The Danger Of Knowledge

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

We find out that the monster has found some fiction books that he thinks are actually non-fiction and about actual history

He finds some journal entries in the clothes he took from Victor and finds out how he was brought to life and the disgust shown by Victor

He gets angry by this and is more inclined to show himself to the family in the cottage so he can actually be accepted

His plan is to approach the old man first since he is blind and can see past his outer looks

On a day when everyone else is gone, he goes to talk to De but when the others return, they immediately become hostile to him and drive him away

When he returns to maybe get a second chance, the De Lacey's are gone, so he gets angry and burns down the cottage

He now wants revenge on humans and most importantly Victor

Upon arriving in Geneva, he meets William and wants to teach him that his appearance is not everything but once he mentions he is Victors brother, the monster strangles him and plants evidence on Justine

The monster now tells Victor that he wants him to make a female monster but Victor does not want to do this but the monster promises that if he does, he will leave humans alone

Victor then agrees to create another monster and the monster says he will follow Victor till his work is done

Characters:

Felix: He is quick to judge the monster when he sees him at his father's feet. He immediately goes to attack him without second thought. "Felix darted forward, and with supernatural force tore me from his father, to whose knees I clung; in a transport of fury, he dashed me to the ground and struck me violently with a stick" (Shelley 124).

Monster: He is still learning about humans and wants to be like them. He also finds out how he was made and how his creator showed disgust, this made him angry. He tries to show the cottagers that he is a good person but they immediately reject him because of the way he looks. Even when he tries to help people they reject him so he gives up on humanity, and wants revenge on Victor. "From you only could I hope for succour, although towards you I felt no sentiment but that of hatred. Unfeeling, heartless creator!" (Shelley 128).

De Lacey: The monster talks to him since he is blind and cant care about the way he looks. He comforts with him and keeps asking who the people the monster talks about are. "'To be friendless is indeed to be unfortunate, but the hears of men, when unprejudiced by any obvious self-interest, are full of brotherly love and charity" (Shelley 122).

Style:

Simile: "I could of have torn him limb from limb, as the lions rends the antelope" (Shelley 124). The monster could have hurt Felix but refrains from doing so. He could have torn his limbs right off like a lion does to an antelope but he does not. Instead he just leaves as quickly as he can. The monster still thinks he might have a chance to help change their minds.

Flashback: "The horrible scene of the preceding day was forever acting before my eyes; the females were flying and the enraged Felix tearing me from his father's feet" (Shelley 126). The monster has a flashback from the day he wanted to show himself to the cottage family. This was an important event in his life and it showed that he had no place in humanity and that people just judged from appearance. It keeps coming back to him to haunt him.

Personification: "The wind fanned the fore, and the cottage was quickly enveloped by the flames, which clung to it and licked it with their forked and destroying tongues" (Shelley 128). Fire is given human qualities like licking and clinging on to the cottage. The monster burned down the cottage because the De Lacey family left because of him and he was angry. Even though he tried to help them, he was rejected because of his appearance and this made him angry.

Theme:

The Danger of Knowledge

"I sickened as I read. 'Hateful day when I received life!' I exclaimed in agony" (Shelley 119). Before reading Victor's journals, the monster did not know about how Victor felt. Now that he does, he is angry at what Victor thinks of him and why he still went ahead and created him even though he knew he was ugly. He found out how he was made and the disgusting circumstances. This new knowledge made him angry.

Monstrosity

"'Accused creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?..." (Shelley 119). He learns that even his creator hated his appearance and did not want to even be close to him because he was a monster. This makes the monster more inclined to show himself to the De Lacey's. Once he does, he immediately gets rejected because of his appearance. Even when he tries to help people, he is rejected and suspected of wrongdoing because of his appearance.

Marginalized

"I saw him on the point of repeating his blow, when, overcome by pain and anguish, I quitted the cottage, and in the general tumult escaped unperceived to my hovel" (Shelley 124). Even after helping the De Lacey's, learning from them and preparing to reveal himself, he still gets marginalized. Even though the old man does not immediately reject him, his children do because of his appearance. He is marginalized by everyone and feels alone. He is done with humans and wants revenge.

