Frankenstein has many themes throughout the book. Themes like money issues, light, abandonment of parent figure, and nature as god play a large role in the book, however, the theme that takes place throughout the whole book is forbidden knowledge. Forbidden knowledge is a theme that takes place throughout the majority of Frankenstein. Captain Walton starts the book off in search for scientific discoveries, Victor spends the majority of the book creating and searching for the creature, and the creature is the forbidden knowledge.
The start of the book is where Captain Walton is on his ship in search for Forbidden knowledge. He wants to shock the world with scientific discoveries. He sets out to travel and writes letters to his sister with his journals. “I may there discover the wondrous power which attracts the needle; and may regulate a thousand celestial observations, that require only this voyage to render their seeming eccentricities consistent forever. I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the
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The setting of the book is a time where science wasn’t so widely explored, and they still had a lot to figure out. After Victors intentions with science and discovery are shot down by Krempe, victor still continues his search for the forbidden knowledge that is life and death and why it happens and how to make it happen. Eventually, Victor thinks he has figured out how to create life, and he becomes very fascinated with it and he becomes determined to create a human. His search for the forbidden knowledge makes him gather body parts to create a giant living figure. Later in the book, after Victors creation has ran away, Victor realizes what he has created and released to roam around. Victors search for knowledge has led to this and he has created a monster. The creature then slowly starts taking action against victor in search of someone like
At first, Victor believes himself superior to nature, and he builds a creature to prove his dominance. After gathering the information and materials needed to create life, Victor begins to fantasize about what he is about to do. He sees “life and death [as] ideal bounds, which [he] should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into [their] dark world. A new species would bless [him] as its creator and source, many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to [him]” (Shelley 55). Life and death are natural things, but Victor thinks that he can “break through” them and create life. He alone would be the person to “pour a torrent of light into their dark world,” as if he was God, ruling over all of the world. This shows Victor’s lack of respect towards life and how he intends to overcome the boundaries set by nature. Unlike the Romantic who revered and honored nature, Victor wants to use it for his own gain. He expects “happy” and “excellent natures” to obey him, and he doesn’t dwell upon the consequences of his actions. His outlook changes after the Creature comes to life. As Victor stares into the watery, lifeless eyes of his creature, he finally realizes his mistake in trying to disrupt the natural order of the world. Scared by the outcome of his actions, Victor attempts to run away and find comfort in nature. He travels to the Arve Ravine, where “the
Victor uses his knowledge and attachment to science and becomes “thus engaged, heart and soul, in one pursuit” (Shelley 68) and that pursuit is to succeed. He puts his whole heart and dedicates his every hour to the creation, which makes him “neglect the scenes around [him] causing [him] also to forget those friends who were so many miles absent, and whom [he] had not seen for so long a time” (Shelley 68). After putting so much time and effort into the creation, Victor expects the product to be perfect, yet it is the complete opposite, unattractive and frightful. Victor barely gives the monster a chance to speak before he runs off, leaving the monster to fend for
As he goes off to college, interested in the science behind life and death, he ends up going his own way and attempts to create a living being. Victor “had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body” (Shelley 43). The being Victor has created does not by any means sit well with him. As victor is away from his family and for six years, he is neglectful to them, which only adds to his sorrow and misery. Victor’s isolation is brought upon him because of himself, however his creation, or “the monster”, is isolated from any connections with humans against his will. To start out, the monster would have had Victor there with him, but Victor is ashamed of what he has created, and abandons the monster. The monster is a very hideous being, which sadly is a contributing factor to his isolation. With nobody to talk to at any time, naturally this will be condescending and frustrating. Although the monster is able to
Victor is so engulfed by his work that he is unaware of what is going on around him. He “bore onwards [with his work], like a hurricane, in the first enthusiasm of success” and he wants to “pour a torrent of light into our dark world" (Shelley 55). Blinded by his yearning for making new discoveries, Victor thinks that his knowledge of the sciences will be enough for him to be successful. However, he does not understand that in order to create an auspicious relationship between him and his creation, he needs to have knowledge of society as well. Once his creation is animated, Victor is unable to see that all the creature wants is to be loved and accepted. The creature craves the maternal love that Victor denies him. From the beginning, Victor is unable to realize the significance of his creation. He describes how the creature’s “yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath... [and] his hair was of a lustrous black... [and] his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips” (Shelley 58). He immediately focuses on the negative features of his creation, and does not even attempt to learn the positive qualities. If Victor uses more social skills, rather than his knowledge of the sciences to manage his creation, all of the destruction the creation causes could have been
To begin with, Victor attended the University of Ingolstadt where he continued his education from outside his hometown, Geneva. He discovered shortly after his arrival what he wanted to study and became highly interested in it. Mary Shelly states “From this day natural philosophy, and particularly chemistry, in the most comprehensive sense of the term, became nearly my sole occupation.” (35) His continual want for knowledge led him to an abundance of research and he began to attain anything that was put in front of him. M. Walden said “ Chemistry is that branch of natural philosophy in which the greatest improvements have been and may be made; it is on that account that I have made it my peculiar study; but at the same time, I have not neglected the other branches of science.” (Shelly 34) Victor uses what his teacher says as encouragement which aids him in more resources to create the monster, such as a broader knowledge of all the aspects of science. With all the knowledge he grasped over the period of time including the interest of the human frame, Victor put together all of which he knew of and created life by using reused body parts and assembled them together to create one giant seven foot creature. His...
