Frankenstein-"is Knowledge Power"

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Through his delirious state of mind, Victor decides to pursue the monster in an effort to kill it and rid the world of its evil. Along the way, he runs into problems and ends up stranded on a piece of ice floating about in the sea. He is found by a group of sailors but asks them, “Will you have the kindness to inform me whither you are bound?”(59). Which is a testament to Victor’s broken state of mind because any logical human being would be grateful to be rescued but he is so lost in trying to kill the monster that he disregards common sense and his self-preservation. It’s interesting that in the beginning of reading the book I wondered as to why in the hell a man would ask where his rescuers were heading and not just be grateful. This action by Victor seemed so “out there” that I was in disbelief. As the novel progressed I came to understand that him asking where his rescuers were headed was not surprising at all considering his broken mental state, and in fact might have been expected. Maybe this was also a testament to Victor’s great determination and his mentality that he will stop at nothing to achieve his goals. Victor proves he would truly rather die than give up. In the end though, Victor is overcome with sickness and eventually dies on the rescuers boat.

Hence, Victor’s quest for knowledge eventually led to his demise. Ironically his determination in the ability to create life subsequently led to his death. Through knowledge he created a monster which learned through its own experiences and eventually came back to wreak havoc on Victors life which subsequently led to Victor being shattered and broken mentally, which snowballed into him being broken physically which in-turn brought on death. So, knowledge really is power in the sense that it has the ability to destroy you under certain circumstances such as the ones seen in Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein.

Word Count: 1,195

Works Cited

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein. Ed. D.L. Macdonald and Kathleen Scherf. 3rd ed. Buffalo: Broadview Press, 2012. Print.