Danger of Knowledge in Shelley's Essay

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He is over-confident and refuses to look at anything negative that could happen as a result of his endeavors. He fails to believe that any unintended consequences would be negative enough to make him regret his decision. He simply does not see what he does not want to see. We all do this at one point or another when we want something. However, Victor's choices involve other people and he demonstrates he does not care. He realizes he is "solely wrapped up" (36) with his experiment and does not care. Here we see how knowledge is dangerous because it becomes more important than life itself.

The thirst of knowledge is linked to destruction as we watch the events of Victor's life unfold. The most important fact we see as Victor recounts his tale to Robert is how Victor could not the danger he is now expressing to Robert while he was in the middle of it. Victor was too consumed with his dream to see all the destruction around him. It takes losing all of the important people in his life to bring him around. Until he comes to this realization, he believes he is the "chosen" one upon which secrets of the universe will fall. He describes a light that:

Broke in upon me-- a light so brilliant and wondrous, yet so simple, that while I became dizzy with the immensity of the prospect which it illustrated, I was surprised that so many men of genus who had directed their inquiries towards the same science, that I alone should be reserved to discover so astonishing a secret. (37)

Victor is completely narcissistic at this point and there is little anyone can do to bring him back into the real world. He believes he is special and that he has some sort of special connection to universal knowledge no one else is privy to. Here we see that knowledge is self-destructive.

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Victor puts himself first and believes himself to be somehow better than everyone else because he is enlightened.

The ultimate example of how knowledge is dangerous is when Victor achieves his goal and finds himself looking at the creature he made. He is not filled with love and adoration but fear and disgust. Only in looking back can he admit that he mistakenly thought if he "could bestow animation upon lifeless matter, I might in process of time (although I now found it impossible) renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption" (39). He can only realize he was wrong after he sees the horrible mistake he made. It takes the ugly truth for him to realize he is not special or enlightened. In addition, he did not make his life any better. The creature kills everyone Victor loves and Victor resigns himself to chasing it through the frozen tundra. This was not what he had in mind when he worked through the night studying the human form and dreaming of creating life. Victor's story is not completely lost because he is able to persuade Robert to rethink his notions of discovery. Victor's mental state and his story, wild as it is, compels Robert to turn away from the promise of knowledge, realizing how we perceive things to be rarely ever turn out to be the truth. Shelley proves this with Victor, a man mesmerized with the beauty of life. He saw the beauty of life and thought he could capture and recreate it but found he was nothing more than a fool for thinking he could….....

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