Mary Shelley's Attitude to Knowledge in Frankenstein
Mary Shelley is a gothic writer, who (through this novel
'Frankenstein') has been able to create a hybrid form of gothic
literature, a gothic/horror genre which allows Shelley to convey a
more realistic terror, one that resides within the psyche instead of a
form outside , an example would be Ghosts. Her knowledge on different
subjects allows her to create a realistic world in the novel, possibly
even criticising her own husband Percy Shelley, who searched for
knowledge and in doing so became egotistical and self obsessed like a
true romantic just like Frankenstein and other romantic characters
like him.
Shelley was always surrounded by intelligent people, which were mainly
her father and his inner circle that also included her husband. These
people encouraged Shelley to educate herself and develop her own
opinions.
Shelley found the gothic genre a perfect place in which she could air
her thoughts, such as a critical view of certain powers in her society
and imply things about the industrial revolution through subtle
remarks in the novel.
The novel itself was a product of Shelley taking up a challenge to
write a ghost story, which was her chance to give a dire warning to
society (through the didactic tone throughout the novel) that,
embraces experimenting and questing for the unknown which so much part
of her culture but at the same time playing on the fears of the
middles classes' lack of knowledge as at the same time graves were
being dug up and bodies used which made this tomb quite fearful to its
readers and intriguing as Shelley brings many ethical issues on the
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... how important knowledge is here.
I personal think Shelley wrote this novel to voice her opinions the
only way she could in such a strict society that did not allow women
to have opinions. Shelley took many things from her own life which she
criticised through the novel to make it more realistic and the only
way she could criticise her own up bringing especially how her father
took her own education.
The fears stated in the novel are still valid today as the morals of
whether we should play god through the technological advances in
science, Shelley's novel has clear moral consequences and a perfect
example of what could happen if we as a society start to follow
Frankenstein's footsteps and create a monster with the same potential
as the one in the book to create havoc and destruction, would probably
destroy us.
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.
At the start of the novel the Creature has clear childlike characteristics. Aside from having the inability to speak, read and write the Creature is described as having “yellow skin”(Shelley 51) and “watery eyes”(Shelley 51), traits associated with a newborn. Once usually connects newborns to innocence and purity which can correlate to Shelley’s view that men are born innocent, but through social pressure are able to develop a destructive and dangerous character.
After bringing life to something seemingly horrible, Victor Frankenstein reveals his personality of avoidance and arrogance. Instead of facing the creature he created, he runs away from the problem. His motivations for the experiment vary, but there is one clear one that he even admits. "The world," he says, "was to me a secret which I desired to divine" (Shelley 18). Victor tells us that he's curious, and more importantly that he's always been this way. Victor has been raised in a very loving family. His father and mother were kind parents who loved all of their children, and even adopted some children. Victor, however, grows up a little indulged and perhaps because of this, he is selfish. He is stubborn and unyielding about many things. For
The idea for the novel of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein came to her one night when she was staying in the company of what has been called ‘her male coterie’, including Lord Byron and her husband, Percy Shelley. Mary Shelley’s whole life seems to have been heavily influenced by men. She idolised her father, William Godwyn, and appears to have spent a good part of her life trying very hard to impress both him and her husband. There seems to have been a distinct lack of female influence, her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, having died weeks after her birth, being replaced by a neglectful step-mother. These aspects of her life are perhaps evident in her novel. The characters and plot of Frankenstein were perhaps influenced by Shelley’s conflicting feelings about the predominately masculine circle which surrounded her, and perhaps the many masculine traits that we see in novel were based upon those of the male figures in Shelley’s own life. In this essay I will attempt to show some of these traits.
At the beginning of life, humans are exposed to the outside world with an open and blank mind. A newborn 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 one's perception and brings about ones self decisions. Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, written in 1816, demonstrates through characters that an obsessive desire for more knowledge may ruin ones life.
Monsters, in myths and legends, are ugly beasts with vicious tendencies and overbearing powers who bring suffering and agony to those who cross their paths, regardless of intention. However, the same cannot be said for Mary Shelley's monster, the Creation. Victor Frankenstein's lab experiment emphasizes the danger of not taking responsibility for one's own actions and knowledge, by being an instrument of Victor's suffering.
In the novel Frankenstein written by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly, Knowledge is power for Victor Frankenstein. Mary Shelly explains that Dr. Frankenstein’s hunger for the knowledge to create life out of death only leads to Victor’s unfortunate monster. The consequences that Victor Frankenstein experiences from creating a creature from his own madness leads to his death as well as the creature. Mary Shelly explains in her novel Frankenstein that Victor’s need to study life and how it is created is dangerous; furthermore, the abomination that the doctor creates should have never been created; however, the monster that Victor creates is his own monstrosity.
