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Haley Warneke
Mrs. Winter
British Literature, Period 2
8 March 2016
The Dangers of Knowledge
There is great power that comes with knowledge, but when does knowledge become
dangerous? The glory of knowledge can easily blind a person from the consequences of their
actions, and becoming caught up in great possibilities can control a persons life. In Mary
Shelleys novel, Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein, an insightful man who, in pursuit to expand
his knowledge, becomes so obsessed with discovery that his scientific creation becomes his life.
His greatest creation is a hideous creature made of human body parts who brings terror and
suffering into Victors life. He does not realize the consequences of his actions until it is too late,
and is haunted by his mistake until the day he dies. He spends the remainder of his life in terror
battling against his creation who he claims to be his enemy. Throughout the novel, Shelley
proves how knowledge is dangerous through Victors scientific breakthrough, how the creature
matures with knowledge, and the transferring of power between the creator and the created.
As a young man, Victor was fascinated with the unknown, and he had a desire to learn. At
the beginning of his tale, he is a bright student who was untouched by any future experiences.
Victor states I entered with the great diligence into the search of the philosophers stone and the
elixir of life. Wealth was an inferior object; but what glory would attend the discovery, if I
could banish disease from the human frame, and render man invulnerable to any but a violent
death! (Shelley 26). Victor only saw the great possibilities of his work that could benefit
mankind as a whole. His bright point of view, however, begins to shift as Victor becomes more

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educated. At the age of seventeen, Victor is sent to the university of Ingolstadt in Geneva where
his studies became more rigorous. It is here that Victor became inspired by the mysteries of
creation from the studies of ancient philosophers. Victor becomes so obsessed and inspired by his
studies, that he decides to create life through the power of science. As Victor spends time
creating a being sewn together from the different parts of corpses, his health begins to decline
more and more rapidly as he isolates himself from the world. Victors desires to help mankind
are overlooked with the desire of giving life to a whole new creature of its own; and giving life
to a creature who will look towards Victor and praise him as its God. Finally, towards the end of
his creation, Victor is ecstatic with how beautiful his creature will be. When Victors year of hard
work comes to an end as his creation comes to life Victor states, how can I describe my
emotions on the catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care
I had endeavoured to form? ...Now that I had finished the beauty of the dream vanished, and
breathless horror filled my heart (Shelley 43). Victors abuse of knowledge out of selfishness
rather than the selflessness of his vision has brought great horror and fear to Victor. What Victor
thought would benefit himself only caused great misfortune upon him and those around him.
As Victor continues, Mary Shelley switches the story from Victors point of view to the
creature's point of view. Knowledge is a powerful thing, and the creature proves this throughout
his story. From his beginning, the creature is non-articulate, and does not understand the
environment around him. The creature describes his initial sensations as he comes to life: I felt
light, and hunger, and thirst, and darkness; innumerable sounds rung in my ears, and on all sides
various scents saluted me (Shelley 91). It is after waking that the creature is overwhelmed with
everything surrounding him as he uses his senses for the first time. While the creature grows and
matures mentally, he is able to act on a primitive level, scavenging food and water and finding

