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Victor Frankenstein's Lack Of Knowledge

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Recommended: Frankenstein literary analysis

Jane DiGennaro Mr. Arcuri Senior English 12/16/15 There was a time in our history when we relied on science. We needed science to reassure us on every matter. People preferred to ignore the subliming side of nature; this was called the Age of Enlightenment. This was an age based off of growth. The growth in science overwhelmed people’s minds and erased traditional teachings. This came from well educated individuals who needed a logical explanation for how things worked. Frankenstein became obsessed with this idea. He wanted a scientific explanation for life. He wanted to create life. He became so consumed with the lust from it all. Victor Frankenstein is well gifted in the realm of knowledge. Victor’s quest for the secret of life and over all, ultimate knowledge drives him to his downfall. Victor sacrifices the comfort of …show more content…

This shows the reader that Victor Frankenstein 's tragic flaw is centered within his thirst for knowledge beyond what anyone else has accomplished and also his hubristic nature in trying to take on nature 's role in life. …show more content…

Frankenstein spent most of his life creating life. It’s ironic that he wasted years of his life creating this thing he would hide from. He wasted his life creating another life. “Victor’s methods finally create life, but not the way he planned- his vision of a race of supermen shatters when he sees the ragtag, angry creature he has created, and he immediately disowns the creature” (Monster or Misunderstood). Victor expected his creation to be this beautiful being that would because somewhat of a hero figure. But when it was born, if mind was cleared, and he had realized what he had done. He had created a monster and had to disown it. He didn’t want anything to do with it because he felt ashamed that he created such a

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Victor Frankenstein turns away from his responsibilities by ignoring the existence of his creation. Throughout the novel, Victor is constantly running away from the monster and not giving him attention, which resulted in the monsters change of personalities. For example, in page 71 the creation said, “All men hate the wretched; how must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us.” This quote suggests that because of the ignorance of Victor the monster began to become evil and have the urge to seek

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Throughout the novel, these characters toil with the pursuit of forbidden knowledge by suffering through the ramifications of their decisions to satisfy their desires. The author implies that blind ambition can lead to the downfall of beings who don’t limit their curiosity. These endeavors include determining the secret of life as well as its creation, discovering a passage in the North Pole, and learning to understand one’s place in the world. Victor Frankenstein suffers from the cost of knowledge by allowing his thirst for the unknown to exceed his limits. In like manner, he pushes his own limits and spends countless nights working to construct his creature even though he is cautioned that only God is capable of creating life.

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Victor questions why men so instinctively attempt to become superior to nature when men are also a product of nature. He criticizes that if humans reverted to our primal instincts, “hunger, thirst, and desire” (67) that we’d be free, or content with our lives. This is his subliminal self-reflection as he understands that seeking the secret to life, by creating the monster, did not bring him happiness but rather brought him misery and self-loathing. In this last line of the passage, Shelley highlights a major morale and theme of the story which is using science to tamper with nature, a critique against the enlightenment period. The consequences of Frankenstein’s creation have not only caused the death of William and Justine but will also become the reason for his own inevitable doom

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Such passion is seen in Victor’s ‘noble intent’ to design a being that could contribute to society, but he had overextended himself, falling under the spell of playing ‘God,’ further digging his grave as he is blinded by glory. His creation – aptly called monstrous being due to its stature, appearance, and strength – proved to be more of a pure and intellectually disposed ‘child’ that moves throughout the novel as a mere oddity, given the short end of the stick in relation to a lack of familial figures within his life, especially that of parents. Clearly, Victor Frankenstein had sealed his fate: by playing God he was losing his humanity, ultimately becoming the manifestation of Mary Shelley’s hidden desires, deteriorating into The Lucifer Principle by which the author Howard Bloom notes social groups, not individuals, as the primary “unit of selection” in human psychological

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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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It is often said that the more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know. Even Aristotle said, “The more you know, the more you know you don 't know.”. This can often lead to a yearning for more knowledge and sometimes, can be somebody’s downfall. In this case, it was Victor Frankenstein’s downfall. His love for science and his ever-growing quest to learn about the human body ultimately destroyed him, his family, his wife to be, and his best friend.

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ENG-3U0 November 20 2015 Frankenstein: The Pursuit of Knowledge Throughout the course of their individual journeys, Victor Frankenstein’s extreme passion for gaining knowledge about creating life, Robert Walton’s curiosity to discover land beyond the North Pole and the monster’s eagerness to obtain knowledge about humans was the principal cause of each of their suffering. As such, In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the pursuit of knowledge is a dangerous path which leads to suffering. Victor Frankenstein develops a keen interest in discovering knowledge about living beings which ultimately results in his personal suffering as well as others suffering. To begin with, Victor embarks on an assignment through combining body parts and following various

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After Victor knew the creature existed and encountered it, his life and state of mind were changing. He described himself as being “the author of unalterable evils, and I lived in daily fear,” (Shelley, 155). When this is put in metaphorical context, it strengthens the importance of why it was mentioned. It proves knowledge, through the establishment of a creation, is dangerous since Frankenstein ended up being in a fearful place.

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In Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein (1818), Shelley shows her audience that while acquiring knowledge leads to survival for the Creature and power for Victor Frankenstein, the path to obtain this knowledge leads to the destruction of one’s self. Education and knowledge have major negative effects on both of the characters’ attitude, perception, and decisions. The life experiences of each character is dependent on the amount of knowledge that the character possesses. Knowledge gives Victor Frankenstein a superiority complex, and it changes the Creature’s perspective of the world and the people in it. The Creature, like a baby, is brought into the world with no prior knowledge of how society behaves.

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All three characters are on a search for knowledge and it plays a major part in their life and more importantly their fate. Here we can see both the journey and the end result, knowledge, posing danger. Victor Frankenstein is a perfect example of the consequences of knowledge. Victor sees the most loss and sadness associated with knowledge. He searches for the answers to create life and goes beyond normal human realm to inquire on them; “It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance ... or, in it highest sense, the physical secrets of the world” (21).

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