In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Frankenstein and the Monster explore a relationship of anger. Frankenstein desires to show his extreme anger to the Monster. However, the method used by Frankenstein appears to achieve the opposite. This is as it initially appears that Frankenstein’s expression of anger is conveyed through solidifying the Monster’s intellect. Upon closer examination, it is shown that this is not the true expression of anger. Rather, in order to show the greatest possible expression of anger, Frankenstein juxtaposes the solidifying of the Monster’s intellect with the relinquishment of the Monster’s personal freedom. To Frankenstein, the injustice of possessing an intellect but not freedom constitutes the greatest expression of
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After observing the cottagers and beginning to form an intellect by learning language, the Monster laments:
“Of what a strange nature is knowledge! It clings to the mind, when it has once seized on it, like a lichen on the rock. I wished sometimes to shake off all thought and feeling; but I learned that there was but one means to overcome the sensation of pain, and that was death—a state which I feared yet did not understand.” (Vol. II, Chap. V, Pg. 57)
In this passage. the Monster explores the nature of the intellect. He states “Of what a strange nature is knowledge! It clings to the mind, when it has once seized on it, like a lichen on the rock.” “Cling”, meaning to adhere together, connotes congealing or solidifying together. However, the Monster further states that this “knowledge” or intellect, can only cling or solidify “when it has once seized on it.” The word “seized”, meaning taken or relinquished, shows that the intellect can only solidify “when” some other attribute is relinquished. The attribute that must be relinquished is shown when the Monster continues and expands, “seized on it, like a lichen on the rock.” A lichen is a parasitic life form that drains the vital attributes from the host. Therefore, the process of solidifying the Monster’s intellect is a parasitic one. In order for the intellect to solidify or “cling to the mind”, it must relinquish a seemingly vital attribute of the
After observing the cottagers and beginning to form an intellect by learning language, the Monster laments:
“Of what a strange nature is knowledge! It clings to the mind, when it has once seized on it, like a lichen on the rock. I wished sometimes to shake off all thought and feeling; but I learned that there was but one means to overcome the sensation of pain, and that was death—a state which I feared yet did not understand.” (Vol. II, Chap. V, Pg. 57)
In this passage. the Monster explores the nature of the intellect. He states “Of what a strange nature is knowledge! It clings to the mind, when it has once seized on it, like a lichen on the rock.” “Cling”, meaning to adhere together, connotes congealing or solidifying together. However, the Monster further states that this “knowledge” or intellect, can only cling or solidify “when it has once seized on it.” The word “seized”, meaning taken or relinquished, shows that the intellect can only solidify “when” some other attribute is relinquished. The attribute that must be relinquished is shown when the Monster continues and expands, “seized on it, like a lichen on the rock.” A lichen is a parasitic life form that drains the vital attributes from the host. Therefore, the process of solidifying the Monster’s intellect is a parasitic one. In order for the intellect to solidify or “cling to the mind”, it must relinquish a seemingly vital attribute of the