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Frankenstein Power Quotes

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Consequences Through Irresponsibility and Power
“The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.”
Edmund Burke
The quote by Edmund Burke, "The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse," indicates that the possession of power carries with it the potential for its misuse and abuse. It resembles the theme that Mary Shelley portrays in her novel and shows the dangers and responsibility power holds in this novel. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley portrays the theme that irresponsibility and power can result in irreversible tragedies through Victor’s pursuit of scientific knowledge, and abandoning the creature which builds revenge in his creation which ultimately leads to the deaths of William and Elizabeth.
To begin, In Frankenstein, Victor …show more content…

Due to this, Victor’s power of being a creator sequence to tragic events. The theme of power and the dangers of scientific pursuit is shown in Frankenstein and the effect after his creation is made. Victor mentions, “I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body… but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (43). Once Victor creates his creation, he is not able to endure looking at his creation. This shows the consequences that can arise from attaining power irresponsibly. Victor’s desire for knowledge to create life causes him to ignore the implications of his actions and the harm his experiment can cause. When he is successful in bringing his creation to life, his sense of accomplishment turns into horror and disgust. Victor’s power leads to his downfall by bringing the creature to life. The theme of pursuing knowledge is evident in the book and reinforces the idea that it can have disastrous and irreversible …show more content…

In chapter 4, Victor warns Walton about the dangers of acquiring knowledge. This serves as a sign of the events that will unfold throughout the novel. Victor remarks to Walton, “Learn from me… how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow” (39). Victor tries to warn Walton about the dangers of trying to know beyond one’s limits. He realizes that it brings misfortune and consequences instead of joy and happiness. This shows his own experiences with the pursuit of knowledge and the consequences of it. Victor emphasizes the importance of one’s limits and the harm of exceeding them. It also highlights the danger of obsession and pursuit of knowledge for power. Ultimately, Victor’s choices lead to the deaths of William and Elizabeth. Mary Shelley suggests that in pursuit of knowledge, it is important to have caution and responsibility and abused power can lead to irreparable

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Victor’s abandonment causes him to have to face the consequences of his greed for creating life, for after he abandons the creature bad things start to happen to him. An example of this is the death of William, Victor’s younger brother. The creature “grasped his throat to silence him, and in a moment he lay dead” (134). The creature uses his strength to harm people Victor loved, forcing Victor to have to face the consequences of his corruption and belief that he could defy God and create a new race. The creature continues with his path and murders Victor’s long-time friend Henry Clerval (171).

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“I shuddered to think that future ages might curse me as their pest, whose selfishness had not hesitated to buy its own peace at the price, perhaps, of the existence of the whole human race” (186). Victor sacrificed the peace he wanted for himself and accepted the lifelong torment of the creature, a consequence of his broken promise. Victor did this for the greater good of humanity, recognizing the power of his choice to create or not to create, as well as the power of the creature. Victor had to discover the hard way, how powerful the creature became when reading letters like this one from his father, “About five in the morning, I discovered my lovely boy, whom the night before I had seen blooming and in active health, stretched on the grass livid and motionless; the print of the murder’s finger was on his neck” (72). What Victor thought he was doing to save his family and friends, ended up being the thing that killed them.

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In his attempt to create a new being, Frankenstein is successful. That is, he is successful until he allows his creation's innocence to be tainted by the relentless savagery that is reality. As a result, Frankenstein's creation becomes Frankenstein's monster, defiled by hatred and the need for revenge. However, the destruction of innocence occurred not only in Frankenstein’s creation, but also in Victor Frankenstein himself. By the time of his death Victor is a monster consumed by hate and revenge.

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