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Human nature in mary shelley's frankenstein
Victor frankenstein character development
Victor frankenstein character development
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“The desire of knowledge in excess caused men to fall” throughout history, in the modern day, and in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (Francis Bacon). It has often been said that the quest for knowledge is dark and dangerous. Many people have lost their lives searching for answers to their questions. This quest is the focus of several of the characters in Frankenstein including Robert Walton, the creature, and Victor Frankenstein. Each of them are after different pieces of knowledge but all their adventures have the same misfortune. For this reason, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein serves as a warning to those who search for wisdom because the path often leads to misery and destruction.
Mary Shelley used the letters of Robert Walton to convey the theme
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and to tell the story, but also to provide another example of a futile quest.
Walton is fascinated by “the dangerous mysteries of the ocean” especially in the unexplored area of the Arctic (Shelley 6). Though many have tried to “[persuade] him that the pole is the seat of frost and desolation” he still imagines it to be a “region of beauty and delight” (Shelley 1). For this reason, he is willing to risk his life and the life of his crew members to try to find out the truth about the mysterious area. This decision sets him off on a path that can provide no favorable outcomes. Along the way he finds that the Arctic is barren and that all of his work and all of his dreaming is useless. Many of the crew members become ill and some pass away. His ship becomes trapped and he can no longer continue his exploration. Even his new companion (Victor Frankenstein) is sick, depressed and soon dies. His entire exploration crumbles before his eyes and all of his dreams prove to be false. He is forced …show more content…
“to return if [they] are not destroyed” he comes back feeling “ignorant and disappointed” in himself and in his voyage (Shelley 160). His decision to go through with the exploration, against his better judgement, resulted in him losing all confidence in himself and his personal goals. He suddenly loses all of his passion towards adventure and gives up on his life long dreams of being an explorer. Had he not gone on this journey, he would have found a better, safer, and more surmountable route that would have been fulfilling instead of destructive. Walton realized after this quest that he should have never gone because he is worse off for having followed his curiosity and intuition. The knowledge that the creature desired was very different from Robert Walton’s.
Instead of information on foreign places and new explorations, the creature wanted to know about love, relationships, and compassion. The creature often “[reflected in] his hours of despondency and solitude” about the “virtues of the cottagers”, but he was too afraid to reveal himself to them (Shelley 93). He was encompassed by the fear that his demeanor would scare them away, but eventually he was able to “[persuade himself] that when they should become acquainted with [his] admiration of their virtues, they would compassionate [him] and overlook [his] personal deformity” (Shelley 93). This thought process resulted in him gaining confidence in himself and deciding to take the risk and try to find out about relationships. He was immediately cast away by the family of cottagers and forced back into isolation. He suddenly forgot about how he desired love and only wanted revenge. Instead of thinking about friendship with the cottagers and other people he thought about how “[he] could with pleasure have destroyed the cottage and its inhabitants and have glutted [himself] with their shrieks and misery” (Shelley 97). After testing his destiny in this situation the creature began to become destructive and cruel. Had he decided to stay dormant, inside of his house, he would have never had the heartbreaking experience that forced him down a road of darkness and despair. It was the desire for knowledge
that forever ruined the life of the creature and everyone around him. Victor Frankenstein’s quest for knowledge is much more similar to Robert Walton’s than the creature’s. It begins with curiosity of the unknown and the unyielding attempts to find the science to explore it. Frankenstein had always loved science, but never the easy basic elements. He had always wanted to discover the “secrets of heaven and earth” (Shelley 19). This was his fatal mistake. He worked for “nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body”; he worked for nearly two years, to become a god (Shelley 35). Frankenstein crossed many borders that had been set to protect the way of nature and he was punished for that. When he created the creature, he instantaneously became responsible for the actions of a seven-foot all powerful man, something that would not be easy to control. Instead of taking responsibility, Frankenstein allowed his curiosity to be satisfied and his fear to overtake any reasonable thinking. He ran away from the creature, from his mistake, and from the product of his dangerous quest. The rest of his life was spent fixing the devastation that the creature had bestowed on his family and on his own life. Because of his thirst for knowledge, he lost the life of family members and eventually his own. The characters of Robert Walton, the creature, and Victor Frankenstein perfectly illustrate the warning that Mary Shelley gave to the world. Desire for knowledge is the cause of all destruction and darkness in the world. Throughout Frankenstein, the readers were invited to watch as character after character was destroyed by the information they seeked the most. This idea has been proven in history time and time again. Because of the desire of knowledge, men have fallen and continued to fall (Francis Bacon).
Knowledge can be the key to success and can lead people to happier life. However, there are some instances that you can not gain any more knowledge because of how it would change your whole life. The drive of wanting more and more knowledge is best portrayed through two well -known books. In Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein, and in Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon, both the creature and Charlie are ostracized by society because they are different from everyone else but this distinction gave way for distinct fallouts because of their quest for knowledge beyond their reach to achieve happiness.
Frankenstein, speaking of himself as a young man in his father’s home, points out that he is unlike Elizabeth, who would rather follow “the aerial creations of the poets”. Instead he pursues knowledge of the “world” though investigation. As the novel progresses, it becomes clear that the meaning of the word “world” is for Frankenstein, very much biased or limited. He thirsts for knowledge of the tangible world and if he perceives an idea to be as yet unrealised in the material world, he then attempts to work on the idea in order to give it, as it were, a worldly existence. Hence, he creates the creature that he rejects because its worldly form did not reflect the glory and magnificence of his original idea. Thrown, unaided and ignorant, into the world, the creature begins his own journey into the discovery of the strange and hidden meanings encoded in human language and society. In this essay, I will discuss how the creature can be regarded as a foil to Frankenstein through an examination of the schooling, formal and informal, that both of them go through. In some ways, the creature’s gain in knowledge can be seen to parallel Frankenstein’s, such as, when the creature begins to learn from books. Yet, in other ways, their experiences differ greatly, and one of the factors that contribute to these differences is a structured and systematic method of learning, based on philosophical tenets, that is available to Frankenstein but not to the creature.
