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Use of science in frankenstein
Use of science in frankenstein
Use of science in frankenstein
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Looking different doesn’t mean you are different. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the master and his creation appear similar than one might think. Victor Frankenstein is a smart young man waiting to see what the world has to offer. When he was a little boy he would read books written by alchemists. Later on he decides to sets out on a mission to learn what he can about the world. Victor is like most boys, but he has plans that no one would ever think of. With science he has plans to create life. His fascination of acquiring knowledge has lead him up to this point. Victor’s creation shares remarkable similarities with Victor. Frankenstein illustrates that the monster and Victor are different in appearance, but are similar in terms of personality.
Knowledge gained can be a dangerous thing. In chapter three Victor attends University at Ingolstadt after his mother passed away. Victor studied alchemy when he was a young boy. Upon arriving to the university he sets up a meeting with professor of natural philosophy, M.Krempe. Krempe tells Victor that alchemy is outdated. He then attends a chemistry lecture. There M. Waldman sparks something within Victor to gain knowledge about the secret of life. “So much has been done, exclaimed the soul of Frankenstein—more, far more, will I achieve; treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation.” (p46 online PDF version) Victors thirst for knowledge is driving him to find out more than anyone has ever known about life. The monster also seeks knowledge. Although the knowledge that the monster acquires is not as high level as Victor, the monster learns quickly. In chapter twelve he does this by observin...
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...im as a hideous creature. He escapes into the woods because he knows he is safe there. He finds shelter and comfort in the woods knowing that the woods will protect him. Both Victor and the monster find comfort in nature. They both don’t want to face human contact and just want to be alone. The author tells us that even with all the chaos around us we can still find that one place or thing that will calm us.
In conclusion the novel Frankenstein shows similarities in both Victor and the monster. Even though Victor created the monster using different body part he ended up acting a lot like Victor even for different reasons. The monster may have looked a lot different from Victor but that doesn’t mean he has to shun him away. You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.
Works Cited
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein. Madrid, España: Edimat Libros, 2000. Print.
As a tragic hero, Victor’s tragedies begin with his overly obsessive thirst for knowledge. Throughout his life, Victor has always been looking for new things to learn in the areas of science and philosophy. He goes so far with his knowledge that he ends up creating a living creature. Victor has extremely high expectations for his creation but is highly disappointed with the outcome. He says, “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” (Shelley 35). Frankenstein neglects the creature because of his horrifying looks, which spark the beginning of numerous conflicts and tragedies. At this point, the creature becomes a monster because of Victor’s neglect and irresponsibility. The monster is forced to learn to survive on his own, without anyone or anything to guide him along the way. Plus, the monster’s ugly looks cause society to turn against him, ad...
So, when he created Frankenstein “the monster” he turned out to be this grotesque and unnatural creature which was different from what Victor had imagined. However, at the site of looking at his creation, Victor is now spooked by his appearance and immediately turned off by his own creation. For example, in chapter 5 Victor says, “I had desired it with an ardor that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room, continued a long time traversing my bed chamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep.” (Page 35). Again, we can see Shelley’s use of Gothic elements infused with the monstrous theme. However, this causes Victor to immediately stray away from the monster because he views his creation as repulsive and upsetting. Which marks the first sign of abandonment that Victor places on his creation. This doesn’t do any justice for Victor because now the monster is trying to assert himself into Victor’s life but yet feels more and more neglected from the absence of love that Victor doesn’t want to give in terms of having a relationship with
Victor finds his monster absolutely repulsive, and even nauseating. This seen in the following quotation, “A mummy again endued with animation could not be so hideous as that wretch.” (Shelley 36) Dr. Frankenstein has never seen anything so horrible and soon falls ill both from the sight of it and the realization that his monster is now out in the world and it could be doing anything. This shows how his drive for knowledge to be able to create life is damaging his health both mentally and physically. Furthermore, when the monster escapes from Victor’s laboratory it stangles Victor’s brother, William Frankenstein, to death. Victor must now bear the guilt knowing that he is responsible for the death because he created the monster and allowed it to escape. He must also keep the beast a secret from everyone else for fear the he would be held responsible for his brother’s death or they will believe he has gone insane, both of which results in Vict...
The desire of extensive knowledge is first seen through Victor Frankenstein. At the beginning of the novel, a young boy named Victor grows up in Geneva “deeply smitten with the thirst for knowledge” (20). The way Victor sees it, the world is a secret which he yearns to discover. His fascination in the secrets of the world drive him to study natural philosophy and chemistry at the University of Ingolstadt. Victor begins to further study discoveries of ancient scientists and is not satisfied with their knowledge. He says, “..I at once gave up my former occupations, set down natural history and all its progeny as a deformed and abortive creation, and entertained the greatest disdain for a would-be science which could never even step within the threshold of real knowledge” (24). Victor seeks to build upon previous discoveries and form new ones that go beyond the perimeter of mankind. Shelley shows how Victor’s obsession with knowledge of the unknown takes over his life and does not let anything or anyone stop him. Victor’s quest to overlook the natural limits of human knowledge brings about the creation of a monster that destroys his life and kills him. The monster he constructs does not reflect his o...
The monster does not resemble Victor physically; instead, they share the same personalities. For example, Victor and the monster are both loving beings. Both of them want to help others and want what is best for others. Victor and the monster try to help the people that surround them. Victor tries to console his family at their losses, and the monster assists the people living in the cottage by performing helpful tasks. However, Victor and the monster do not reflect loving people. The evil that evolves in Victor’s heart is also present in the monster.
