Frankenstein -Literary Analysis Paper

The desire of extensive knowledge is first seen through Victor Frankenstein. At the beginning of the novel, a young boy named Victor grows up in Geneva “deeply smitten with the thirst for knowledge” (20).

Character Analysis: Give your ideas about the main characters(s). Include what you like and dislike about the characters and why they deserve praise or criticism. Does the author intend for you to like/dislike them? How do you know?

According to the classical Greek philosopher, Plato, “Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.” What Plato means is that the basic traits of an individual must include throughout their lifetime are a craving and want of some sort of object, a feeling or passion for a particular idea, and an understanding of what is to come. Throughout history, the meaning of knowledge has had both a variety of changes and continuity in the way many philosophers would address its idea. In today’s age, understanding can be familiarized in being able to distinguish and recognize a particular thing or situation based off of experience with that particular idea. In the beginning of history, most philosophers believed knowledge

Friends will determine the direction and quality of your life. Loneliness is a battle that all people will once face at a certain point in their life; it is how they handle it that determines the outcome of that battle. In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein loneliness is the most significant and prevailing theme throughout the entire novel. Shelley takes her readers on a wild journey that shows how loneliness can end in tragedy.

Winnie sighed. She had been waiting for Mr. Scamander to come back for a few hours. The minute he had left, she started wandering around, looking at the beautiful, strange creatures around her. But she began to get bored. Not that anyone could get bored of these animals, each one was as fantastic as the one before. She was bored because she was a people person, and she had no one to talk to, unless you counted the jarvey, which Winnie certainly did not. So after a few minutes, she found her way back to the room she had originally fallen into. She sat right beside the ladder, glancing up every few minutes, hoping that he would come. She didn’t know how long it took to get to Saint-Pierre, but she imagined it couldn’t be longer than half a day.

Alienation is a product of society’s inherently discriminatory bias, catalyzed by our fear of the unknown in the realm of interpersonal conduct. Mary Shelley, in her novel, Frankenstein, dissects society’s unmerited demonization of individuals who defy—voluntarily or involuntarily—conventional norms. Furthermore, through her detailed parallel development of Frankenstein and his monster, Shelley personifies the tendency to alienate on the basis of physical deformity, thereby illustrating the role of the visual in the obfuscation of morality.

Mary Shelley makes us question who really the “monster” is. Is it the creature or Victor? While the creature does commit murder, he does not understand the consequences of his actions. He is like an infant who is unfortunately left to learn about the workings of society, and his place in it, on his own. He has no companions and feels a great sense of loneliness and abandonment. The creature voices his frustration and anger and seems to try to project his feelings of guilt onto Victor, as if to show him that he is the ultimate cause of the creature’s misery while he is simply the victim of Victor’s manic impulse. Shelley utilizes words, phrases, and specific tones when the creature vents his misery to Victor and this evokes, amongst the

Knowledge can be the key to freedom or to one’s demise, depending on how one choses to act, but no matter what, gaining knowledge is rarely an easy task. Even for students who have information readily available to them, like Victor Frankenstein at the University of Ingolstadt, are constantly under the arduous task of learning. When learning has to be done by any means necessary or in secret, like Frankenstein’s monster or Fredrick Douglass, the acquisition of knowledge becomes even more daunting and makes the learner even more ardent in their pursuit. Once a person obtains knowledge, they see their surroundings for what they are and become discontent; they realize their potential and take action to change their life, which can be seen through the eyes of Victor Frankenstein, his monster, and Fredrick Douglass.

Fictionally, the greatest-written villains in history possess attributes that give them cause for their behavior, with the most universal and essential of these core traits being a deep, personal backstory behind their acts. For instance, in classic stories like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the Monster presents thorough reason to its Creator in terms of why it has turned to wickedness. The Monster does not kill purely for the sake of being evil, its actions are resulted from its desire to be loved by man, yet failing at every attempt to achieve it. Motivation behind monstrous acts is necessary in works of fiction because non-fictionally, people labeled as monsters by society possesses motivation behind their actions as well, whether it be

In Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, she uses the theme of The Danger of Knowledge through characterization, plot and narrative structure. Shelly uses The Danger of Knowledge through characterization when she created each main character in the story. Each character has their own "Danger of Knowledge." We see Victor Frankenstein, Robert Walton, and the Creature strive for knowledge only to take them to dangerous and unwanted places. Victor Frankenstein goes against his father's wishes and studies science, leading him to create an un humanly monster. At first he felt very successful but than the monster lead to destruction of everything he had ever loved. Robert Walton pursues his knowledge by going on a journey to the North Pole. Robert Walton says,

A family is the most important and fundamental processes of development in childhood. There are many examples of works that deal with family. In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the reader sees how neglection from a family setting can invoke horrible events. In The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing, presents how Isolation and dislike can and will lead to unfortunate events. In Macbeth by Shakespeare, shows the betrayal of a family and how it affects the mind by playing with it in several different ways. Before a person can see effects of isolations, neglection, and betrayal of a family he/she must “climb into his skin and walk around in it.”

Frankenstein, by Mary Shelly, raises important questions as to how the theme of knowledge helps to explain the story. The main focus of Frankenstein is the power of knowledge and how dangerous it can be. This power is portrayed in the main characters of the novel: Victor Frankenstein and the monster. The theme of knowledge helps to answer the question as to why Victor decides to tell Walton his secret. Both of these characters reveal a passion of discovery and intellect, which Victor has made his past and Walton only his future. Their obsessions of knowledge are mirrored in one another through the journeys they take until their paths cross. Finally, the question of the concluding effect of the conversation between Walton and the creature

In the novel, Frankenstein written by Marry Shelley, Victor had undoubtedly become relentless in pursuing the reanimation of life in an inanimate lifeless being. Victor could have inevitabely be called obsessed with his work. Victor Frankenstein had always been curious about the reanimation of human life. Until he attempted it and suceeded was when he knew he made a mistake. Victor Frankenstein was blinded by curiosity and obsession.

People approach knowledge in different ways. Not many people have the same view on knowledge thus making it hard to grasp. Certain people are rationalist thinkers who regard reason as the chief source and test of knowledge. They believe knowledge comes from oneself which is based out of the mind. The truth is not based upon the sense rather on intellect and deductive reasoning. Contestants of this perspective on knowledge are called empiricists. People who practice this form of thinking conceive that knowledge is produced from sensory experiences. Empiricist see the importance of sensory experiences in order to provide answers about the natural world. Each view has their benefits and drawbacks but each play a vital role in the discussion about knowledge.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has become a classic in modern literature. Her tale is full of moral lessons that encompass a wide variety of subjects but one of the most prevalent is the theme of knowledge and its pursuit. Frankenstein, Walton, and the Monster all have an appetite for acquiring knowledge and actively pursue their perspective interests, but it soon turns to the obsessive and proves to be dangerous. Each of the character’s desires demonstrates to be detrimental to them when no boundaries are established. Through the use of consequences, Shelley’s Frankenstein shows that the relentless and obsessive pursuit of knowledge can lead to dangerous and disastrous situations.