...The idea that knowledge is a dangerous and powerful tool is a motif that occurs more than once throughout Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. I will argue that knowledge is the major cause of suffering throughout this novel and it is what eventually drives one character to death, and another to the realization of what could possibly happen to him if continues as he is. The quest for knowledge is present throughout the entire novel and is implemented by multiple characters, with each presenting the same result. Starting with Victor Frankenstein, it becomes known that he strives to gain as much knowledge as he can, but eventually this expedition lands him in situations that are dangerous and unwanted. Victor’s main focus is science and despite his father’s wishes, he attends University and pursues his dreams. At the time when Victor attended college, there was little known about the field of science, especially chemistry. As Victor continues on in his endeavors, his thirst for knowledge (to learn?) continues to grow,...
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...Frankenstein as a Gothic Novel Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein is considered as a Gothic novel but it can be seen as a compilation of both Gothic and Romantic because of the significance of the sublime. Certain events and settings in the novel present the gothic themes. Shelley uses the different themes in her novel to evoke feelings of horror and terror in the reader. Frankenstein engages in a quest in pushing the realms of science to their limits which leads him to playing god and creating an unnatural being using science. One of the themes Shelley uses in the novel to create the gothic presence is the theme of Forbidden Knowledge. Mary Shelley introduces the ideas that science is capable of being very dangerous and has consequences through the character of Victor Frankenstein. Shelley’s time was described as the age of unprecedented scientific discoveries, which influenced her in writing of Frankenstein. The process of the creation of his creation was influenced by the Italian physician Luigi Galvani who discovered “animal electricity” which manifests with the twitching of nerves and muscles when an electric current is applied. Frankenstein seeks to find “the secrets of heaven and earth” to fulfil his quest. He calls them secrets; he is aware they are not to be known and should not be found. Frankenstein knows that acquiring such knowledge would not be easy as he states “how dangerous the acquirement of knowledge”. Frankenstein is aware of the uneasy task of seeking...
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...In Chapter 24 of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein decides to leave Geneva and its painful memories after his entire family is destroyed. After searching for the monster for months, Victor eventually runs into Robert Walton and tells him his story. At this point of the novel, Walton regains control of the narrative and continues to send letters to his sister, Margaret. He begins to tell his sister that he asked Frankenstein how to create a monster and bring it to life. To that, Victor replied “are you mad, my friend . . . or whither does your senseless curiosity lead you? Would you also create for yourself and the world a demoniacal enemy? Peace, peace! Learn my miseries, and do not seek to increase your own.” Victor’s outburst raises the question of whether or not knowledge is dangerous. Knowledge is in fact dangerous when it is either broad, or far beyond our need in life. “Such words, you may imagine, strongly excited my curiosity; but...
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...The dangers of the pursuit of knowledge is a main theme in the novel Frankenstein. This theme is most evident in the main character Victor Frankenstein. He suffers because of his pursuit of knowledge and his creation ultimately destroys his life. As the novel progresses the creature begins to change as he gains knowledge. The creature at the start is innocent and means no harm. As he gains knowledge, however, he begins to learn that he does not fit in and becomes angry. We will take a closer look at how knowledge hurts these characters throughout the novel. The knowledge that Victor is pursuing and the knowledge the creature is pursuing have fundamental differences. Victor is working to try to figure out how to cheat death. This knowledge pushes the limit of what is accepted by society. This project is an unknown realm of science and the possible consequences of success are a mystery. Victor becomes so involved with the idea, however, that he fails to consider possible consequences. Creating a menace to society had not crossed his mind. His creature is at a different intellectual level. The creature does not understand the language of humans or how human society is structured. He observes and studies human behaviors and interactions. He learns the language and more about how humans work. He is surprised about what he learns and is angered by it. The creature is not accepted in human society, and his knowledge of this changes his personality into an angry outcast seeking revenge...
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...4: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Forbidden knowledge From the beginning of humanity, a thirst for knowledge was born within the human soul. This thirst made it essential for the human mind to seek knowledge constantly and discover new things. We want to know everything. And it has been a great journey for mankind in the field of technology and science; the achievements that humanity has managed to accomplish in the different fields of knowledge are outstanding. Over the past few centuries, the intellectuals of society have made countless advances in science and the development of technology, which, to different degrees, have all benefited mankind. Our thirst for knowledge is what has kept and still keeps us moving forward, and it is what separates us from our ancestors and makes the present life different than the ancient one; without it we wouldn’t have the full-of-technology, modern life we have today. Every scientific discovery is the result of man’s hunger for and dedication to acquiring knowledge, information, and power. However, the innate curiosity and desire for understanding in an individual can grow so immense that his or her moral and ethical boundaries erode, which might result in tragic and disastrous results for all who are involved. Despite that there is a huge number of fields in which humans can seek knowledge, forbidden knowledge have always been attractive for some. The secrets of life and death stand as the most tempting, and in Frankenstein we see...
