Knowledge
Frankenstein Final Assessment By Michael Searight
Knowledge : Facts, information, understanding all earned through experience.
Knowledge is gained through experience, through exploring the unknown and finding the secrets you have yet to learn. Victor at first sees this as a goal, knowledge is what he seeks and is blinded by it until he creates the creature. When he gains the knowledge he learns that ignorance is bliss, but it is too late to change.
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Victor, through the book ,moves to find the knowledge of life, but ends of regretting it once he sees the result.
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"My mother was dead, but we had still duties which we ought to perform; we must continue our course with the rest and learn to think ourselves fortunate whilst one remains whom the spoiler has not seized" -Victor Frankenstein (Shelly 29)
Victor before the pursuit for knowledge.
Victor still finds ways to move on after his mothers dead, even though she is gone he doesn't try to find other ways to bring her back.
"With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet." - Victor Frankenstein (Shelly 42)
Victor in the pursuit of knowledge.
When Victor finds the idea of galvanism and how it can move that which is dead, he gets the drive to pursue it to the point of becoming obsessed.
"Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, then he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow" -Waldman (Shelly 38)
Waldman warns victor of pursuing the knowledge of life.
Waldman had gone down the path before and warns Victor when he learns of the path Victor is one. Victor ignores this advice and continues his research until he creates the creature and regrets his decision.
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The Creature treats knowledge as a guide to life, he is born knowing nothing and learns how to live on his own.
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"One day, when I was oppressed by cold, I found a fire which had been left by some wandering beggars, and was overcome with delight at the warmth I experienced from it." - The creature (Shelly 85)
The creature learns of the benefits of fire.
When the creature finds fire left by someone unmentioned he learns of the positives and negatives of it. He learns of how fire can let him see and gives him warmth.
"In my joy I thrust my hand into the live embers, but quickly drew it out again with a cry of pain" - The creature (Shelly 86)
The creature then learns the downsides to fire.
When the creature is overcome by joy he puts his hand into the fire and feels pain. This opens the creature to the idea of good thing having downsides.
"My days were spent in close attention, that I might more speedily master the language; and I may boast that I improved more rapidly than than Arabian, who understood very little and conversed in broken accent, whilst I comprehended and could imitate almost every word that was spoken" - The creature (Shelly 99)
The creature learns how to speak.
By using the teaching of the family without them knowing the creature is able to learn how to speak and read up to the point that he is able to read Victor's journal and can know who he has to find.
An old man sat in it, near a fire, over which he was preparing his breakfast. He turned on hearing a noise, and preceiving me, shrieking loudly, and quitting the hut, ran across the fields with a speed of which his debilitated form hardly appeared capable." - The creature (Shelly 87)
The creature learns of how people react to him.
When he is seen by this man, the man runs. At this point in the story he does not know what he looks like he only knows people fear him. This makes him hide from others, knowing if they saw him they would act in a similar fashion.
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Modern connections
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Example of how knowledge is being handled in the modern age.
The common core is the idea to have all schools work off of the same standards.