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The Theme Of Thirst For Knowledge In Mary Shelley's 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). Victor studied organic chemistry in college to further develop and learn the skills about the recreation of life which he was interested in. He soon got the crazy idea to make a creature of his own, Victor becomes so obsessed with reanimating the dead he begins to collect body parts from corpses in a nearby grave. Victor follows through and makes the creature but flees because he gets frightened by the outcome. Once he leaves Victor realizes what he has done and that his actions lead to the destruction of everyone that he cared about. These events ultimately led to his downfall hinting that the knowledge of life is too dangerous to understand. Victor states that “One …show more content…

For example throughout the novel she shows us the level of destruction that follows, Victor’s life was completely flipped upside down because everyone he ever loved was murdered by his own creation. Victor states “When I reflected on his crimes and malice, my hatred and revenge burst all bounds of moderation. I would have made a pilgrimage to the highest peak of the Andes, could I when there have precipitated him to their base”(9.6). This quote reveals that Victor immediately regretted his creation once he realized what it had done to his life. Science should not be tampered with, look where it got

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Victor would stop at nothing to finish his project and became so obsessed that he was isolated from his family and friends. His way of collecting lifeless matter for his creation is unethical and morally wrong. Eventually, he is punished for his actions: “I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body.” (pg.56) Additionally, extreme devotion to the building of his creation caused Victor mental distress due to the fact that he neglected his own needs in order to work exclusively on the creature: “I had deprived myself of rest and health.”

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“I seek the everlasting ices of the north, where you will feel the misery of cold and frost, to which I am impassive. " That was the end part of Victor’s life, the curse of his creation compromised with Victor’s life. Even scientific innovations highly blessings to humanity if a person uses it wisely, but same knowledge can be a curse and can destroy a human race. For example, Nuclear bombs which destroyed Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan is an example of cursed knowledge. In the Frankenstein, curse generated by knowledge ultimately took the life of an ambitious, knowledgeable scientist, Victor,

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Dangerous Minds- Rough Draft Knowledge has the capability to be used for both good and evil. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, there is a consistent message throughout the novel showing the dangerous and destructive power that knowledge can have. Two key characters, Victor Frankenstein and his monster, are shaped through their obsessions with knowledge and the power and responsibility that it brings. Ultimately, Victor’s downfall is a result of his uncontrollable thirst for knowledge, and is brought about through the monster which is the embodiment of his obsession. Victor is a brilliant scientist who figures out a way to create life from death using galvanism, or electricity.

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Oftentimes people are too afraid of what people might think to show their full potential. This is not the case for Victor in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. In Frankenstein we see the journey of Victor and his creation as they separately get rejected and misunderstood by society. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein supports Emerson’s ideas of self-reliance because Victor shows that fearless people can achieve greatness.

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Knowledge is power and power is what leads to self destruction of Victor Frankenstein; an easily influenced man who sows he is not the male figure he wants to be. Victor lived a simple life, starting as a child who has everything he possibly could possibly want; a family, a house, an above all happiness. However, it all alter when he loses his mother, the traumatic event causes the family to switch gear and face he heart ache to something else. Escapism through knowledge is what led Victor's secrecy. " The world was to me to secret which I desire to divine, curiosity, earnest research to learn hidden laws of nature, gladness akin to rapture, as they were unfolded to me, are among the earliest sensations I can remember.

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The power of knowledge can be a dangerous thing. However, it is not always the content or amount of knowledge that is dangerous. It is the person behind that knowledge that has the potential to bring danger to society. No tale represents this better than Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein. Monsters and myths can be scary or frightening to young children.

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The Dangers of Knowledge Frankenstein, a novel written by Mary Shelley, is notoriously accredited for its development and implication of multiple themes. Set in the 1700’s, Frankenstein is a gothic fiction telling of isolation, knowledge, and nature. The biggest of these being knowledge and inevitably its consequences. With knowledge comes question; What poses the most danger? The knowledge itself, or the journey to gain information?

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