Walton's Search For Knowledge In Frankenstein

The era of gothic novels ushered in a time of revolt from science and a push away from scientific thought. Frankenstein, itself, offers one long ode to the fact that ambition and the thirst for knowledge can have devastating consequences for the person who craves them. The creature and Victor Frankenstein both serve as warning signs for Walton on his journey for scientific discovery. Much of Frankenstein centers around characters searching for knowledge and understanding of the world. Each of the three storylines each shows the down fall of character after they have begun to understand the world. Opening the story with Robert Walton and his journey to discover the science of magnetics in the North Pole, Walton says, “I preferred glory to

The creature wants to retell his story to Frankenstein to convince him why he deserves to have a female creature created for him but at the end of the day he only convinces Frankenstein why he shouldn’t make one. The creature recounts his time with the De Laceys and all of the humans who have hurt him physically and mentally. He was betrayed by the human race and it is their fault that he is the way he is. It could be argued, though, that creature only became the way he is because he began to educate himself. At the beginning of the creature’s life, he was happy and spent time peacefully living in nature. It is only after he begins to read stories such as Ruins of Empires and Paradise Lost that he discovers evil in the world. Once he find the journals of Frankenstein he craves revenge on Frankenstein. At the end of the novel, he reflects, “No guilt, no mischief, no malignity, no misery, can be found comparable to mine. When I run over the frightful catalogue of my sins, I cannot believe that I am the same creature whose thoughts were once filled with sublime and transcendent visions of the beauty and the majesty of goodness. But it is even so; the fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even the enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone”

Frankenstein, himself, reflects on this point by saying, “I had begun life with benevolent intentions and thirsted for the moment when I should put them in practice and make myself useful to my fellow beings” (pg. 94). The novel finishes up with“That he should live to be an instrument of mischief disturbs me; in other respects, this hour, when I momentarily expect my release, is the only happy one which I have enjoyed for several years. The forms of the beloved dead flit before me, and I hasten to their arms. Farewell, Walton! Seek happiness in tranquility and avoid ambition, even it be only the apparently innocent one of distinguishing yourself in science and discoveries. Yet why do I say this? I have myself been blasted in these hopes, yet another may succeed” (pg. 236) proving that Frankenstein clearly didn’t learn