Knowledge In Frankenstein

Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein develops and explores its protagonist, Victor Frankenstein, in his relentless search for knowledge, quarrel with his own creation, and his turn-around of pursuit. Through the perspective of Robert Walton, an explorer who intended to become the first to reach the North Pole, the reader gets to witness his encounter with Victor Frankenstein up to his tragic fate. It is at their encounter that Victor cautions Walton to not let his ambition and knowledge, in this case his voyage to the North Pole, to negatively turn for the worse for Walton as it did for Victor himself. At first glance, the reader may assume that the cause of Victor’s suffering is owed solely to his search of knowledge; however upon observation …show more content…
In other words, Shelley heeds a warning against the abuse of science by making the novel in tune with its time in the Enlightenment period. In Shelley’s time, “not everyone shared the same level of enthusiasm for science and technology [as Victor] at this time” and humanity was in the midst of an age where society began to base their reasoning on a secular basis and not exclusively on religion (Nocks 141). The common notion is to assume that Frankenstein’s creation results to a destructive monster because he attempts to defy nature and tries to force what is not natural or conventional into existence. And so it was the contrary for one to account the evil nature of the creature to Victor’s meddling with forbidden knowledge which was taboo to the laws of nature. But in actuality, the creature was not born destructive and of an innately evil nature, but only became destructive due to his unfortunate upbringing. This idea is supported by Theodore Ziolkowski when he states that Shelly “wants us to understand that Frankenstein’s creation is not evil in itself but has been made that way by society” and adds that “scientific creation is morally neutral, with a pronounced capacity – indeed, even a predisposition – for good, until it is corrupted by human society” (Ziolkowski 42). That being said, the creature, in fact, does possesses the capability to be morally good. He helps the De Lacey family by gathering wood, saves a girl from drowning in a river, and yearns to be integrated into society, but because of the absence of care from his creator paired with his mistreatment from humanity, he wreaks havoc upon Victor as an act of revenge. As a result, he becomes the evil monster that Victor thinks he is all along. The irony