Victor Frankenstein and The Pursuit of Knowledge

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Victor Frankenstein and The Pursuit of Knowledge
Man, I cried, how ignorant art thou in thy
pride of wisdom! Cease you know not what it is
you say. (III.vi)
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The Age of Enlightenment

• Also known as the Age of Reason
• 18th Century (1700s)
• Time period of Frankenstein
• Marked by increased pursuit of science
• Birth of modern science
• Explosion of knowledge, discovery, exploration

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Reaction against Religion

• Takeoff of science led to attack on religion
• Religion criticised as conservative and backward
• Extreme cases saw denial of religion (atheism)
• Age of Reason led to new confidence in man
• Mans fate in his own hands, not in Gods

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Frankenstein A Critique of Science

• A questioning of sciences commitment
• Objective truth and discovery regardless of
  consequences
• Right or wrong?
• Humphrey Davy nature as female
• http//www.mdx.ac.uk/WWW/STUDY/SHE6.HTM
• Humphrey Davys Scientific Philosophy

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Mother Nature and Science

• Davy defined nature as female
• Nurturing, growing, Mother Nature
• Two ways to deal with nature through science
• Descriptive science, understanding how Nature
  worked
• Interventionist science, changing or
  controlling the way Nature worked

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Science and Gender Dichotomy

• Nature as female, the scientist as male
• The attempt to control nature being sexism
• Nature as female entitles male scientist to
  exploit her?
• Money, power, status

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Victor Frankenstein
Man, I cried, how ignorant art thou in thy
pride of wisdom! Cease you know not what it is
you say. (III.vi)
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The Modern Prometheus

• Frankensteins sub-title
• Reference to Victor
• Why so?
• Who was Prometheus?

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Dared to steal Fire from the gods
Created Man and gave him the Fire of life to defy
the gods
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and was bound in agony by the gods with his
liver pecked out daily by a vulture for his
presumption.
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Victor Frankenstein the Modern Prometheus

• Dared to steal the secret of life from Mother
  Nature
• Created Man with that secret of life to
  supersede Mother Nature

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and was hounded from society, pursued, and
destroyed by Nature and creation alike for his
presumption.
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Victor and the Rape of Nature

• Professor Waldman
• The modern masters promise very little they know
  that metals cannot be transmuted and that the
  elixir of life is a chimera. But these
  philosophers, whose hands seem only made to
  dabble in dirt, and their eyes to pore over the
  microscope or crucible, have indeed performed
  miracles. They penetrate into the recesses of
  nature and show how she works in her
  hiding-places. (I.iii)
• Yet Frankenstein undertakes this penetration
• Seeking the secret of life, using it to his own
  ends
• The rape of nature to gratify personal lust for
  power

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Victors Scientific Megalomania

• "A new species would bless me as its creator and
  source many happy and excellent natures would
  owe their being to me. No father could claim the
  gratitude of his child so completely as I should
  deserve theirs." (I.iv)
• Unlocks the secret of life for own benefit
• Self-serving, dangerous

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Victor and Sexism

• Significance of the creation of the Monster
• The theft of the secret of Natures creation of
  life
• Theft of the female reproductive ability
• The ability to create males without females
• Victor, a threat to social/biological survival of
  the race and ideal of the Female
• Hence the destruction of Monsters mate
• Preservation of his monopoly on creation

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Victor and Mary Shelley

• Victor as Shelleys criticism of modern science
• Nature as female to be penetrated and possessed
  by male scientist
• Dead matter to be reassembled at will
• Unnatural life created from dead things
• As opposed to Gods creation
• Life from the living (Adams rib?)

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Interventionist Science as Violation

• William Frankensteins death as a loss of
  innocence
• Killed by the creation of Victor
• Died in the arms of Nature
• Killed in Nature by an Unnatural creation
• Nature grotesquely violated by the unnatural

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Shelleys Nurturing Alternative

• Ernest Frankenstein as one with appropriate
  relationship to nature
• Became a farmer, working with Nature
• Not taking control of it
• Henry Clerval as one who appreciates Nature
• He was a being formed in the "very poetry of
  nature."The scenery of external nature, which
  others regard only with admiration, he loved with
  ardour. (III.i)
• Nature as a person to be treated with respect and
  reverence

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Robert Walton
I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the
sight of a part of the world never before
visited, and may tread a land never before
imprinted by the foot of man. These are my
enticements, and they are sufficient to conquer
all fear of danger or death, and to induce me to
commence this laborious voyage with the joy a
child feels when he embarks in a little boat,
with his holiday mates, on an expedition of
discovery up his native river. (Letter 1)
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Attitude to Discovery

• Overwhelming desire to explore North Pole
• Believes in discovery for its own sake
• Also for sake of mankind as a whole
• Burning passion based on books

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Walton and the Brink of Knowledge

• Constantly advised by Elizabeth not to go on
  voyage of discovery
• Inferred from letters to Elizabeth
• But insists on going on it, citing noble
  aspirations and purpose
• Is exhorted by Victor to go on, even as Victor
  relates what happened to him
• Eventually forced to turn back by storms
• Representing the ability to not go too far

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The Storms of Nature

• Frankenstein and Walton both accompanied on
  discoveries by storms
• Natures reaction to Mans penetration of her
  secrets
• Female Nature resisting male science
• Whereas Victor pushes on, Walton turns back
• Victor suffers consequences thereafter
• Forced into Natures wildernesses
• Exposed to the elements and storms

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Knowledge as Pandoras Box

• Knowledge in Frankenstein is a gift with greater
  cost than benefit
• The unleashing of greater forces and evils than
  expected
• For Victor, knowledge of the secret of life
  brings only death and suffering
• For the Creature, knowledge brings only loss of
  innocence
• Greater desire to participate in society
• Greater awareness of societys rejection of him
• Greater hatred, frustration, leading to
  self-destruction and destruction of others

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The End