Self-Destruction In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

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Shelly implies how intelligent humans cause self-destructive to themselves by engulfing their lives completely on learning obsessions. “... I was capable of more intense application and was more deeply smitten with the thirst for knowledge,” (22) Frankenstein as a child, found enjoyment in complex subjects, unlike his colleagues. His obsession of achieving intelligence about the natural world started at a young age; most of his time is spent studying the works of Cornelius Agrippa, Albertus Magnus, and Paracelsus. As he matures, Frankenstein attends the university of Ingolstadt but the academic isn't enough to fulfil his desire of learning so he takes his studies further into his own hands. Frankenstein figures out how to create the spark of life in a collection of corpse parts, his learning obsession is achieved but destruction soon falls after. …show more content…

Frankenstein ran away from his “beautiful” living obsession and was struck by great grief, “ … the commencement of a nervous fever which confined me for several months.” (47) Frankenstein kept encountering his creation which reminded him of the horrors he created and death tolls steadily rose, causing him to mentally self-destruct, “I was seized by remorse and the sense of guilt, which hurried me away to a hell of intense tortures such as no language can describe.” (77) Thoughts about suicide often raced through Frankenstein's mind, showing self-destruction on his mental state, “ often, I say, I was tempted to plunge into the silent lake, that the waters might close over me and my calamities forever.”

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