Frankenstein: The Pursuit of Knowledge

To be informed should be a relatively good thing. "Knowledge is power", as one might say. We exibit in The Monk that knowledge has the power to endow many benefits to its beholder, for instance, that Matilda should know how to suck poison from snake bites to save Ambrosio's life. However, sometimes it is lack of knowledge, or innocence, that is better suited for a person, as when Antonia is purposefully denied the uneditted version of the bible to spare her of learning harshness. For Victor Frankenstein, of the book Frankenstein, he exibits both of these effects and their opposites.

Victor is a very well read student of outdated science and philosophy. With this knowing, he made it his life's endeavor to be able to create life in objects. Knowing about what he did inspired him to dream of his ideal occupation, which is a very noble quest. Victor was persistent in attaining fluency of the expired art and his reward was further want of information so that it might occupy the rest of his life. This, I believe, is a worthy cause for knowledge.

Despite the wonderful opportunity the ancient studies of animation gave Victor, his store of knowledge was quite incomplete by just knowing of this one area. Wanting to extend his knowledge, he went off to college, but, due to his abence of earlier lectures, he became biased against modern chemistry since he did not understand even the basics of the far advanced class. He clung to the old arts that he knew well and did not regard the new as credible. A gracious teacher, M. Waldmon, explains, "A man would make but a very sorry chemist, if he attended to that department of human knowledge alone. If your wish is to become really a man of science, and not merely a petty experimentalist, I should advise you to apply to every branch of natural philosophy..." (Pg. 28). Victor was unsure of whether or not he should continue learning into a modernized version of his beloved philosophy, even if it seemingly had nothing to do with his goals. With only theories of old, Victor would have surely been at a severe disadvantage while searching for life and, if Waldmon's prediction is correct, would have ended in mediocrity and waste.

Victor lived a sheltered childhood. In this fashion, he was spared the trauma of ghost stories and, at the same time, fear of the night, darkness, and all things regularly associated with it that are steriotypically frightening. Victor seems to be proud of himself as he explains his special situation. With his lack of fear of normally disturbing things, he is able to pursue his goal in digging up bones and working in grave yards to fashion his human creature. In this instance, his not knowing of ghost stories is beneficial to his cause.

Regarding the same lack of knowledge, he finds himself completely unprepared for the arrival of his creation to life. He explains his actions while in search for the monster, "I threw the door forcibly open, as children are accustomed to do when they expect a spectre to stand in waiting for them on the other side" (Pg. 37). If he was boasting of his courage towards the objects of ghost stories, he was then trembling at this very real monster. Having not experienced similar fright, he is ill prepared to deal with anything of the like. Victor is reduced to childish antics because he knows not how else to approach the situation. His lack of knowledge has rendered him lame and ineffective in the search of his monster.

Victor Frankenstien's knowing of profound sciences enables him great feats of intellectual progress. At the same time, it inhibits him to rely on it soley and without up to date information that would most definitely speed his actions. Not knowing seems to be the more tragic of the two prospects. To be ignorant of ghost stories granted him freedom in the dark, but only at the price of being unprepared for the sight of his demon. Knowledge is power; that much cannot be denied. The difference in the outcome is the favor in which the scale of power leans.