Christina Wall

Theme of Frankenstein

One of the themes that a reader may interpret by reading Mary Shelley s Frankenstein is that the quest for knowledge can lead to a self-destruction. We can definitely see how Victor s thirst for knowledge leads to his downfall throughout Shelley s story. Victor s own aspects of his personality lead to his thirst for knowledge that will eventually turn into devastation for him. Shelley describes Victor s thirst for knowledge as the way the human body needs water to sustain life. Shelley suggests in her story that the knowledge and learning are Victor s essentials for life, equivalent to water. Victor was never very friendly with other people. Because he did not have any companions, his education and learning became more important and even excessive. Victor begins to intoxicate himself with sciences so deeply that he never imagined the morality of what he was really doing. He was so involved and focused on his experiments that he did not take into mind what could happen because of the size of the creature. Victor discovered the secret of how to generate life. He is so amazed at his power to bring a creature to life. Victor has taken on the work of God. Victor believes that this science to reverse death is divine handiwork. But because Victor has tried to play the role of God and create a human being, it becomes dangerous. When he brings this creature to life he is terrified of it and abandons it, which embarks on the journey of his downfall. His quest to play God and create a being destroyed his own self, not to mention his family. The point is, is that Victor took his scientific experimentations into his own hands and way too much to the extreme that it ruined his life and of his loved ones, all for the sake of reputation in the name of science.