Evan Jones

British Literature/ Period 1

Mrs. Winter

March 14, 2017

The Greatest Enemy of Mankind is Knowledge and Ignorance In Unity

The greater our knowledge increases the more our ignorance unfolds. John F. Kennedy

was a very wise man, and though he was in office for only a short time, his words and guidance

can be used even to this day. As we see time and time again throughout the history of the world,

we see the direct link between knowledge and power. Even when that knowledge is meant to

bring a positive influence in the world, there is always some variable that turns said knowledge

into something destructive. In the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, a scientist named Doctor

Victor Frankenstein spends many years trying to create a creature from materials and bring it to

life. After creating this monster, he is instantly horrified by ts appearance and flees. Then

throughout the rest of the novel we see this creature learning and adapting to his newfound life,

and ends up hurting people he never intended to harm. Through Victor Frankenstein, Shelley

proves the pursuit of knowledge becomes dangerous when negative effects of said knowledge

outweighs the positive, when Victor cannot control the resulting science of his knowledge, and

the moment it begins to deteriorate Victor and consume him entirely.

One way that Mary Shelley shows the danger in knowledge is when the bad side effects

outweigh the positive side effects. We see this when the monster ends up hurting people more

than he ends up helping, and when he helps people, he gets attacked and ends up regretting ever

helping that person. One example is after the creature saves a girl from drowning and he gets

attacked by other people for doing so. Then in anger and rage he exclaims The feelings of
kindness and gentleness which i had entertained but a few moments before gave place to hellish

rage and gnashing of teeth. Inflamed by pain, I vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all

mankind. (Shelley, 129) In the beginning, the creature wanted to help people, like when he says

The feeling of kindness and gentleness, which means that his original intentions were for good.

But due to the hatred that had been aimed at him since the very start, he began to be filled with

rage, which outweighed all the good that he has already done. Another example of the bad

outweighing the good is when Justine gets charged for murder and ends up dying even though it

is not her fault. After she gets convicted for the crime, she tells Victor and Elizabeth I did

confess; but i confessed a lie. I confessed, that I might obtain absolution; but now that falsehood

lies heavier at my heart than all my other sins. (Shelley, 73) Even though she is innocent, she

confesses to the crime and pays the ultimate price for it, which is a casualty that Victor had not

even imagined would happen. After this incident, he takes the blame for both Justines death and

Williams death and it takes a heavy toll on his body and mind. The original intention for him

creating a being that would be greater than humans and that would begin a new era in science

were completely eradicated when the creature got loose and began killing all of Victors loved

ones.

Another way Shelley shows that the pursuit of knowledge can be dangerous when Victor

cannot control the resulting science of said knowledge. We see this when Victor spends many

months trying to find the creature and he always seems one step ahead of him. When Victor

leaves to go pursue the monster, Victor explains But now, when I appeared almost within grasp

of my foe, my hopes were suddenly extinguished, and I lost all trace of him more utterly than I

had ever done before. (Shelley, 195). Every time Victor gets even remotely close to capturing the

creature, the creature ends up escaping and getting two steps ahead of Victor. We see that
throughout the entire novel he has no control over the creature and it always does some form of

damage he did not account for. We also see Victor making the creature bigger and stronger on

purpose, which is another catalyst to the creature being able to elude him. When Victor is getting

the materials for the creature he explains I resolved, contrary to my intention, to make the being

of a gigantic stature; that is to say, about eight feet in height, and proportionally large (Shelley,

39). He decided to make the creature bigger so that it would be like a god among men, but the

fact that he created the creature in this way just made the creature more uncontrollable. Even if

he wanted to detain him in some way, there is a very slim chance of that happening due to the

creatures stature.

A third way that Mary Shelley shows that knowledge can be dangerous is when we see

Victor getting consumed by his work and it begins to affect his health in a very negative way.

While doing his work and studies in his pursuit to create the creature, he says Every night I was

oppressed by a slow fever, and I became nervous to a most painful degree; the fall of a leaf

startled me, and I shunned my fellow creatures as if I had been guilty of a crime (Shelley 42).

He also goes to say that I grew alarmed at the wreck I perceived I had become (Shelley, 43).

He has spent so much time on his work and on his studies that his body began to deteriorate and

dissipate to the point that he was only a shell of the man that he used to be when he finally

finished his experiment. Also, Victor ends up dying due to the fact that his health and wellbeing

had been completely extinguished from his persistent isolation and depression constantly

oppressing him. When Victor was in Waltons ship, we see Walton writing to his sister saying

His voice became fainter as he spoke; and at length, exhausted by his effort, he sunk into

silence. About half an hour afterwards he attempted again to speak, but was unable; he pressed

my hand feebly, and his eyes closed forever, while the irradiation of a gentle smile passed away
from his lips (Shelley, 205). His health had gotten to the point in which the only thing he could

do was talk a few sentences and breathe. His eyes would not open, and his movements were very

small and subtle. He deteriorated his physical and mental capacity which lead to his inevitable

death.

Mary Shelley was very much a romantic, she believed in unconformity, and also believed

that there is a lot of danger in knowledge in response to the industrial revolution. Mary Shelley

shows that the pursuit of knowledge can be dangerous by the negative side effects of Victors

experiments outweighing the positive side effects, when Victor cannot control the resulting

science of his knowledge and experimentation, and when it begins to deteriorate his body and

mind and eventually kills him. Victor may have made some dire mistakes in his lifetime, but we

can learn from his mistakes so we do not do the same. Knowledge is not inherently evil, but it

definitely can be used for evil. Which begs the question, do we continue in pursuit of knowledge

with the possibility of a negative effect on the world, or do we stick with our current situation

and be thankful for what we have? The answer, is up to you.