Frankenstein Literary Significance Chapters 18-21

Plot:

Victor starts delaying the female monster

He needs to go to England and before he leaves, his father thinks he might not want to marry Elizabeth but Victor assures him that he does and will once he returns

Victor leaves for England with Henry on a two year long journey, they reach London, then go to Scotland and Victor leaves Henry so he can go do work by himself at the Orkney Islands

He starts to build the female monster but is still doubting if he should make it or not and still has a guilty conscience

When he see the monster he first created watching him through his window, Victor realizes that he cannot make another monster like him so he starts to destroy the monster he was making

He broke his promise and the monster tells him that he will get his revenge

Victor gets a letter from Henry who tells him that he wants to continue with their travels and then Victor gets ready to leave and he disposes of the body parts in a lake

Victor goes to sleep on the boat and upon waking up, he sees that the winds have picked up and he thinks he might die out at sea but he gets lucky and he reaches a town

He is accused of committing a murder upon docking and evidence is shown that the body was found on the beach where a boat could be seen in the water that looked the same as Victor's

Victor is shown the body and to his surprise it is Henry, Victor then gets sick for two months and finally wakes up in a jail cell

Mr. Kirwin wants to help Victor by hiring him a lawyer and tells him his father is here to see him

Victor is found innocent and returns to Geneva with his father

Characters:

Victor: Still is doubtful about creating the female monster and after much thinking, he breaks his promise and destroys the female monster. "The wretch saw me destroy the creature on whose future existence he depended for happiness, and with a howl of devilish despair and revenge, withdrew" (Shelley 156). He cannot live with making another monster and will accept the consequences. He finds out his friend Henry was killed and he is accused of his death. He gets very ill but he is proven innocent.

Monster: Follows Victor around to make sure he keeps his promise. When he sees that Victor has broken it, he vows revenge and threatens Victor and his family. "'I go; but remember, I shall be with you on your wedding-night'" (Shelley 158).

Mr. Kirwin: He is the town magistrate who thinks Victor committed the murder. He later is compassionate towards Victor and even helps him get proven innocent. "Mr. Kirwin charged himself with every care of collecting witnesses and arranging my defence" (Shelley 172).

Henry Clerval: He goes with Victor to his trip to England. He goes to stay somewhere else while Victor does his work. He is murdered by the monster. "The examination, the presence of the magistrate and witnesses, passed like a dream from my memory when I saw the lifeless form of Henry Clerval stretched before me" (Shelley 167).

Style:

Irony: "But through the whole period during which I was the slave of my creature I allowed myself to be governed by the impulses of the moment..." (Shelley 143). Victor describes himself as being the slave of his creature even though he made him. This is ironic. He thinks that he has no choice but to make the female monster so that the other monster might leave him and his loved ones alone.

Hyperbole: "She longed to bid me hasten my return; a thousand conflicting emotions rendered her mute as she bade me a tearful, silent farewell" (Shelley 143). Elizabeth is sad that Victor is leaving and Victor describes how Elizabeth felt at the time. Elizabeth wants to marry Victor and be happy but Victor still has stuff to do before the marriage can take place, this does not make Elizabeth happy.

Simile: "I now also began to collect the materials necessary for my new creation, and this was to like the torture of single drops of water continually falling on the head" (Shelley 148). Victor really does not want to make another monster but feels forced to do so. Picking up human body parts for the monster is torturous for him like Chinese water torture would be for someone. He is basically the slave of his creation because he has no other choice unless he wanted to face the consequences which are very severe.

Themes:

Sacrifice

"'It is well. I go; but remember, I shall be with you on your wedding-night'" (Shelley 158). Victor cannot make himself complete the female monster because he does not want two monsters roaming the earth. He does not want future generations to suffer because of his selfishness. If he did go and create the female monster, they could breed and produce a whole new species which could mean the end of civilization. So instead, he breaks his promise and puts his family's and his life at risk.

Revenge

"'You can blast my other passions, but revenge remains...I may die, but first you, my tyrant and tormentor, shall curse the sun that gazes on your misery'" (Shelley 158). The monster is furious that Victor is going to break his promise and not make him his female companion. The monster now just wants revenge on Victor and will make him pay for all he has done. He is going to hurt Victor as much as possible before he is allowed to die. The monster is fuelled by revenge.

Guilt

"The human frame could not longer support the agonies that I endured, and I was carried out of the room in strong convulsions. A fever succeeded to this" (Shelley 167). Victor was already feeling guilty for everything that has happened so far. He knows that everyone that has died has been because of the monster he created, it was all his fault. When Henry dies, Victor cannot take it anymore and goes into a sever fever. His guilty conscience basically takes over. Even in his feverish state, he keeps rumbling that he killed William, Justine, and Henry.