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...Frankenstein/Bladerunner In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982) humanity’s manipulation of nature paradoxically erodes the human spirit and compromises integrity. Although contextually disparate, both texts explore a creator’s need to take responsibility for his creation, cautioning responders of the dangers of unrestrained scientific progress and conveying humanity’s severed relationship with nature. Where Shelley communicates with a certain ambiguity characteristic of the contradictory Age of Reason and sets her tale against a backdrop of a sublime natural world, Scott portrays a society fuelled by ecological destruction and 1980s corporate abuse. This reflects each composer’s anchoring of their visions in the socio-cultural realities of their time; a fundamental transgression of human values over time. Both texts explore the dangers of uninhibited scientific progress. In Frankenstein, Shelley fashions a gothic world where nature is tampered with and a ‘hurricane of enthusiasm’ drives the protagonist towards abandoning his conscience, prompting Shelley’s valuing of moderation. Underpinned by the Industrial Revolution and an era of scientific change, Victor embodies the obsessive passions and Romantic ego-identities of 19th century scientists. The epistolatory narrative framework adds a disquieting sense of truth to Victor’s retrospective dialogue, “how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge,” reflecting his Promethean disobedience...
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...Khizer Awan AP LIT Frankenstein Literary Analysis I Must Know More Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley is a romantic era novel based on the theme of knowledge. The word “knowledge” reoccurred many times throughout Frankenstein and forced the reader to understand the definition of it. According to Webster’s Dictionary, knowledge is defined as “Knowledge: n. Understanding gained by actual experience; range of information; clear perception of truth; something learned and kept in the mind.” The word knowledge is very simple, but has different meanings to all of us. Knowledge is the tool we use in making proper judgement. Knowledge is an extremely powerful thing and it must be used wisely and properly. Carelessly using knowledge can cause terrible consequences. The novel, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, is a novel that has many comparisons of powers in life. It pertains to many themes in society today. Frankenstein contrasts science, technology, life and death, and most importantly knowledge and ignorance. It shows the consequences of knowledge in both negative and positive ways. In Frankenstein, three characters searched for one thing - knowledge. Unfortunately the results of their search differed from what they had anticipated. Walton, blinded by ambition, believed that search for knowledge on the route to the North Pole would bring fame to his name, but he quickly learned that he ended up only with the danger to the lives of his crew. Frankenstein, driven by passion...
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...Abandonment of a child by a father has a lasting effect on the social and emotional development of a functioning being. The conflict between father and son can be rooted in many different circumstances and causes long-term conflict. The novel Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, illustrates the struggle between a father and a son that occurs in all societies and time periods. In the novel, the father-son connection that is most crucial to the theme of the book: the impact of abandonment in a beings life. The relationship between Victor Frankenstein and his metaphorical son, the monster, demonstrates the horrors that come out of selfishness and ignorance in Victor’s disregard of his creation. The violence in Frankenstein stems from the original abandonment...
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...endeavour for knowledge, unable to comprehend the consequences, hence one allows their knowledge to become their weakness. The theme of dangerous knowledge is prominent in the story of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. The three major characters face significant consequences due to their uncontrollable desire for knowledge, and more importantly, the manner in which they choose to do so. In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the consequences of detrimental knowledge are shown through the actions and thoughts of the characters Frankenstein, Robert Walton and the Creature. The character of Victor in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley depicts the dangers of excessive...
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...1818, by an “anonymous” author, Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus has inspired numerous adaptations, remakes and parodies across different literary genres. Reprinted again in 1831, this time with an introduction written by Mary Shelley acknowledging her authorship, Frankenstein through its discrediting of science and the omnipotence of nature, confirms ands challenges our own habitual understandings of the world around us. The habitual understanding I will be focusing on is western hegemonic rationalism and the dominance of science as the ruler and explainer of my universe in comparison to the earlier more romantic ideology of Shelley’s time. Frankenstein also carries a warning about ambition. In a society that believes ambition to be a good thing, Shelley attempts to revel catastrophic consequences for humans over come with the quest for glory and science’s obsessive and overly ambitious nature. Western hegemonic ideal is the cultural identity that has conditioned me, becoming habitual, normal and routine. However, Shelley was privileged as she was writing at the beginning of the scientific enlightenment era, and could therefore identify what would be lost if science and technology were to usurp the position of God, nature and fate. Art, emotions, passion, suffering, humility etc were to be restricted into liminal spaces, creating a world not unlike Aldous Huxley’s A Brave New World. Romantic philosophies have been endorsed in Frankenstein through the downfall of Victor...
