As a society we all seek answers to how God did it or question how we all got here, in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein the key theme is the thirst for knowledge. Throughout the novel there are three prominent characters that seek for the understanding of life, including Victor Frankenstein, the creature, and Walton.
The most important character involved with this particular theme is Victor Frankenstein, it all starts with his curiosity. Victor’s curiosity sparks with the statement that “The world was to me a secret which I desired to divine” (2.1). Victor studied organic chemistry in college to further develop and learn the skills about the recreation of life which he was interested in. He soon got the crazy idea to make a creature of his own, Victor becomes so obsessed with reanimating the dead he begins to collect body parts from corpses in a nearby grave. Victor follows through and makes the creature but flees because he gets frightened by the outcome. Once he leaves Victor realizes what he has done and that his actions lead to the destruction of everyone that he cared about. These events ultimately led to his downfall hinting that the knowledge of life is too dangerous to understand. Victor states that “One
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For example throughout the novel she shows us the level of destruction that follows, Victor’s life was completely flipped upside down because everyone he ever loved was murdered by his own creation. Victor states “When I reflected on his crimes and malice, my hatred and revenge burst all bounds of moderation. I would have made a pilgrimage to the highest peak of the Andes, could I when there have precipitated him to their base”(9.6). This quote reveals that Victor immediately regretted his creation once he realized what it had done to his life. Science should not be tampered with, look where it got