Knowledge Is Power In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Besides selfishness, Frankenstein includes many other themes. The popular phrase "Knowledge is Power" is taken to great extents in this novel, proving that too much knowledge is ultimately powerless. In the beginning of the novel, Victor was just innocently studying. However, his thirst for knowledge turned into a dangerous obsession. When Frankenstein stumbles on the ideas of life and death, his massive curiosity started the track to his later downfall. Victor craved the knowledge and power beyond human capabilities, he craved to achieve greatness, thus starting his monster creation. The knowledge that Victor wanted was that of knowing how to create life. Victor spent a great amount of time gathering old body parts and attempting to bring something dead back to life. But really what gains can Victor achieve from this? Why is he going through all this trouble? Knowledge is a dangerous thing to play with. Because

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. The way it is organized in the beginning by setting the background with written letters was clever. At first, I was not really interested in the letters written by Walton because he was not a main character. However, when I got to the part of the novel where the timeline coincides, that was when I really understood and appreciated the purpose. Before reading this book, I thought that it was just about a mad scientist and one of his creations. However, after reading it, I understand the depth and meaning of the novel's theme as a whole. I also agree with the literary criticism. Victor Frankenstein did not devalue life, he was just caught up in his obsession to care for anything else. It was not on purpose that Victor offended others by trying to create life, he was just being selfish on his path to greatness to take into account the feelings of others. Everything in the novel is built around the emphasis on how one should not attempt to achieve greatness so