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Mary Shelley's Frankenstein knowledge
Analysis of frankenstein frankenstein
Analysis of frankenstein frankenstein
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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. The novel Frankenstein is about an Intelligent doctor who obsesses over wanting to obtain …show more content…
When Victor abandons the monster he runs away and tries to forget about his failed creation. It was extremely dangerous for Victor to flee his experiment because the monster soon becomes aggressive with hate and is curious to know why Victor left him; furthermore, the monster becomes obsessed with self-learning and knowledge. Mary Shelly explains in her novel Frankenstein the cause of Victors abandonment was the rage of the monster that he created. The monster’s reaction to his creator is “Was man, indeed, at once so powerful, yet so vicious and base? (119) The monster’s curiosity was similar to his creator’s strive for knowledge. The monster wanted to confront the mad man who brought him to life only to reject him. The monster was alone and confused when he was abandoned, just the way Victor Frankenstein was in seclusion in his laboratory when creating the …show more content…
Victor was consumed with all the information he had learned from school and his own experiments and he did not care to offend anyone who would try to show affection. The monster wanted Victor to create a monster just as hideous as he was because he didn’t want the other creation to find attention from someone else due to the fact that the female monster would be scary. Victor did abandon the monster and that was a selfish act because he didn’t want the burden of something that was unable to fend for itself to consume him; furthermore, the reason why the monster killed Victor Frankenstein’s younger brother was the selfish act of revenge. The monster wanted revenge only to satisfy his needs and to get even with his creator Victor. The only way the two would avoid any other conflicts that would have come their direction would be to eliminate and face the reality of their own catastrophe. Victor wanted to kill the monster because he killed and destroyed many things that he loved; however, the monster was the image of his own guilt and mind. The monster wanted closure and wanted to know why he was brought to the world only to be abandoned, lonely, and
If Victor had stayed around and showed the monster the real world, he might have not have went on to perform violent actions. This portrays Victor as a selfish character and gives more of an insight on his personal life. As a child, Victor is only interested in furthering his own knowledge and not worried about anyone else. He spent much of his time “drawing the picture of [his] early days... when [he] would account to [himself] for the birth of that passion which afterwards ruled [his] destiny” (Shelley 34), or otherwise a magnificent creation that would change his future. When constructing the Monster, he put all of his relatives in the back of his mind, and only focused on his own success and victory. This further explains the theme of being selfless and only doing certain things that will benefit
Frankenstein defied human boundaries when he created the monster and because of this not only his life, but the lives of others have also shifted, this has caused their lives to spiral into an unjustified conclusion. Curiosity was the main cause of him learning how to create such a thing, his lack of caring for the thing that he created led to his undoing. His motivation for creating life, comes from the fact that he lost someone dear to him. Although Victor was young when his mother died, it had serious effects on the way he viewed life and maybe even himself. Once you take on the father role you have to stick to it, otherwise creating life
Frankenstein is a book written by Mary Shelley in 1818, that is revolved around a under privileged scientist named Victor Frankenstein who manages to create a unnatural human-like being. The story was written when Shelley was in her late teen age years, and was published when she was just twenty years old. Frankenstein is filled with several different elements of the Gothic and Romantic Movement of British literature, and is considered to be one of the earliest forms of science fiction. Frankenstein is a very complicated and complex story that challenges different ethics and morals on the apparent theme of dangerous knowledge. With the mysterious experiment that Dr. Victor Frankenstein conducted, Shelly causes her reader to ultimately ask themselves what price is too high to pay to gain knowledge. It is evident that Shelly allows the reader to sort of “wonder” about the reaction they would take when dealing with a situation such as the one implemented throughout the book.
Victor Frankenstein is originally a happy character that loves to learn and read a large variety of books. He was a fiery individual who sought to understand all knowledge; regardless of how practical the information was. Evidence of this is when his father tells him not to worry about fictional writers like Cornelius Agrippa. Yet, Frankenstein states, “But here were books, and here were men who had penetrated deeper and knew more. I took their word for all that they averred, and I became their disciple” (21). Frankenstein embodies the movement in science to understand everything, and that is not necessarily a good thing (Storment 2). Frankenstein only understands that this train of thought is bad when he reaches the pinnacle of knowledge and produces the creature. The fruits of Frankenstein’s labor end up costing him the lives of his friends and family, as well as his own sanity. The feeling of guilt thrives in Frankenstein because he knows his work was the direct cause of the chaos in his life. In Frankenstein’s case, his goal of total enlightenment led to his pitiful demise. Frankenstein’s creature was not originally a monster. He is born with good intentions and is a gentle- although atrocious looking- being until he learns of the sins of the human race. The ultimate factor in the creature’s progression from harmless to
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...
When Victor flees the creature, he becomes lonely and unhappy. He rejects his own works. If he stayed and taught him the creature would at least have a chance of happiness. When the monster flees to the cottagers he learns about human nature. He quotes “I continued for the remainder of the day in my hovel in a state of utter and stupid despair. My protector had departed and broken the only link that held me to th...
