Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has evolved over the years into a chilling, but trouble-free and thoughtless, horror story that is told around campfires and is seen on television during Halloween. The original story, however, was meant to offer much more to the human race than a mad scientist screaming “it’s alive!” while a bolted, green beast rises from a slab of concrete. At the heart of Frankenstein, is a lesson about the search for knowledge, and the perils that accompany the pursuit. Therefore, the prevailing theme in the gothic novelFrankenstein is that humans have a bottomless, motivating, but often dangerous, thirst for knowledge.
This theme is initially evident in the opening stages of Shelley’s work. Robert Walton has departed on a journey from Russia to the “country of eternal life,” the North Pole, and relays his journeys through a series of letters to his sister, Margaret Saville. In his first correspondence, Walton expresses his hope of discovery of a new land, of the cause of the Earth’s magnetism, or of a northern route to the Pacific Ocean. His enthusiasm for the expedition “elevates him to heaven;” nothing makes him happier than to have a purpose to which he may “fix his intellectual eye.” Walton has put so much energy into the voyage–he has accompanied whale-fishers on ships to the North Sea, suffered cold, hunger and lack of sleep, and studied mathematics and science at night–that he feels he cannot fail. Robert Walton will not let himself fail.
In Walton’s fourth letter to Margaret, he admits that his ship has been encircled by gigantic pieces of ice. But something even stranger has happened that has overshadowed this disparaging occurrence: a man has been found lying on a sheet of ice next to the boat. He has been brought on board and nursed back to health, all the while engaging in conversations with Walton. Walton tells him of his projects, which he feels will be successes. The man comments: “Unhappy man! Do you share my madness? Have you drunk also of the intoxicating draught? Hear me; let me reveal my tale, and you will dash the cup from your lips!”
A few days later the man gives more insight into his outburst: “You seek for knowledge and wisdom, as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been.”
This sets up the dynamic between the two individuals for the rest of Frankenstein, as a comparison between Robert Walton and the man who is later identified as Victor Frankenstein becomes evident. Frankenstein identifies Walton as a man driven by his eagerness to learn and discover, and Victor tries to “save” Robert from his growing ambition by narrating his own story.
Victor tells of his childhood and of his fascination with the subject of natural philosophy and with the pieces of writings by Cornelius Agrippa, Albertus Magnus, and Paracelsus. When Victor was sent off to college at Ingolstadt, he attended a lecture taught by M. Waldman which set the young Frankenstein on a path in which he would “pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation.” Excited about the topics of the human frame and the cause of life, Frankenstein’s goal was to create a human being. As he became weak and thin, and pale with study, Victor worked for days at a time, discovering the origin of life and collecting pieces for his creation in the process. And on a “dreary night of November” the eyes of the beast opened and he began to move, frightening Victor so much that he left his home and slept on a park bench the entire night. Although he had no idea of it at that particular moment, Victor’s desire would cause much hardship and sadness later on in his life.
The theme is also evident in the creature’s life, which the beast recounts to Victor many years after the initial creation. At first, the monster relies as his natural instincts, collecting food and warming himself by abandoned fires. But the creature strives for more, and, once coming upon a hovel attached to an inhabited cottage, he decides on dedicating himself to learning to speak and read. The De Lacey’s, as we learn is the name of the family that lives adjacent to the monster, begins to teach Safie, a foreign girl, to read. Through these teachings, the creature accomplishes his goal. But this longing to be more like humans costs the monster his happiness. Finally he is able to read Victor’s diary entries that he found the day of his conception, and understand the abhorrence of his “father” after the deed was done. Once the beast has been rejected by the De Lacey’s, he has nothing left to live for. The beast promises to extract revenge on his maker.
This is where Victor Frankenstein’s suffering begins because of his intense craving to uncover a mystery of science. The creature strangles Victor’s brother, William, shortly after leaving his hovel. A close family friend, Justine, is blamed and executed for this act of violence. The monster gives Victor an ultimatum: create a female partner for the beast or face his wrath. On a trip to Ireland to research his new experiment, Frankenstein realizes what harm could come about due to his decision to follow the creature’s wishes, and quits his project. Because of this, Henry Clerval, a childhood friend, meets the same fate as William. The creature promises to be with Victor and his fiancée Elizabeth on their wedding night. Sure enough, he keeps his promise, strangling the girl in the dead of night. Victor’s father dies of shock three days later. Victor commits his life to chasing the monster, to killing the very thing he created.
Robert Walton, upon the completion of the tale, is questioned by Victor: “Are you mad, my friend? Or whither does your senseless curiosity lead you? Would you also create for yourself and the world a demoniacal enemy? Peace, peace! Learn my miseries and do not seek to increase your own.”
The ice builds up around the ship, and the worried crew tells Robert that if he fails to direct the ship southward once their icy imprisonment lapses, they will be forced to mutiny. Victor gives one last speech to the men from his deathbed, telling them to “return as heroes who have fought and conquered and who know not what it is to turn their backs on the foes.” Walton, though, takes the warnings of his friend to heart and decides that he will sail home, if they get the chance.
The theme that humans have a bottomless, motivating, but often dangerous, thirst for knowledge is consistent throughout the text, marked by three of the main character in Frankenstein and many important occurrences in the novel. The theme is a statement of belief, as well. But more importantly, this theme is universal–meaning it is a statement about humanity at all times and in all places. The human race is now in a new millennium where many subjects that had been nothing more than science fiction have turned out to be reality. Victor Frankenstein, in the closing pages of the story, says: “My imagination was vivid, yet my powers of analysis and application were intense; by the union of these qualities I conceived the idea and executed the creation of a man. Even now I cannot recollect without passion my reveries while the work was incomplete. I trod heaven in my thoughts, now exulting in my powers, now burning with the idea of their effects. From my infancy I was imbued with high hopes and a lofty ambition; but how am I sunk! Oh! My friend, if you had known me as I once was, you would not recognize me in this state of degradation. Despondency rarely visited my heart; a high destiny seemed to bear me on, until I fell, never, never again to rise.”
Our thirst for knowledge, especially in the fields of science, is not quenched in this day of age, and most likely will not be for a very long time. But at what point should the thirst be satisfied?
Works Cited
All quoted passages taken from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the Signet Classic version published in 2000.
