The Forbidden Fruit of Knowledge

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The Romantic Era followed the Age of Enlightenment, a time of scientific discovery, political changes, and philosophical advancement. Romanticism challenged the rationality of the Enlightenment (Britannica). Romantic artists placed emotions above reason. In keeping with the Romantic tradition, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley challenges the benefits of science, education, and knowledge. In Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein, his creature, and Robert Walton are all ambitious; they have a desire for knowledge. However, this quest for knowledge brings about destruction to Dr. Frankenstein, misery to the monster, and danger to Walton. Shelley draws parallels to the Biblical story of the Fall; a catastrophe which befell mankind because of a desire for knowledge.

Frankenstein has a desire to discover the mysteries of life and the world. This desire for knowledge links him to the Biblical character, Adam; in fact, Frankenstein is more like Adam than his creature is. Ever since Victor Frankenstein was a child, he viewed the world as a “secret” (Shelley 923). He began to read books by Cornelius Agrippa, Paraclesus, and Albertus Magnus, authors of magic and the occult sciences; these books were not “rational” like the “theory of chemistry” (Shelley 924). Rather, they contained a false science. Nonetheless, Frankenstein enthusiastically read these books. He possesses a curiosity and desire to delve into the mysteries of life. However, Frankenstein later admits that these studies were “unlawful”; they were not “befitting to the human mind” (Shelley 934). This knowledge is forbidden knowledge to mankind. Adam, likewise, was tempted with the prospect of forbidden knowledge. God planted the “tree of knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:9). However, He...

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...e: Authorized King James Version with Apocrypha. New York: Oxford UP, 1997.

Bloom, Harold, ed. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: Modern Critical Interpretations. New York: Chelsea House, 1987. Print.

Keyishian, Harry. "Vindictiveness and the Search for Glory in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein." University of Pennsylvania - Department of English. Web. 07 Dec. 2010. .

"Romanticism." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 07 Dec. 2010 .

Schopf, Sue W. ""Of What a Strange Nature Is Knowledge!": Hartleian Psychology and the Creature's Arrested Moral Sense in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein." University of Pennsylvania - Department of English. Web. 07 Dec. 2010. .

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