Frankenstein Literary Significance Chapters 22-23

Plot:

Victor and his father reach Paris where they stay for a while, while staying he receives a letter from Elizabeth

Elizabeth wants to know if he is in love with someone else but Victor sends her a letter assuring her that he wants to marry only her

He remembers the threat the monster made about being there on his wedding night but he still goes ahead with the marriage and thinks that he and the monster will fight to the death

The planning for the wedding starts but Victor informs Elizabeth that he has a big secret that he will tell her after their wedding

They get married and then they leave to a family cottage to spend their honeymoon, Victor knows the monster will strike today

Victor tells Elizabeth to go to bed because he does not her to see the battle or the monster

He hears the screams of Elizabeth and instantly knows that the monsters target was not him and when he goes to check he finds Elizabeth's dead body

Upon investigating he sees the monster in the window and even shoots at him, but he escapes

Thinking that the monster might try to hurt his father or Ernest, he quickly returns to Geneva and when his father hears of Elizabeth he gets sick and dies soon after

Victor is now alone and will do everything in his power to find the monster

He goes to the town magistrate and explains who the murderer of his family was and his story, but he doesn't believe Victor

Now that Victor has no one or anything left in his life, he wants nothing less than to find and kill the monster

Characters:

Victor: He is still under fear that he monster will attack him on his wedding night so he arms himself with a pistol. He feels that either way, if he or the monster wins, his misery will be gone. "Well, be it so; a deadly struggle would then assuredly take place, in which if he were victorious I should be at peace and his power over me be at an end. If he were vanquished, I should be a free man" (Shelley 179). Once Elizabeth and Alphonse die, he has no one left so he wants to devote the rest of his life in finding and killing the monster. He is full of anger and guilt.

Elizabeth: She is worried that maybe Victor does not want to marry her but is later reassured. "Answer me, I conjure you, by our mutual happiness, with simple truth-- Do you not love another?" (Shelley 178). She can feel and see that Victor is uneasy and on edge. She is still described as being thinner, loosing much of her heavenly vivacity but she still had her gentleness and soft looks of compassion. She gets killed by the monster.

Alphonse: He wants to make sure that Victor actually wants to marry Elizabeth and he does not feel forced. He just wants to make Victor and Elizabeth happy after all the sadness. He gets sick and dies after he finds out what has happened to Elizabeth. "He could not live under the horrors... he was unable to rise from his bed, and in a few days he died in my arms" (Shelley 189).

Monster: He is out for revenge against Victor. He promised Victor that he would be there for his wedding night and he is. He kills Elizabeth on the night they got married. "The murderous mark of the fiend's grasp was on her neck, and the breath had ceased to issue from her lips" (Shelley 187).

Style:

Personification: "As time passed away I became more calm; misery had her dwelling in my heart..." (Shelley 176). Victor gives the feeling of misery human qualities by saying that it kept dwelling in his heart. Even though it has been a while since Henry was killed, he still feels miserable at everything that has happened. He is starting to calm down from all the events in his life but he cannot forget them, they are still in his mind, he is still miserable.

Metaphor: "The moon had reached her summit...the clouds swept across it swifter than the flight of the vulture and dimmed her rays..." (Shelley 185). Victor is comparing how the clouds are sweeping across the sky to that of how a vulture fly's across one. Victor is admiring nature since he is finally happy after a long time. He has just married Elizabeth and the two are spending a honeymoon together. Admiring nature is temporarily making him happy again.

Simile: "I attempted to accompany them and proceeded a short distance from the house, but my head whirled round, my steps were like those of a drunken man, I fell at last in a state of utter exhaustion..." (Shelley 187). Victor had just seen his wife Elizabeth get murdered by the monster. He is helping everyone else in finding the monster but is tired and overcome by grief. When he tries to help again, he gets dizzy and falls like a drunk man would. Fever overtakes him again after this.

Themes:

Secrets/Deception

"I have one secret, Elizabeth, a dreadful one...I will confide this tale of misery and terror to you the day after our marriage shall take place..." (Shelley 180). Even though Victor is about to marry Elizabeth and spend the rest of his life with her, he still keeps secrets from her. This secret of the monster should not be kept because it also effects Elizabeth as she is getting married to Victor. Victor has shown secrecy and deception throughout the novel and even continues it now. He does not want people to know his secret even after all has happened.

Guilt

"What then became of me? I know not; I lost sensation, and chains and darkness were the only objects that pressed upon me" (Shelley 189). Now William, Justine, Henry, Elizabeth, and Alphonse have died all because of the result of his work. Everyone he loved is dead and it is all because of him. Guilt hits him hard. He knows that if he had not made that monster, everyone would have been alive. He has nothing left to live for except to kill his creation that did all this.