Mankind has always acknowledged the gap between the human race and animals. Why have only humans produced great world leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr? Why has an evil dictator such as Hitler not hailed from the animal species? In Pensées, French Christian philosopher Blaise Pascal deemed that “Man’s greatness comes from knowing he is wretched: a tree does not know it is wretched. Thus it is wretched to know that one is wretched, but there is greatness in knowing one is wretched”. Pascal’s declaration that greatness in mankind comes from being wretched is presented in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Victor Frankenstein and the creation of the monster. The death of his loved ones due to his creation of the monster led Frankenstein to realize his own
...ilton's "Paradise Lost" to her advantage in this book. Drawing on Christian beliefs and a societal reverence for the epic gives "Frankenstein" a comparison that draws out moral limitations in our humanity. Although many moral limitations can be detected from each of the characters, the limitations I focused on were, in my belief, the most specific to Shelley's overall romantic and gothic state of reasoning. In this era, and even today, the thought of human limitation gives people a better understanding of our place in the world. The individual ego creates a dangerous place for many of us, a place Shelley describes through Victor Frankenstein's creation. Above all, I think Shelley's story relates human limitations and public progression to remind society that we have an obligation to remain in admiration of our creator, nature, and the miracle of our own existence.
[Plato once said that Ignorance is the root and stem of all evil.] The idea of ignorance creating evil reigns true in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The Creature is abandoned at birth, and left without a guide to teach him. The Creature, without Victor Frankenstein, has no barrier between the world and him, therefor they are ignorant of who he is. Throughout the book, the Creature goes through personality changes from people's ignorance affecting him. The Creature starts off as innocent, then quickly shifts from broken to angry.
Upon hearing Frankenstein’s story, Walton’s search for glory and knowledge becomes irrelevant because he suddenly realizes the effects of knowing too much.... ... middle of paper ... ... 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.
knowledge to create life. A subject that which most people have no interest in studying, in playing God, except for Victor Frankenstein. In Mary Shelley’s story, “Frankenstein”, Victor discovers a hunger for a dangerous knowledge. He wants to learn how to create life and reanimate a corpse. Surprisingly, he succeeds, but there's consequences to that amount of power. Victor immediately regrets his decision and spirals into a deep, dark depression. As the novel progresses, Victor transforms from a bright, young man into a depressed mad scientist whose quest for a dangerous knowledge lead to his undoing.
The literary elements of remote and desolate settings, a metonymy of gloom and horror, and women in distress, clearly show “Frankenstein” to be a Gothic Romantic work. Mary Shelley used this writing style to effectively allow the reader to feel Victor Frankenstein’s regret and wretchedness. In writing “Frankenstein” Mary Shelley wrote one the most popular Gothic Romantic novels of all time.
Mary Shelley, with her brilliant tale of mankind's obsession with two opposing forces: creation and science, continues to draw readers with Frankenstein's many meanings and effect on society. Frankenstein has had a major influence across literature and pop culture and was one of the major contributors to a completely new genre of horror. Frankenstein is most famous for being arguably considered the first fully-realized science fiction novel. In Frankenstein, some of the main concepts behind the literary movement of Romanticism can be found. Mary Shelley was a colleague of many Romantic poets such as her husband Percy Shelley, and their friends William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge, even though the themes within Frankenstein are darker than their brighter subjects and poems. Still, she was very influenced by Romantics and the Romantic Period, and readers can find many examples of Romanticism in this book. Some people actually argue that Frankenstein “initiates a rethinking of romantic rhetoric”1, or is a more cultured novel than the writings of other Romantics. Shelley questions and interacts with the classic Romantic tropes, causing this rethink of a novel that goes deeper into societal history than it appears. For example, the introduction of Gothic ideas to Frankenstein challenges the typical stereotyped assumptions of Romanticism, giving new meaning and context to the novel. Mary Shelley challenges Romanticism by highlighting certain aspects of the movement while questioning and interacting with the Romantic movement through her writing.
Although the language throughout the book stays true to its era, many of the ideas and imagery portrayed through it were too chilling to be conceivable in those times. It may have been that because Mary’s mother was the first feminist, Mary felt it was acceptable to ‘rebel’ against society with this terrifying book. It was apparently conceived by a nightmare, and written to win a competition with friends. However, it may have been the rebellious feminist traits in her blood that made her wish for it to be published. Mary Shelley seemed to be quite similar to Frankenstein in many ways.