Quest For Knowledge In Frankenstein

Laura Zimmerman

English IV Hrns

Laura Spretnjak

The Quest for Knowledge in The Modern Prometheus How far would you go for knowledge? In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein she explores the scientific fanaticism found in her day (1818) and the dire consequences the individual might face as a result of it through three characters: R. Walton, Victor Frankenstein, and Frankenstein’s Monster. The quest for knowledge is a universal theme in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein with her characters illustrating that the quest for knowledge, while possibly rooted in virtue, can lead to their ultimate demise.

The first character in Mary Shelley’s novel, R. Walton, displays his quest for knowledge as well as his looming downfall in the letters he sends his beloved

(he) feel(s) (his) heart glow with an enthusiasm which elevates (him) to heaven; for nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose -- a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye” (2). Walton’s attachment to knowledge and intellect is clearly displayed here; he soothes his trepidations for his journey to possibly the most deadly place on earth by fantasizing about all the potential discoveries he could make there as well as what he could be the first to discover there. Walton’s fixation on the arctic is not for his love of ice, it is for what it represents: discovery, uncharted territory, and glory. Walton puts all his eggs in the metaphorical arctic exploration basket to make up for his previous intellectual failure to become a famous poet, with Walton feeling that he can redeem himself through this new endeavor, pivoting from the liberal arts to the sciences. Walton is obsessed with his self-imposed quest to a dangerous degree, saying that he could still remember, “... the hour which I dedicated myself to this great enterprise. I commenced by injuring my body to

When the Monster was created, he had to learn everything on his own with the mind of a child and brain of an adult. The Monster was so new to the whole existence thing that he did not even comprehend seeing Victor in the laboratory before he wandered off into the nearby woods. He learned many things on his own, the senses, the nature of fire, and how humans were terrified of him. Eventually he begins to watch a happy but impoverished family in the woods, in which he was entrapped and puzzled by the love and affection shared between the family of three. After carefully observing for several weeks he, “... made a discovery of still greater moment… I perceived that the words they spoke sometimes produced pleasure or pain, smiles or sadness, in the minds and countenance of the hearers. This was indeed a godlike science, and I ardently desired to become acquainted with it” (78). Before he learned the existence and purpose of speech, he discovered a numerous amount of things by himself remarkably quickly. He is drawn in by the companionship of the family in his lonely, wretched state and wishes that, if he could properly communicate with them, that they might accept him into their family. Ever since he was created, the Monster had been on a quest for knowledge; However, the more he learned, the more he