Knowledge accompanied by wisdom, is a blessing. Knowledge helped scientists. make the most destructive weapon known to mankind, a nuclear bomb. It was lack of wisdom that caused United States of America to use it as a means of mass destruction, as illustrated in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Knowledge not accompanied by wisdom, is a curse. Victor Frankenstein, protagonist in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, is awed by the science of chemistry and natural philosophy. His desire to gain knowledge leads him to research the secret of life, and after years of research, Victor is convinced he has discovered the meaning of life. With knowledge as his most powerful weapon, Victor embarks on a journey to create something extraordinary out of old body parts. One desperate night, Victor brings his creation to life. However, one glance at the creature was enough to make him realize that he had not created something beautiful, he created a monster. Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein demonstrates how knowledge can be dangerous by the damage caused by both the monster and Victor.
The desire to be omniscient is at heart of Frankenstein, as Victor embarks on a journey to unlock the secret of life. Victor challenges human limits by attempting to successfully discover and fully comprehend secret of life. Thirteen year old Victor Frankenstein becomes obsessed with natural philosophy after he comes across a book by Cornelius Agrippa. He vies to seek more knowledge after he gathers works of natural philosophers known to people; he studies the works of the scholars with a growing passion that can only be described as unhealthy. His passion for natural philosophers burns with a greater intensity after he learns of “the philosopher’s stone and the elixir...
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...der that the novel’s outcome is inevitable. The deaths of both Victor and the monster signify what dangerous knowledge can do to one. Somewhere along the way Victor failed to remember that he must care for what he creates, similar to the way nature looks after its creations. Excessive knowledge may prove to be destructive when not used properly. The monster was deemed to be inhumane and cruel, but Victor was his creator; therefore, Victor is just as inhumane and cruel as the monster. Victor had enough knowledge to create the monster, but he did not have enough knowledge to understand the monster. Victor’s creation is was not a monster when it was created, he had the potential to be something extraordinary. While dangerous knowledge may be destructive, limited knowledge can be even more lethal. The omniscient Victor failed to realize that the monster had a heart.
In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley highlights on the experiences her characters undergo through the internal war of passion and responsibility. Victor Frankenstein lets his eagerness of knowledge and creating life get so out of hand that he fails to realize what the outcome of such a creature would affect humankind. Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, highlights on how Frankenstein’s passion of knowledge is what ultimately causes the decline of his health and the death of him and his loved ones.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelly Part One = == == === A main theme in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein is that of birth, childhood and parenthood, this is explored through Shelly’s choice of frame narrative and structure for the novel.
The late 18th century was a time of enlightenment for Europe. All categories of learning improved in this enlightenment period. The most impressive advances were in the sciences. Newton had developed his laws of physics, and scientific method had been tuned to a point. These improvements gave people a new outlook on life and the world. Mary Shelley tries to tackle the intimidating nature of the enlightenment period in the book, Frankenstein.
In conclusion, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein shows readers how irresponsibility and the excessive need for knowledge can cause suffering among others as well as oneself. Victor never intends to cause such harm; however, he is not cautious and observant with his actions, which ultimately leads to his classification as a tragic hero. The desire to learn is most definitely a wonderful trait to have, as long as one’s knowledge doesn’t reach the extent that Victor Frankenstein’s unfortunately does.
The monster is left to live his life with no help from his creator after being abandoned. While having the mind of a newborn, this is not easy for him. By not knowing right from wrong, he murdered Victor's loved ones in order to get attention. He never had anyone to teach him how to live life with dignity and respect. This is a major loss for a living being. The creator is at fault here because the monster does not know better. Victor should have taken responsibility by accepting, raising, and controlling the monster.
Victor Frankenstein, blinded by pride, remained unaware of how his experiment would affect not only him, but the world around him as he formed his new discovery. His secret to creating life only caused more life to be lost. Because of Victor’s reckless behavior, he caused the depressed and lonely world around his own creation, one who, in the end, Victor did not want to take responsibility for making, no matter how remarkable. The Creation, a being of unfortunate circumstance, exemplifies how knowledge has dangerous and everlasting effects if not used safely or for good intentions. Unfortunately, The Creation leaves his own damage behind as well, again showing how knowledge is harmful, by killing Elizabeth, Victor’s wife, Henry Clerval, his dearest friend, and other members a part of Victor’s family and friends. This demonstrates how knowledge, if not used wisely, can lead to death and suffering. The power of knowledge, in Mary Shelley’s writing, is a gift bestowed on those who can handle the power responsibly, as opposed to using it for selfish boasting. In contrast, she uses these two characters to show the importance of being knowledgeable in both science and responsibility and the unforgivable mutilation that comes if you fail to overcome
Compare and Contrast the episodes of the creation of the monster and the creation of the second monster in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Mary Shelley finished her first edition of 'Frankenstein' in 1816, when she was nineteen years old. Since then her "monster" has become so popular in the twenty-first century that he appears in films, advertisements, comics and even computer games. So how is it that as such a young age she was able to write such a gripping novel, which has become more famous than any other work of 'Romantic' literature, and indeed, her own? It could have been a result of an intellectually stimulating childhood due to having free access to her fathers extensive library and literary connections; or it could have been a result of her being emotionally undernourished as a child. Whichever way, she has succeeded in writing a novel that 'speaks to the mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling horror' (p.8 - author's introduction), as she wanted; and she has included many personal ideas about politics and familial relations as well as moral, philosophical and scientific ideas on the creation and 'elixir of life' (p.42).