In the book Frankenstein, we stumble upon several characters that play an important role in the book. Few of which that portray in different journeys such as, A scientist, relatives, and The creature/ The Monster who is the work of Frankenstein’s hands. As we continue further into the story you will learn about the many characters and their role in the book of Frankenstein.
Mary Shelley’s novel arises several questions relevant to the present day. A question that arises from the novel is whether man is born evil or made evil from his life experiences. The debate on whether how far man should pursue knowledge exists today as well as other questions challenged in the novel therefore “Frankenstein” is a popular novel at present as much as it was in the past.
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.
The popular 1931 version of Frankenstein, based on Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, depicts an anti-exploration and anti-intellectual philosophy. In Frankenstein there are criticisms for the immoral behavior that is involved with progress, the natural tendency for humanity to attempt to be greater than God and the pursuit of knowledge. Frankenstein, the doctor, aims to create a man in his own image. His personal ambitions drove him mad and into isolation. He leaves school in pursuit of better facilities and free rein to test, create and revise.
Mary Shelley brings about both the positive and negative aspects of knowledge through her characters in Frankenstein. The use of knowledge usually has many benefits, but here Shelley illustrates how seeking knowledge beyond its limits takes away from the natural pleasures of known knowledge. She suggests that knowledge without mortality and uncontrolled passions will lead to destruction. Victor and his monster experience this destruction following their desires and losing self control. Walton, on the other hand, becomes of aware of the consequences and is able to turn back before it’s too late. Shelley also suggests that without enjoying the natural pleasures of life, pursuing knowledge is limited, but how can knowledge be limited if it is infinite?
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a nineteenth century literary work that delves into the world of science and the plausible outcomes of morally insensitive technological research. Although the novel brings to the forefront several issues about knowledge and sublime nature, the novel mostly explores the psychological and physical journey of two complex characters. While each character exhibits several interesting traits that range from passive and contemplative to rash and impulsive, their most attractive quality is their monstrosity. Their monstrosities, however, differ in the way each of the character’s act and respond to their environment. Throughout Frankenstein, one assumes that Frankenstein’s creation is the true monster. While the creation’s actions are indeed monstrous, one must also realize that his creator, Victor Frankenstein is also a villain. His inconsiderate and selfish acts as well as his passion for science result in the death of his friend and family members and ultimately in his own demise.
In Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, she portrays two characters that share the same characteristics and personalities. These two characters are Robert Walton and Victor Frankenstein. Both Victor Frankenstein and the Arctic explorer Robert Walton, whose letters open the novel, hold a greedy thirst for privileged knowledge of those things that are unknown to the common person. Each character has dreams of greatness, and a plan to bring it about.
Victor Frankenstein’s scientific endeavor, Robert Walton’s search for the North Pole, and the creature’s kind heart but scary features creates this whole theme of dangerous knowledge. The search for knowledge is encouraged and at times pushed by others. In Frankenstein is shows quest can lead to too much knowledge and drive him or her to his fate.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, explores the monstrous and destructive affects of obsession, guilt, fate, and man’s attempt to control nature. Victor Frankenstein, the novel’s protagonist and antihero, attempts to transcend the barriers of scientific knowledge and application in creating a life. His determination in bringing to life a dead body consequently renders him ill, both mentally and physically. His endeavors alone consume all his time and effort until he becomes fixated on his success. The reason for his success is perhaps to be considered the greatest scientist ever known, but in his obsessive toil, he loses sight of the ethical motivation of science. His production would ultimately grieve him throughout his life, and the consequences of his undertaking would prove disastrous and deadly. Frankenstein illustrates the creation of a monster both literally and figuratively, and sheds light on the dangers of man’s desire to play God.
...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.
As a result, the ruthless pursuit of knowledge proves dangerous as both men eventually destroy themselves and everyone dear to them. The thirst for knowledge is a hidden evil that man can only see after it has destroyed his life. Frankenstein is a young scientist who is blinded by the fame and dangers of the knowledge of creation. " So much has been done," exclaims Frankenstein after he hears a lecture on famous scientists. "More, far more, will I achieve: treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unk... ...
The location of the creature and the mariner adds to the depression during the extreme cases of aloneness. The monster, rejected by society, is forced into a setting of isolation in the wilderness. He, residing in nature rather than the buildings of man, says that “the desert mountains and dreary glaciers are my refuge. I have wandered here many days; the caves of ice, which I only do
Throughout history, humankind has been obsessed with the pursuit of knowledge. Especially in this day and age, exciting discoveries occur almost regularly, specifically in scientific fields. Today, remnants of water are found on Mars, and extraterrestrial life is seriously debated, pushing the boundaries of basic knowledge. Focus on populace’s thirst for intelligence is hinted at in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, through the two main characters: Victor Frankenstein and Robert Walton. Frankenstein and Walton are similar on many levels, with defined parallels in their desire to find more. Through these characters, Shelley suggests a theme of knowledge and its potential dangerous aspects.