In literature nature can symbolize the healing and restoration of the mind and body. When they wander into nature, it provides an escape from reality and their internal conflict. For instance, Victor retires to serenity of the lake by his house in Belrive because the guilt of knowing that his creation holds responsibility of the death of Justine Moritz overwhelms him. He sails a boat out by letting the wind take over and lets the peacefulness and beauty of the lake envelop him. In the beginning memories of the Creature, he does not understand his surroundings and experiences a wave of confusion as new sensations overwhelm him. The time he spends in the forest, near Ingolstadt, allows him to calm his emotions and gain an understanding of the world around him. For example, he learns that fire provides warmth from the cold, identifies the noises of nature, and discovers new objects in each different environment. Both of these examples confirm that nature has its own form of medicine to a person’s body and mind. Overall these experiences in the wilderness constitute as a remedy for their inner struggles which allows them to clear the
Characters from different novels have similar personalities. As creators of another creature, God and Victor Frankenstein are very similar, in that they both lose part of their "family," and they let the war between them and their creations go on too long. Victor says, "I collected bones from charnel houses; and disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human frame." This shows that he creates the monster out of corpses, just as God creates Satan. Furthermore, Victor is disgusted with his own creation, "the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart."
It is when Frankenstein realizes how different he is to other people that he realizes his uniqueness and individualism. “I was, besides, endued with a figure hideously deformed and loathsome; I was not even of the same nature as man. I was more agile than they and could subsist upon a coarser diet; I bore the extremes of heat and cold with less injury to my frame; my stature far exceeded theirs. When I looked around I saw and heard of none like me. Was I, then, a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled and whom all men disowned?” (Frankenstein, 150). While Frankenstein is by no means a human, he is made up of human parts and still craves love and affection. His rejection from everyone he sees, including his creator makes him feel like an outcast. It was because of Victor that Frankenstein couldn’t bear to be who he was made to be and felt a need to run into isolation. Victor not only created a monster physically, but also mentally turned him into someone he didn’t have to be. Both Frankenstein and Victor struggle with balancing their personal wants and needs with societies expectations and the people around them. That is one of the true struggles of being one person living in a world of many, you have to do what makes you happy while making sure it doesn’t effect other peoples happiness negatively. Victor doesn’t do a good job of
The reader's take on the monster however changes dramatically when Victor is the narrator. Frankenstein's creation becomes a wretched and terrible villain of the story when it is told through him (third person). For example Victor's disgust and hatred for the monster is evident right from the first time he sees him, as he says "A flash of lightning illuminated the object and discovered its shape plainly to me; its gigantic stature, and the deformity of its aspect, more hideous than belongs to humanity, instantly informed me that it was the wretch, the filthy demon to whom I had given life." When the story is told through Victor it is all about what the monster is doing to him and how heartless the creature is.
“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” (Shelley 60). In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, she expresses her beliefs regarding the danger of pursuing happiness through the attainment of knowledge, because true happiness is found in the emotional connections established between people. The pursuit of knowledge is not necessarily an evil thing, but it can cause destruction when it is pursued beyond natural limits. Victor Frankenstein becomes a slave to his passion for learning in more than one way; first his life is controlled by his obsession to create life, and later he becomes a slave to the monster he has created.
In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the idea that knowledge can grow to become dangerous is prominent throughout. In this story, the search for learning and the desire for knowledge strongly impacts three main characters. Victor Frankenstein, Robert Walton, and the creature all fall into the hands of which the consequences of knowledge hold and suffer terribly due to its repercussions. In this novel, Victor warns Robert that acquiring knowledge can lead to “destruction and infallible misery” (Shelley 31) and as the book evolves, this statement is found to both true and detrimental.
In the book Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein is very much interested in sciences and anatomy. As he continues studying these things he attempts to create a human like creature. Victor is successful in the creation of this creature, but when the creature awakes for the first time Victor is terrified by his appearance. Victor runs out of the room, but when he finally returns he finds that the creature is no longer there. Victor has created a horrible monster. This creature ends up murdering many people and terrorizing many. Many of the people that this monster kills are people that are very close to Victor Frankenstein. This monster is very intelligent, he can learn at a fast pace simply by observing others.
The effect of acquiring knowledge is best summarized by Victor Frankenstein as “...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.” Knowledge, its acquirement, and application, is a major theme in Shelly’s Frankenstein. It is through gaining knowledge and applying it to one’s life that characters develop and move the plot. However, acting upon gained knowledge is shown to lead to detrimental and severe consequences for the characters. These consequences lead to the demise of those who gained the knowledge, and other secondary characters in the novel. In Shelly’s Frankenstein, acquiring knowledge and
As many people say knowledge is a powerful gift, however with such great power there must come a greater responsibility. Furthermore having an excessive amount of Intelligence/Knowledge can literally created a monster inside of you, with all the ideas and visions one might see and mill dream/insure that it becomes true. In the novel Frankenstein, Victor, the main character, that has been created by Mary Shelley for a story assignment has been given a life worth living. As a child he was an eager and intense little miscreant, nevertheless that enthusiastic attitude would soon lead him to desire everything possible. Victor’s knowledge would soon develop at the age of fifteen after the occurrence of the lighting bolt hitting the tree and would
Victor states,” 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, then he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow.” I disagree with Victor Frankenstein. I don’t believe it was Victor’s knowledge that was dangerous; it was what he did with that knowledge. He took his knowledge to a whole different standpoint and he tried to basically play God. He utilized knowledge and the outcome wasn’t decent, but the knowledge could have been helpful if he wouldn’t have turned it into something bigger than the actual knowledge he obtained. Because his knowledge helped him construct a grisly fiend that destroyed everything, he blamed it on the knowledge, and said that it was dangerous when it was his actions that were actually dangerous. At the beginning