Great Works II

Overall I found the progression of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to be very interesting and enlightening in terms of character development and the how the sublime affects other characters. It is evident that Shelly had written this purpose during the time to convey a warning to others of the dangers of the pursuance of knowledge. I found it interesting how in the story one would think that despite Victor’s wisdom and knowledge of the liberal arts, he could have foresaw the consequences of his creation. Therefore this goes to show how even the smartest or wisest of beings still fall victim to the ignorance that is a byproduct of the blissful knowledge they acquire. It is also interesting how Victor’s character undergoes a breakdown to the point where his “sanity” is on the brink of being destroyed.  This is clearly evident when his tumultuous emotions of guilt and despair in response to the loss of his loved ones are reflected through the sublime nature of the cold and desolate environment that is the setting for the begging and ending of the story.

I found it interesting how this arctic setting serves as a reflection for not just Victor, but also the “Creature”. The cold and harsh characteristics of this setting certainly transcends in the monsters hatred toward human society for shunning it and casting it as a being that does not belong to humanity. I also found the creature to be a very interesting character considering the identity in respect to whether or not it is even human. Therefore, the creature also illustrates the dangers of pursuing knowledge through its journey of learning about it’s identify. In this case, the danger is the revelation of the truth as to why humanity hates it. Thus, when the creature first knew of the reason, it began to question Victor’s intentions of creating and its rejection from Victor himself. Also I found the creature’s rapid mental development to be fascinating from the time it was reanimated to life to when it began learning how to read, and talk. Therefore, through learning to read and talk, the creature was able to perceive things around its environment related to itself. Thus, this higher level of thinking enabled the being to outsmart Victor. Furthermore, one can understand that Shelley was writing this novel to serve as a warning of the negative consequences that can happen if scientists abused their knowledge in seeking further truths of the field.  Therefore, such possibility of creating another human being may seem farfetched but not impossible.