by the human frame, and how to manipulate and control it. However this obsession became more self-fulfillment than social utility, which ended up being his downfall. The creature had intellectual curiosity when it came to his self guided education. He was forced to learn to survive, how to fend for himself, he also learned the dangers of the world. The creature had learned the majority of his knowledge through mimicking the De Lacey family.