In Frankenstein, Victor’s monster suffers much loneliness and pain at the hands of every human he meets, as he tries to be human like them. First, he is abandoned by his creator, the one person that should have accepted, helped, and guided him through the confusing world he found himself in. Next, he is shunned wherever he goes, often attacked and injured. Still, throughout these trials, the creature remains hopeful that he can eventually be accepted, and entertains virtuous and moral thoughts. However, when the creature takes another crushing blow, as a family he had thought to be very noble and honorable abandons him as well, his hopes are dashed. The monster then takes revenge on Victor, killing many of his loved ones, and on the humans who have hurt him. While exacting his revenge, the monster often feels guilty for his actions and tries to be better, but is then angered and provoked into committing more wrongdoings, feeling self-pity all the while. Finally, after Victor’s death, the monster returns to mourn the death of his creator, a death he directly caused, and speaks about his misery and shame. During his soliloquy, the monster shows that he has become a human being because he suffers from an inner conflict, in his case, between guilt and a need for sympathy and pity, as all humans do.
Victor’s lack of compassion and sympathy towards the monster causes him to become angry instead of guilty. His cruelness to his creation made the monster kill and hurt the people he did but “when [he] reflected on [the monster’s] crimes and malice, [Victor’s] hatred and revenge burst all bounds of moderation,”(Shelley 325). Without compassion Victor thinks that the only way to stop the monster is to get revenge on him, instead of just giving him the empathy and kindness that monster craved. Victor realizes that "if he were vanquished, [he] should be a free man...balanced by those horrors of remorse and guilt which would pursue [him] until death. ”(Shelley 731).
Frankenstien Many punishments for crimes are often given to innocent people. In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelly, there are several instances in which the punishment is given to an innocent person. Justine, a maid at the Frankenstein residence, was killed for a crime she did not commit. Felix, a character the Monster encounters, was exiled from his country, for helping an innocent man escape from jail. Lastly, Victor himself was jailed for a murder, which he did not commit.
Education is a tool to advance an individual and a society; however, education can become a means to gain power when knowledge is used to exercise control over another. In Frankenstein, knowledge becomes the downfall of both Victor Frankenstein and the Monster. The novel explores the consequent power struggle between Victor Frankenstein and his creation, the dichotomy of good and evil, and the contrast between intellectual and physical power. Finding themselves in mirroring journeys, Victor Frankenstein and the Monster are locked in a struggle for dominance. Through these two characters, Mary Shelley explores the consequences of an egotistical mindset and of using knowledge to exercise power over others.
...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.
Victor Frankenstein proves his ability of holding ultimate knowledge by creating life, but as a whole, the society shows a greater impact over others. The Creature 's physical strength plays a vital role in the novel as well. Through the Creature’s many murders, he showed his strength and mental drive to accomplish the things he wanted. The desire for power plays a vital role within the novel, pushing the characters to act out in either a positive or negative manner. Victor Frankenstein, the Creature, and the society all show a different type of influence over others within the novel, creating different desires of
knowledge is found at the heart of the novel, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Mary Shelley constructs her novel in a form of tripartite that consists of three speakers Victor, Victor’s Creature, and Robert Walton. The pursuit of knowledge is conveyed by the alluring antagonist Victor in his endeavor to go beyond human adeptness and discover the elixir of life. The pursuit of knowledge is shown through another character, Frankenstein’s Creature whose pursuit of knowledge prompts him to become aware of himself. Robert Walton through the pursuit of knowledge learns that his own strive for success leads him to learning that his selfish pursuits are effecting the people around him. The pursuit of knowledge is proved to be dangerous to all three speakers Victor, Victor’s Creature, and Robert Walton and all three prove to the reader how destructive knowledge can be.
Victor Frankenstein finds himself exploring the world of science against his fathers wishes but he has an impulse to go forward in his education through university. During this time any form of science was little in knowledge especially the chemistry which was Victors area if study. Victor pursues to go farther than the normal human limits of society. “Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow” (Chapter 4). He soon finds the answer he was looking for, the answer of life. He becomes obsessed with creating a human being. With his knowledge he believes it should be a perfe...