In the novel Frankenstein, knowledge is portrayed as a very important quality for Victor to achieve. Victor becomes obsessed with the idea of knowledge, uses the knowledge for his own desires, and later in life regrets it. Throughout the book, as Victor gains more knowledge, he begins to see the consequences of misusing this quality but, however, it does not stop him. Victor’s monster ironically seeks the power of enlightenment, as does his creator. Victor’s and the Monster’s conquest for knowledge soon turns into a revenge war between the two, later taking the life of everyone Victor holds near to his heart.
In reality, Victor destroys the female monster because he cannot stand the fact that the female monster will be as ugly as the male monster, " His countenance expressed the utmost extent of malice and treachery (171)." This proves that all Victor cares about is both of his creation's physical appearance. Victor's selfishness demonstrates again when he ignores the monster's threats concerning his wedding night. The monster warned Victor that" I will be with you on your wedding night (173)." He should have been in that bedroom with Elizabeth to protect her because he knew that the monster will fulfill this threat, instead, he decided to stay in the living room thinking of how to prepare himself in case the monster tries to attack him. He keeps thinking about himself first, knowing that the monster's goal is to kill all his loved ones so he can stay alone just like the monster was when he was abandoned. Basically, Victor is trying to play the victim in this volume, he destroys the female monster to make the reader believe that he does not wish to unleash evil into the world. The monster was created by Victor then he abandoned him, this is what turned the monster into a heartless creature, he wanted revenge. Not that things would have been different if the monster was accepted by his creator but, it sure would have made a difference in the way he chose to
Besides selfishness, Frankenstein includes many other themes. The popular phrase "Knowledge is Power" is taken to great extents in this novel, proving that too much knowledge is ultimately powerless. At the beginning of the novel, Victor was just innocently studying. However, his thirst for knowledge turned into a dangerous obsession. When Frankenstein stumbles on the ideas of life and death, his massive curiosity starts the track to his later downfall.
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein explores the downfall of certain human characteristics, set to the backdrop of creation, destruction, and preservation. The subtitle denoted by Shelly herself supports this idea, by relating the fact that the title can be viewed as either Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus. One scholar, Marilyn Butler, also maintains this by noting, "It can be a late version of the Faust Myth"(302). Shelly uses the story of the main character, Victor Frankenstein, to produce the concept of a dooming human characteristic of which Frankenstein states, "I have . . . been blasted in these hopes"(Shelley, 152). The reader finds, as a result of his thirst for knowledge and infatuation with science, Victor creates a living being by whom he has "suffered great and unparalleled misfortunes"(Shelley, 17). Eventually, Victor realizes this self-destructive trait, but he is not able to save himself stating, "I have lost everything, and cannot begin life anew"(Shelley, 16). Although everything in his life that is dear has been lost, Victor is able to convince one in his same position--Robert Walton--to not "lead [his crew] unwillingly to danger"(Shelley, 151). While addressing the concept of characteristic and self-discovery, it is possible to realize that the monster also possesses the characteristics held by both Victor and Walton; except in his learning, the monster is driven to continue to cause destruction. Most important about the thirst for knowledge is that, as a form of human characteristic or downfall, it leads to large, critical pieces of self-discovery. In obtaining these critical pieces, Frankenstein finds satisfaction in j...
Victor has a lack of respect for the natural world that leads him on the path to becoming a monster. In creating the monster Victor is trying to change the natural world. He is trying to play the role of god by creating life.
In the book Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein creates a monster in his laboratory as a grief outlet for the recent death of his mother. The monster roams around Geneva to learn the patterns of life and how to be accepted into society. Why does the monster turn violent toward Victor’s family and not to society in general? The monster hurts Victor’s family members to punish Victor because he feels rejected by society due to his grotesque appearance. Victor doesn’t try to make him this way; he just is experimenting and happens to create the being this way. The monster is trying to get revenge on Victor for creating him as an “outcast”.
The monster remains corrupted, heartless, careless, and hopeless with the thought of getting vengeance on Victor. After being overpowered, stormed, and attacked by the people in the village, he thought were kind to him, he heads off to find Victor. He remains very enraged with Victor for making him the way he looks because he is incapable to fit in with society. He kills Victor’s youngest brother in vengeance, and then forces Victor to construct another one like him so he will not be alone. When Victor does not do what he wants, he murders a majority of Victor's cherished
Victor Frankenstein proves his ability of holding ultimate knowledge by creating life, but as a whole, the society shows a greater impact over others. The Creature 's physical strength plays a vital role in the novel as well. Through the Creature’s many murders, he showed his strength and mental drive to accomplish the things he wanted. The desire for power plays a vital role within the novel, pushing the characters to act out in either a positive or negative manner. Victor Frankenstein, the Creature, and the society all show a different type of influence over others within the novel, creating different desires of
By letting the monster go, he is giving his control away. As the monster learns things on his own, he starts turning against Victor. He struggles as the creature alters his life. The creature does whatever he wants; like killing his brother, William. Victor didn’t think of the consequences of his actions and thought that he would be unaffected if he just disowned the creature. In my opinion, all the terrible events that occurred could have been avoided if only Victor accepted him and therefore, having control, authority and power over the monster.