Revenge

"I was possessed by a maddening rage when I thought of him, and desired and ardently prayed that I might have him within my grasp to wreak a great and signal revenge on his cursed head" (Shelley 189). Now that everyone he has loved is dead, Victor has only one goal left in life, to find and kill the monster. After he finished this goal he may die in peace. He promises to devote the rest of his life to find and kill the monster so that he can rid the world of him. The only thing left on his mind and in his life is revenge against the monster, just like the monster wanted against him.

Frankenstein Literary Significance Chapters 24

Plot:

Victors main goal now is to find a kill the monster

Victor follows clues left by the monster but never actually manages to catch him, this goes on for months

While Victor was following the monster he meets Walton and that is where he is now

His main request to Walton is that he should keep on hunting down the monster even after his death

The story now goes over to Walton's perspective and we learn that Walton believes everything that Victor has told him

His crew wants him to head home but Victor convinces them that they should continue hunting the monster and they momentarily agree

The crew again asks Walton after a short period of time and Walton agrees

When they are about to head back, Victor dies and a couple days later, Walton hears noises from the room where Victor's body is

When he goes to see what it is, he surprisingly finds the monster crying over Victor

The monster tells Walton that now that his creator is dead, he has not point in living and leaves

Characters:

Victor: His only goal in life is for his to find and kill the monster that he created. "'But such is not my destiny; I must pursue and destroy the being to whom I gave existence; then my lot on earth will be fulfilled and I may die" (Shelley 202). He follows him for months but never actually manages to catch up to him. He tells Walton that he should continue the hunt for the monster and dies soon after. He is finally at peace.

Walton: He listens to all of Victor's story and actually believes him. He wants to continue Victor's quest but cannot because he has to return to England. He is surprised to see the monster. "Over him hung a form which I cannot find words to describe--gigantic in stature, yet uncouth and distorted in its proportions" (Shelley 208).

Monster: He keeps leaving clues for Victor to follow and wants to torture him even more. He is saddened by Victors death and after that he says he has no point in living and will go die. "'But soon,' he cried with sad and solemn enthusiasm, 'I shall die, and what I now feel be no longer felt'" (Shelley 213).

Style:

Simile: "It rang on my ears long and heavily; the mountains re-echoed it, and I felt as if all hell surrounded me with mockery and laughter" (Shelley 193). Victor felt grief and then great anger and rage that everyone he loved died and only he and the murderer lived. His only goal was to kill the monster. Victor starts to laugh in the cemetery and when the mountains start to re-echo it, it felt to him as if hell were surrounding him. He compared his current location in the cemetery to hell.

Simile: "Yet at the idea that the fiend should live and be triumphant, my rage and vengeance returned, and like a mighty tide, overwhelmed every other feeling" (Shelley 197). Even though Victor knows the monster will most likely die on the ice, he is going to follow him to make sure. This feeling that the monster may actually live, overtook all of his other feelings like a tide might to anything that comes in its path. This was the only thing Victor had left to do in his life, make sure the monster died.

Personification: "The wind arose; the sea roared..." (Shelley 198). The sea is so fierce, that it was like it was roaring. Victor is still in pursuit of the monster on ice and the sea suddenly came up and broke all the ice apart.

Themes:

Revenge

"I pursued him, and for many months this has been my task" (Shelley 194). Victor devotes all of his time in finding and killing the monster. His desire for revenge is all that is left in his life. He wants to kill the monster before he can rest peacefully. He follows him through severe climates and dangerous conditions.

The Haunted Mind/Guilt

"My first resolution was to quit Geneva forever; my country, which, when I was happy and beloved, was dear to me, not in my adversity, became hateful" (Shelley 192). Now that everyone he had ever loved was dead he could not stay in Geneva anymore since he had no purpose. Everyone died because of his creation and this haunted his mind with guilt. He had to leave Geneva as it held too many memories. Victor shows guilt throughout the whole novel but it now is at its highest point since everyone he loved was murdered by the monster her created.

Monstrosity

"'I am satisfied miserable wretch! You have determined to live, and I am satisfied" (Shelley 193). The monster has now truly become a monster inside and out. He has become evil because of what society did to him and he commits murders to get back at them. He kills everyone Victor loves and still wants to torture him more. He was born good but society makes him evil. He just wanted to fit in and now that he can't, he just wants to get back a society. He does this by committing murders.