The Bitter Relationship Between Knowledge and Survival
Throughout Frankenstein, Shelley shows that knowledge is more than just books and school. She shows the impact that knowledge can have on characters in Frankenstein and the results that these impacts can create in different situations that can affect their survival. Mary Shelley negatively portrays knowledge as a factor that limits survival.
In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley portrays that knowledge can result in the deterioration of a person’s mental health. After Victor Frankenstein discovers that the creature was responsible for the murder of William Frankenstein, which was wrongfully blamed on Justine Moritz, he faces long introspections in which he expresses himself as “the true
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While taking refuge in a forest in Germany, the creature studies many books involving humans, such as Paradise Lost, that lead the creature to state “I found myself similar, yet at the same time unlike to the beings concerning whom I read… Who was I? What was I?... These questions continually recurred, but I was unable to solve them (91).” The creature had hoped of being accepted by society, however, the creature itself is surprised by the deformities and continuously questions them. This continuous questioning shows that the creature cannot accept its own appearance. Even though there is no self-acceptance, the creature goes on to introduce itself to the cottagers, who are living in the same forest, but receives a response of “horror” and was beaten “violently with a stick” by Felix, one of the cottagers (97). The creature attempted this based on the kind spirits it had seen when it was observing them but received this response as soon as Felix saw the creature and its horrible deformities. This is significant because this shows that the creature’s deformities act as disadvantages that hinders its acceptance by society. Although the creature was emotionally and mentally similar to the cottagers and other humans, its appearance was the factor that caused them to instantly reject the creature without knowing it for who it really was. Through these two scenes in Frankenstein, Mary Shelley shows that people, including the creature itself, labeled the creature as a monster once they learned about the deformities that the creature’s appearance