The Enlightenment In Frankenstein

education, however after his experiment, Frankenstein gained real knowledge (Sylvia 20). Failure is a part of maturing and gaining greater knowledge of a subject is a part of enlightening. Through failure Frankenstein realized that his job is not to create life, and that through seeking the secrets of life, he ultimately got himself killed (Frankenstein dies at the end of the book), “You seek for knowledge and wisdom, as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been” (Shelley 22). This goes to show how enlightenment cannot be just experience or just education, there needs to be a proper balance between them. The monster in “Frankenstein” very much reflects both The Enlightenment and what it means to be enlightened. Starting with The Enlightenment, although the monster did not attend formal schooling, he was an avid

From the minute he was born to the minute he died he never had a friend he could talk to, all he could do was watch other people socialize, or read his book. One cannot learn how to socialize through a book, to learn how to socialize one needs to go through the steps of approaching a person and starting conversation with them which the monster was never able to do because of his looks. This was another hidden criticism that Shelley had towards The Enlightenment, she believed that people relied too much on formal education, and that people needed to go out and experience things for themselves (Willinksy ). The enlightenment that the monster experiences here is that he had to accept the understanding that he will never have a friend to talk to or share feeling with. Although he read in his book that he would not be accepted, it was not until the cottage rejection that he came to the realization that he would not actually be accepted in