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...Many themes shown in the book “Frankenstein” are good representations of life lessons. One theme is, “the quest for knowledge can lead to a dangerous path to follow.” Victor uses his genus ability and his thirst for knowledge to create a monster that ultimately uses his power to destroy Victor’s life. The monster requests another creature’s creation of his kind, and when Victor refuses, the monster seeks vengeance on his creator. During this hunt for revenge that the monster partakes in, many deaths occur and Victor begins to realize he made a huge mistake. In chapter 5, Victor creates a monster because he is intrigued by the capability and knowledge of his learning abilities. Victor portrays a canny personality and one of the only desires...
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...rage” (Berman 58). Narcissus and Frankenstein are both disoriented by ostensible renditions of their own internal conflicts. The creature’s acts of violence are external representations of Victor Frankenstein’s internal rage. It is ironic that his own self-replication in the form of the creature brings him to his eventual demise. Another element that correlates with the Narcissus story pertains to the escapes and pursuits that are present in the novel. “Since Mary Shelley’s novel employs the element of flight (Walton to the pole, Victor from the Creature, the Creature in pursuit of Victor), Frankenstein embodies an additional element of the Narcissus complex” (Kestner 69-70). The grandiosity of his creation and pursuits end in a chase to eliminate any evidence of his mistakes. Jeffrey Berman summarizes all of these examples in comparison of narcissistic personality disorder: Victor exhibits, in fact, all the characteristics of the narcissistic personality disorder as defined in DSM-III: a grandi- sense of self-importance; preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success; exhibitionism; cool indifference or feelings of...
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...In her 1818 preface to Frankenstein, Mary Shelley wrote that Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron sojourned into Nature leaving her behind at Villa Diodati near lake Geneva. After weeks of rain, the weather suddenly clears and she writes “my two friends left me on a journey among the Alps, lost, in the magnificent scenes…” (8) This would be the first of many excursions from which she would be left out. Though exceptionally educated and progressive, Shelley was a woman trapped by the mores of the nineteenth century. She was no stranger to the social constraints placed upon her sex. Her experiences as a woman of her time are mirrored in her portrayal of men and women and their relationship to nature in the novel. While creation, pregnancy and birth, were intrinsically the provenance of women, the quest for a rational, scientific method for understanding and conquering Nature was the objective of men. This...
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...Frankenstein exhibits the negative effects of what isolation can do to a person or character. There is three characters who contribute to Frankenstein’s overall theme of depression and isolation. More specifically, the three characters who appear as narrator's experience the greatest distress and isolation. Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, and Frankenstein’s creation. Each of the three characters experience their heartache in different ways and for differing reasons, but they can all relate because of the problems they go through in the novel. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, three of the main characters experience isolation, which causes them emotional instability and depression that leads to their awful and distressful lives. Frankenstein’s...
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...world with an open and blank mind. A new born has no knowledge, no concerns or worries and it only seeks to fulfill its main necessities. Surrounded by the outside world one lives through many experiences where knowledge is accepted. Encountering other human beings reflects upon ones perception and brings about ones self decisions. Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein demonstrates characters that through an obsessive desire for more knowledge ruin their own lives. Victor Frankenstein is a scientist, who creates a monster to life through his extensive knowledge of science, but the creature he creates brings terrible demise and Victor loses everything that was once close to him. The monster himself craves knowledge through his learning experience. He is fascinated by human nature and language and seeks to be a part of it. His desire to gain too much knowledge leads him to lose self control and destroys the lives of many people. Watson, similar to Victor, is an explorer who travels to the North Pole and chases after the idea of making a discovery. Watson serves as an example of being at risk for destruction, but after hearing about the deadly consequences of exploration he stops himself from making the same mistakes Victor did. The obsession of gaining too much knowledge causes a loss in self control and allows ones desires to take over, resulting in destruction. The desire of extensive knowledge is first seen through Victor Frankenstein. At the beginning of the novel, a young boy named...
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