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shelter to protect him from the cold of night. The creature is soon able to understand his
surroundings, though he is unable to communicate. As his story continues he explains how he
came upon a small shelter near a small family where he learned how to speak and feel through
observing their actions and words: I discovered that he uttered many of the same sounds when
he read as when he talked. I conjectured, therefore, that he found on the paper signs for speech
which he understood (Shelley 101). The creature soon longs to be able to communicate as the
family does. Through continued observation and listening, the creature soon can speak for
himself. This is noticed when the creature first speaks to Victor and explains what happens when
he first attempts to introduce himself to people.Upon which, the creature tells Victor the story of
how he grew mentally through observing a small family, the DeLacys. Only when the creature
decides to meet with the family for the first time, he states, I expected this reception. All men
hate the wretched; how, then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet
you, my creator, detest and spur the, thy creature (Shelley 86). After a long time of observing,
listening, speaking, and reading, the creature is able to speak professionally and highly of
himself, although he states that he is miserable, and that all of man hates him. The creatures
understanding has damaged him on an emotional level, yet he uses his knowledge as a tool
against Victor, proving again how knowledge can be dangerous.
Towards the end of the story, there is a noticeable change in power between Victor and
his creation. Being the one created, the creature wants Victor to feel that Victor has power over
him since he is his creation. The creature states you will have heard my story, and can decide.
On you it rests whether I quit forever the neighborhood of man, and lead a harmless life, or
become the scourge of your fellow creatures, and the author of your own speedy ruin (Shelley
88). The creature is giving Victor a feeling of control over him by presenting these two options

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that depend on Victor's reaction to hearing the creatures story. After the creature tells his story,
he asks Victor to create another being as terrible and horrid in appearance as he. Victor begins to
build once again, but upon remembering how awful and horrid he felt creating something so
inhumanely, Victor destroys his second creation before it is completed. The creature is infuriated
with Victors actions because all he wanted was to have someone he could sympathize with.
Frustrated and upset, the creature bellows, slave, I before reasoned with you, but you have
proved yourself unworthy of my condescension. Remember that I have power; you believe
yourself miserable, but I can make you so wretched that the light of day will be hateful to you.
You are my creator, but I am your master--obey! (Shelley 155). The creature knows he has
power over Victor because while Victor has his whole family, the creature has nothing to lose.
Once again Mary Shelley has shown how knowledge has become dangerous through how one
can take advantage of another.
Knowledge has disempowered Victor because his knowledge has taken over his entire
life. For the creature, this has had the opposite effect for him, empowering the creature over
Victor. When you compare this to the poem The Rime of the ancient Mariner, by Samuel
Coleridge, just like the creature's empowerment over Victor, the Mariners curse has taken power
over him. The Mariner travels across the sea with his crew to discover what has not been yet
discovered. When they become stuck in a sea of ice, a good omen, an albatross, flies in and they
miraculously escape the ice. This bird follows them, flying with the ship. One day the Mariner
decides to shoot down the bird and wear the bird as a prize around his neck. Little does he know
what horrible consequences his actions will cause, and he becomes cursed. The mariner states
the pang, the curse, with which they died,/ had never passed away:/ I could not draw my eyes
from theirs,/ nor turn them up to pray (Coleridge 6, 29-32). The Mariner is describing the

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lifeless bodies of his crew standing up in the dead of night as his curse takes hold of him. His
curse is the only thing that he has to live for now. To show how much his curse continues to take
over his life, the mariner states that since then, at an uncertain hour,/ that agony returns:/ and till
my ghastly tale is told,/ this heart within me burns (Coleridge 7, 69-72). The mariner is
describing that he must do as his curse informs him, being that it controls him. Compared to
Frankenstein, Victors creation is his curse. His curse does contain a power over him that
controls Victor for the rest of his life, even when Vitor attempts to hunt down the creature
himself. Both the poem and the novel focus on how knowledge can make a person weak. For the
Mariner, it was living with the guilt of his actions, while for Victor, it was living with the horror
of his horrid creature roaming free to do as it pleases in his world.
Mary Shelley proves over and over again how knowledge is dangerous through the
effects of the characters actions. Victor lives his life in constant terror with the knowledge of
what he has created, and the creature lives his life wanting to know where he belongs in a world
that acts cruel to him based on his appearance. Many benefits come out of new discoveries;
however, when a person takes something that was to benefit those around him or her and uses it
only for their selfish desires, that is when knowledge becomes dangerous.

Work Cited
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus: With
Connections. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1999. Print.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. N.p.: n.p., 1834. Print.

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Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus: With Connections.
Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1999. Print.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. N.p.: n.p., 1834. Print.