“Knowledge is power,” Francis Bacon once said. The more one knows, the more one is able to control and change the world. Novels, such as Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, illustrate how knowledge gives one power. In Northanger Abbey, Austen tells the story of an unlikely heroine, Catherine Morland, who is obsessed with gothic novels. She travels with Mr. and Mrs. Allen to Bath, a resort and marriage market in England. There, she meets a very wealthy family, the Tilneys. She develops an interest for one of the sons, Henry Tilney, who is intelligent and shares her delight in novels, especially Gothic novels. However, Catherine’s ignorance in certain subjects make her more attractive to him. In Frankenstein, Shelley …show more content…
In his narration to Robert Walton, a captain and explorer seeking knowledge, Frankenstein first describes how natural philosophy regulated his fate. From a young age, natural philosophy deeply intrigued him. When he attends the University of Ingolstadt, a professor advises him that he must apply to every branch of natural philosophy in order to become a man of science instead of a petty experimentalist. From that moment, Frankenstein dedicated his life to studying science. He becomes so well acquainted with the theory and practice of natural philosophy that he no longer needs to depend professors at Ingolstadt. He thinks of returning to his friends and his native town, but the phenomena about the structure of the human frame attracts his attention; he wonders when the principle of life proceeds. Frankenstein’s pursuit of more knowledge prompts him to stay in Ingolstadt. He becomes so interested in the principle of life that he dedicates an incredulous amount of work and time to uncover the cause of it. His determination leads him to not only discover the cause of life, but to gain the capability of bringing life to the dead. However, this amount of new knowledge is the reason for his suffering. He