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The Pursuit Of Knowledge In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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“You seek for knowledge and wisdom, as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been”. –Victor Frankenstein. Frankenstein, written by the English author Mary Shelley, was a gothic, horror fiction, soft science fiction novel, published in London on 1818. The pursuit of knowledge is at the heart of Frankenstein, as Victor attempts to surge beyond accepted human limits and access to the secret of life. Frankenstein has several characters, some of them are very important for the developing of the story. There is Victor Frankenstein, a young Swiss boy, who grows up in Geneva reading the works of the ancient and outdated alchemists, he learns about modern science, becomes …show more content…

Takes him into the ship and there Victor tells him the story about the monster he created. He starts by telling Walton about his early life and his interest on natural philosophy, chemistry and his desire on discovering the secret of life and how he actually finds it. By putting together pieces of different bodies he creates something and brings it to life. When he looks at the monstrosity that he has created he is horrified by it and runs away with remorse and guilt. He was planning on going back to his hometown Geneva when he receives a letter from his father which said that his little brother William was murderer. Someone else was accused of the death and is executed even though the monster was the one who killed him. Victor goes to the mountains where he meets with the monster and the monster begs him to build a partner for him so he can be with someone. At first Victor refuses to do so and after a while he accepts to create a female partner for the creature, but after seeing what he is creating he destroys the female creature and the monster enraged swears that he will take revenge. Then Victor gets marry and his wife gets killed by the monster. Later in the story Victor vows to find the creature to destroy it, tracks the monster and in a dogsled chase, he almost catches him, but the ice breaks. Walton encounters Victor. Victor, already ill when he meets Walton, dies days

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Later on Justine is accused of a killing victor’s brother and she didn’t do it so she goes through a trial and they decide to kill her. At the end the monster kills Victor’s wife named Elizabeth because he is angry that victor wouldn’t create a companion for him. The monster learns to speak and read from the people. He would listen to them speak and he would watch them all day. He later began to understand what they were saying.

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She then uses illness symbolism to show his guilt for what he has caused. He has fallen ill every time a family member died because of his creation. Finally, she uses the dialogue between Victor and Walton, showing the different choices of using knowledge where Victor's selfish pursuit has caused him pain and sorrow in the end, but Walton ending his journey of wanting to know more of the world could have been what changed his future to be different from Victor, ultimately these literary devices had helped develop the theme, danger of knowledge, the knowledge that may have led to pain death, and dangerous situations when not pursuit

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Mary Shelley’s book Frankenstein is a frame narrative of the life of Victor Frankenstein recorded by Robert Walton. It is circled around his creation of a monster that suffered a lonely life and wanted revenge for being created. In Frankenstein, Shelley portrays many big ideas but, one that continues to show importance is the idea of Human Needs and Desires. so, in the novel Mary Shelley presents the idea that all creatures have a basic need for friendship and love.

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Frankenstein by Mary Shelley has been an American classic for almost 200 years, which contains both philosophical and moral themes in the text, making the reader question the limits of humankind and its desire for power. For every character presented in the story their independent desire to overcome their intentions becomes so intense that the future that lies upon them is nothing close to what they can imagine. Victor Frankenstein´s desire to quench his thirst for power ends up clouding his judgement and making him elude the future that awaits him. As Victor´s intention to succeed in natural sciences grow to an abnormal point, his judgement about what to do with that knowledge didn't let him contemplate the future consequences

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Written during the ninteenth century, the gothic Frankensteinnovel by Marry Shelly, tells the story of a young educated student Victor Frankenstein, who creates a grotesque but fantastic creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment, which leads to different tragic events. Shelly writes about the creation of the creature and how he is first introduce to his livelihood and this world. In this novel Shelly uses different types of literary techniques to convey the expression of the creature as a baby just learning about life and the world, and by employing innovative literary techniques such as imagery, setting, theme, and characterization, she creates a feeling of sympathy on the readers. This feeling is created through Shelly establishment of pity on the readers by reavealing the creature’s loathsome creation, habitat, or even existence.

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However, after being spotted by a passing ship, he is saved. The captain of the ship, Walter, and Victor Frankenstein are very similar. They both have a dying urge to seek new knowledge (hence why Walton is on his ship). As a result of Victor being deathly ill, he begins to tell Walton his whole life story. This would be one of the first people that Victor has ever told his secret to.

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Each man has an attachment with his sister and a desire to conquer the unknown. Once Walton realizes that Victor’s ambitions had ruined his life, he decides to choose safety over discovery and turn his ship around.

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Frankenstein is a book written by Mary Shelley about a man named Victor Frankenstein and his life and how it came to be. He had created a monster and brought it to life by studying and learning natural philosophy. Mary Shelley brought the emotions forward from the main characters by the amount of detail she put into the book. Most of the detail was brought in by the suffering that happens throughout the book caused by Frankenstein’s monster. The monster in this story is a tragic figure that is the main cause of suffering that occurs to everyone.

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(Shelley 59) Also, one of the main differences is Walton survives in the novel whereas Victor dies. As Walton listens to his fellow crew members, he has “consented to return, if [they] are not destroyed.” (Shelley 214) With his recognition of life, Walton is able to follow the members’ instincts in which he heads south and returns home.

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Victor creates the Creature, but there are many situations throughout the novel where the Monster displays as the victim. He seeks love from different people, but everyone treats him bad. His anger towards his father drives him to kill Victor’s family. The Monster later feels devastated for the murders he commits. All the monster wants is love.

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This foreshadows that once Walton hears Frankenstein’s story, he will change his mind about his expedition. Also, during the thunderstorm that happened in Victor’s childhood, Victor sees a tree get struck by lightning. He becomes interested in the idea of electricity, and he starts to study its

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Walton 's letters begin and end Shelley 's work by introducing the character of Frankenstein and also detailing the last moments of his life. While written in first-person like most of the book, his portion takes the form of letters to his sister, which lends itself to a slightly more personal style. In contrast with Frankenstein 's dramatic retelling of his life, Shelley writes Walton in a much lighter tone. Where Frankenstein 's narrative has a dark and dismal feel, Walton 's letters come across exactly as they ought to--as a man setting out on an adventure. These letters offer Shelley a platform from which to introduce the character of Victor Frankenstein.

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As a society we all seek answers to how God did it or question how we all got here, in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein the key theme is the thirst for knowledge. Throughout the novel there are three prominent characters that seek for the understanding of life, including Victor Frankenstein, the creature, and Walton. The most important character involved with this particular theme is Victor Frankenstein, it all starts with his curiosity. Victor’s curiosity sparks with the statement that “The world was to me a secret which I desired to divine” (2.1).

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Previous to the existence of the monster, readers are introduced to an ambitious, benevolent Victor Frankenstein. He exuded an excitement and passion about learning, though only for very specific subjects. “My temper was sometimes violent, and my passions vehement; but by some law in my temperature they were turned not towards childish pursuits but to an eager desire to learn.” (Shelley 19) Though his studies on creating life artificially had eventually grown tiresome—“My cheek had grown pale with study, and my person had

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This attitude is clearly naive. Walton possesses the same eagerness that destroyed victor and the monster. Victor says to Walton,

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