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The Pain Of Knowledge Theme In Frankenstein

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In the horror novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley conveys the themes of the pain of the pursuit of knowledge and the responsibilities of a creator to his creation through using allusion, juxtaposition, metaphor, and diction. To convey the Romantic theme of the pain of knowledge, Shelley utilizes allusion in order to show Victor’s rise and fall during his journey to accrue knowledge and glory. Shelley portrays Victor as a fallen angel. According to the text, “...like the archangel who aspired to omnipotence, I am chained in an eternal hell.” This is a Biblical reference to angels cast out of Heaven for wronging God, often by committing one of the seven deadly sins. Victor, in his hubris, fell to a greed and lust for renown. Perhaps Victor is no angel; it could be that he is a God treading through the physical realm. Victor feels that he is doomed to burn eternally for his actions against …show more content…

The text illustrates Frankenstein’s God complex: “I trod heaven in my thoughts, now exulting in my powers, now burning with the idea of their effects.” Burning is commonplace in Hell, which is the antithesis of Heaven. Far too late, Victor grasps the implications of his playing God. The die had been cast and thrown where Frankenstein could not see it; his actions came back to torment him. In his pursuit of glory, Frankenstein decided to reanimate the dead. However, Victor was a neglectful creator; he rejected his creation--his Adam--and in the monster’s quest for affection and happiness, the monster became a fallen angel. To demonstrate the theme of the responsibility of a creator to his creation, Shelley uses an indirect metaphor to describe how Frankenstein’s ambition caused his downward spiral--the inception of which was the birth of his creation. Victor only exacerbated the issue by abandoning the monster both physically and psychologically. According to the text,

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