Victor is so enamored at the idea of creating life. He spends months studying at Ingolstadt and then in isolation working on his own creation, the monster. "After so much time spent in painful labour, to arrive at once at the summit of my desires was the most gratifying consummation of my toils. But this discovery was so great and overwhelming that all the steps by which I had been progressively led to it were
The confrontation between the two demonstrates Victor 's weaknesses as an individual. Although Victor is the Creature 's creator, he refers to his creation as an "abhorred monster" (Shelley 68) and is willing to "extinguish the spark which he so negligently bestowed" (Shelley 68) upon him. This demonstrates Victor 's lack of responsibility. His goal was to create life, essentially to play God. Once the monster began to murder those dearest to Victor, he failed to take responsibility for the creature 's actions. Another weakness in Victor 's character is revealed through the dialogue exchanged between creator and creation. Instead of calmly trying to reason with the Creature, Victor lashes back at the Creature. He even suggests that the two "try their strength in a fight in which one must fall." (Shelley 69) The monster, however, maturely and eloquently urges Victor 's "compassion to be moved" (Shelley69). Because Victor is full of "rage and horror" he wants to destroy his own creation even though victor is playing god in recreation of humanity. They both are to blame due to the fact that Victor created the creature as well as the signs of irresponsibility between the two for the Creature killing people and for Victor trying to recreate
Frankenstein expresses the belief that religious knowledge will overcome the courts system, regardless of evidence. The one theme of knowledge in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein is that people believe religious knowledge will overcome the court knowledge. This theme of knowledge is demonstrated by the court case of William, through the accused murder and how the family responds to her. Justine’s belief in the truth, at first, is strong and that trust in God’s knowledge will overcome the court’s knowledge.
How a person takes care of that creation is what really matters. Victor does indeed create life, but what he does afterwards is implorable; “Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room, and continued a long time traversing my bed-chamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep” (Shelley 36). The moment he is finished with the creation process, and looks at what he has made, he is horrified, and instead of facing his consequences head on, he is assured when the monster just sort of disappears. This is not motherly, nor fatherly or parent-ly. This shows his lack of power over the creature, and his own guilt for creating a
Theme 1: Power is an instrument that can have dangerous consequences. I feel this theme is supported with the dangerous knowledge that Frankenstein had and his ability to use science to create the monster. Ultimately that power of creation haunted him and he saw the wrong in his creation.
Victor has a lack of respect for the natural world that leads him on the path to becoming a monster. In creating the monster Victor is trying to change the natural world. He is trying to play the role of god by creating life.
...Frankenstein and the creature. The situations that each character experience are lessons about how seeking prohibited intelligence comes with extreme consequences. Frankenstein is a Gothic novel which means it involves the supernatural; however, because it contains religious qualities it is more appealing to the common people’s idea of knowledge. Mary Shelley achieves her goal of informing the audience that man should not seek or possess the level of knowledge that God acquires. One should learn from the situations present in the novel because life comes with an enormous amount of knowledge; going after the unknown is an act of rebellion against God.
Dangerous knowledge is a theme that can be found throughout the novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelly. In Frankenstein the search for knowledge is portrayed by three major characters, Victor Frankenstein, Robert Walton, and the Monster. The search for knowledge drives one character to his death, causes one to become evil and brings the other to realization of what could happen if he continues his search for knowledge. Frankenstein is used as a cautionary tale to portray the consequences of gaining too much knowledge and trying to outsmart nature.
When Victor goes to college and his interest in science and nature grows, his curiosity to find the secret of immortality causes him to want to create a creature and bring it to life. Victor starts to create his unnatural work hoping that it will bring success in the future, “I prepared myself for a multitude of reverses; my operations might be incessantly baffled, and at last my work be imperfect, yet when I considered the improvement which every day takes place in science and mechanics, I was encouraged to hope my present attempts would at least lay the foundations of future success.” (43). Victor states his concerns about what he plans to do but dismisses them based on the importance he places on his work. For that reason, he starts to meddle with nature to create something no one can do but God. Finally, when Victor completes his creation, the monster, he realizes that he has made a serious mistake by interfering with nature, “I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.” (47). He thinks he has achieved this beautiful dream of creating a life, but now that he has, all he can see is an ugly monster. Trying to take on divine creation fails and instead of beauty, all Victor can create is something horrifying. Therefore, disrupting with nature is a trait that proves Victor is the true monster because it is a limit that no human should overstep. Eventually, it will come to a miserable
The theme in a piece of literature is the main idea or insight on characters. Most pieces of literature do not limit itself to one but many other themes all collected into one. This is just like in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. This horrifying story was produced in 1818 and has several themes that she portrays throughout. The theme of dangerous knowledge is unmistakably seen theme in Frankenstein. In Frankenstein we see this theme through three of the main characters, Victor Frankenstein, Robert Walton and the creature. We can see how their desire for knowledge can take them places and show them eventually what they are looking for. Sooner or later it will take them to dangerous and unwanted places. The desire for knowledge can eventually lead one to its grave. Victor Frankenstein’s scientific endeavor, Robert Walton’s search for the North Pole, and the creature’s kind heart but scary features creates this theme of dangerous knowledge.