Destruction Through Knowledge in Frankenstein
Knowledge can be redeeming or atrocious; it all depends on how it is used. Knowledge requires a responsible mind to use it for the greater good. In the novel Frankenstein, knowledge was given to a mind that was not ready for it. Victor, the man with the knowledge, was not in a healthy state of mind to be able to use it responsibly. As a result of this, global destruction was unleashed and people’s lives were changed forever. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, she argues that knowledge leads to destruction when placed in the hands of a weak mind.
Victor’s knowledge and godly curiosity to create life, led him to make an uncontrollable murderer. This creation was built purely out of selfishness and greed:
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Why did I live? Why in that instant did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you had so wantonly bestowed? … I could with pleasure have destroyed the cottage and its inhabitants and have glutted myself with their shrieks and misery.” (155-156). The Creature’s anger towards Victor led the creature to be in a state of mind where he will kill any living thing that stands before him. If The Creature wouldn’t have known that Victor abandoned him, then the creature wouldn’t be so violent and murderous. The knowledge that the person that created him, left him all alone in the world, led him to believe that nobody loves him. He had no one to care for, and no one to care for him. This knowledge causes him to become even more mad at Victor, and he says, “For the first time the feelings of revenge and hatred filled my bosom, and I did not strive to control them.” (158). This madness makes The Creature’s goal to destroy every happy thing in Victors life, and not try to control or stop it. Starting with his brother, The Creature decides to start his plan of revenge on Victor: “Frankenstein! You belong then to my enemy- to him towards whom I have sworn eternal revenge; you shall be my first victim.” (163). Another innocent victim is being killed because the creature knows he is not loved. The Creature will stop at nothing to destroy the things that Victor
Works Cited Enstein, Vicki F. "Frakenstien" Vicki F. Enstein. 8 Mar. 2005. Web. 19 Jan. 2016. Higgins, Nicholas.
In the classic novel, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley it is considered an emocore novel due to the danger the scientist, Frankenstein, did to Europe and Switzarland. The knowledge the scientist had caused the “monster” he brought back to life to cause the death of many love ones of his. I believe that having too much knowledge can be very dangerous. Therefore, when Frankenstein decided to pursuit his life in the world of science, he was hooked on by electricity.
(Shelly 69) What Victor endured in the past still fuelled his hate and anger towards the creature. This hate consumed his whole being leading him to parade such savagery to the creature. Through the cruelty he shows buth his own body and the creature we can see Victor's selfishness.
In Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein (1818), Shelley shows her audience that while acquiring knowledge leads to survival for the Creature and power for Victor Frankenstein, the path to obtain this knowledge leads to the destruction of one’s self. Education and knowledge have major negative effects on both of the characters’ attitude, perception, and decisions. The life experiences of each character is dependent on the amount of knowledge that the character possesses. Knowledge gives Victor Frankenstein a superiority complex, and it changes the Creature’s perspective of the world and the people in it. The Creature, like a baby, is brought into the world with no prior knowledge of how society behaves.
Are there things humans weren’t ever supposed to know? Mary Shelley’s book, featuring Victor Frankenstein, argues that too much knowledge is dangerous and can lead to misery and disastrous outcomes. There is such a thing as dangerous knowledge, and can lead some to domestic
It is often said that the more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know. Even Aristotle said, “The more you know, the more you know you don 't know.”. This can often lead to a yearning for more knowledge and sometimes, can be somebody’s downfall. In this case, it was Victor Frankenstein’s downfall. His love for science and his ever-growing quest to learn about the human body ultimately destroyed him, his family, his wife to be, and his best friend.
All three characters are on a search for knowledge and it plays a major part in their life and more importantly their fate. Here we can see both the journey and the end result, knowledge, posing danger. Victor Frankenstein is a perfect example of the consequences of knowledge. Victor sees the most loss and sadness associated with knowledge. He searches for the answers to create life and goes beyond normal human realm to inquire on them; “It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance ... or, in it highest sense, the physical secrets of the world” (21).
The monsters revenge on Frankenstein, drives him too to be full of hatred and need for vengeance because he destroyed everything good in his life. He feels as the death of his loved ones is his fault because he is the one that created the horrid creature in the first place (Brackett). “As time passed away I became more calm; misery had her dwelling in my heart, but I no longer talked in the same incoherent manner of my own crimes; sufficient for me was the consciousness of them” (Shelley 158). The monster wanted Victor to feel the same thing as him, lonely and sadness. The monsters revenge works, Victor becomes rejected by people and has nobody but himself.
“I seek the everlasting ices of the north, where you will feel the misery of cold and frost, to which I am impassive. " That was the end part of Victor’s life, the curse of his creation compromised with Victor’s life. Even scientific innovations highly blessings to humanity if a person uses it wisely, but same knowledge can be a curse and can destroy a human race. For example, Nuclear bombs which destroyed Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan is an example of cursed knowledge. In the Frankenstein, curse generated by knowledge ultimately took the life of an ambitious, knowledgeable scientist, Victor,
From the moment he is created, the creature knows he is not wanted by Victor. Shelly writes, “Unable to endure the aspect of the being
Dangerous Minds- Rough Draft Knowledge has the capability to be used for both good and evil. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, there is a consistent message throughout the novel showing the dangerous and destructive power that knowledge can have. Two key characters, Victor Frankenstein and his monster, are shaped through their obsessions with knowledge and the power and responsibility that it brings. Ultimately, Victor’s downfall is a result of his uncontrollable thirst for knowledge, and is brought about through the monster which is the embodiment of his obsession. Victor is a brilliant scientist who figures out a way to create life from death using galvanism, or electricity.
Victor’s negligence leads to the creature wanting to seek revenge on Victor even if it means doing it through his loved ones. In the novel, revenge is the main theme that demonstrates how it consistently consumes and destroys those who surrender to it. Throughout the novel there seems to be an endless cycle of it. Victor and the creature are so focused on getting back at each
Throughout the novel, these characters toil with the pursuit of forbidden knowledge by suffering through the ramifications of their decisions to satisfy their desires. The author implies that blind ambition can lead to the downfall of beings who don’t limit their curiosity. These endeavors include determining the secret of life as well as its creation, discovering a passage in the North Pole, and learning to understand one’s place in the world. Victor Frankenstein suffers from the cost of knowledge by allowing his thirst for the unknown to exceed his limits. In like manner, he pushes his own limits and spends countless nights working to construct his creature even though he is cautioned that only God is capable of creating life.
Knowledge is like a perennial weed, if not tamed, then it can not be controlled and will become dangerous. Perennial weeds are spread by seed and if the entire root is not pulled out it can reproduce from the leftover roots which will cause the lawn to swarm in perennial weeds, unless they are tamed. Likewise, knowledge, unless people know their limits, will cause dangerous things to happen. This can be true for Mary Shelley's science fiction literature, Frankenstein, which talks about a crazy scientist, Victor, who gives life to the most abhorred being. He later encounters a captain of a ship, who has the same personality as him, passionate about his own understanding of the world around him, and Victor starts telling his tale, hopeful that
The idea of knowledge in the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley interprets knowledge as an evil pursuit. The knowlege is misused, due to Victor, the monster, and the interference with nature. Theses reasons are different perspectives that lead to tragedies. The novel Frankenstein identifies Victor's desire to gain knowledge as misusing it.