The Role Of Knowledge In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Knowledge has the ability to promote the evolution of society, but if it prevails in uncovering the irreparable despair of one’s existence, or devours the entirety of ones purpose and ambition, it becomes the fruit of the poison tree. In Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s prolific novel Frankenstein, both Victor Frankenstein and his creature suffer severely from the knowledge plaguing them. Victor possessively seeks the knowledge necessary to bring his creature to life, blocking out all consciousness of negative implications, all the while his creature anguishes over the knowledge of his monstrosity of a reality. Knowledge in their case, is poison, disallowing them to live life freely, and revealing the potential danger when pursuit or discovery of it is all encompassing and corrupting.

Victor’s initial search for knowledge is depicted as innocent and commendable, and it not until his thirst morphs into obsession, that knowledge and discovery create a cocktail that curse the rest of his living days. As Victor becomes more drawn into his work, he admits, “I
pursued my undertaking with unremitting ardour. My cheek had grown pale with study, and my person had become emaciated with confinement” (Shelley 34). His compulsions make him sick and naive to the consequences of his actions, as he manically declares, “Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world” (Shelley 34). He is blinded by his infatuation before realizing the atrocity of which he has actually created, and exclaims, “…but now that I have finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart” (Shelley 37). Victors demand for the knowledge to create life was forbidden insight, and his persistence led to the deterioration of all he held near, revealing the corruptible nature of the pursuit of understanding, when the cost and weight of it surpasses our own capacity and ability to cope with the outcome.

Like Victor, his creatures growing knowledge destroys him.
The way in which they contrast is that the monster did not always seek such awareness. The creature describes the first time he caught a glimpse of himself when he divulged he was, “…terrified, When I viewed myself in a transparent pool!... I became fully convinced that I was in reality the monster that I am, I was filled with the bitterest sensations of despondence and mortification”(Shelley 85). His growing insight into his condition slowly pushes him from sorrow to rage, and as a result explodes, “I, like the archfiend, bore as hell within me; and, finding myself unsympathized with, wish to tear up trees, spread havoc and destruction around me, and then to have sat down and enjoyed the ruin”(Shelley 104). Unlike like Victor, society rips away his innocence, forces understanding upon him, and pushes him into fits of violence and demands for
revenge.

Victor decides to play God without the knowledge to control the result within the climate he has created. All the while, his creation, by learning his origins, like Adam, picks the poison fruit of knowledge, but it is man who turns Adam into Satan, and God who must pay the price.