Frankenstein and Discoveries

Frankenstein and discoveries

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the contradictory concepts of discovery echo between Victor Frankenstein, Walton and the creature. For Victor and Walton, the initial discovery is joyful and innocent, but ends in misery and corruption. The ambitions of both Walton and Frankenstein to explore new lands and to cast scientific light on the unknown are formed with good intentions but results as a fatal disregard for the sanctity of natural boundaries. Though the idea of discovery remains idealized, human fallibility entirely corrupts all pursuit of that ideal. The corruption of discovery parallels the corruption inherent in every human life, in that a child begins as a pure and faultless creature, full of wonder, but hardens into a self-absorbed, grasping, overly ambitious adult. Shelley suggests that although the desire to excavate unknown is a natural human trait, exceeding the human limitation inspired by greed, obsession, and ambition results self-destruction and harms to the others.

Walton and Frankenstein’s desire to discovery initiates as childish wonder, but gradually evolves as their obsessions. In his letters to his sister Margaret, Walton compares his feelings on the expedition to “a favorite dream of early years” (16). Walton reminds her of his uncle’s large library of “discovery” literature, tales of seamen and adventurers, all of which he studied as a child. He writes of his disappointment when his father forbade him, on his deathbed, to “embark in a seafaring life” (16). Walton’s idea of discovery consists of pure adventure and the childish pursuit of glory. “I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of part of the world never before visited; my enticements induce me to commence this laborious voyage with the joy a child feels when he embarks in a little boat on an expedition of discovery up his native river”(16). Walton’s memory of his father’s deathbed wish that his son not become a sailor reinforces the reader’s sense of his childish naivety, as well as serving to foreshadow the disastrous end of his eventual voyage. Walton’s strong desire for discovery and the unknown, to the point that he would risk his life at sea, continues, and Walton foolishly believes that he is invincible, destined to “accomplish some great purpose” (17). This ultra-confident attitude blinds Walton to perceive what kind of danger does the unknowns and discoveries hold and that the quest for new knowledge can lead to self-destruction.

When Frankenstein first appears in the story, he needs to be told that Walton’s ship is on a “voyage of discovery”: as Walton says, “Upon hearing this he appeared satisfied, and consented to come on board” (26). He can only associate with those who are equally desirous of breaking new ground. Once on board, Frankenstein recounts his history. Frankenstein, too, was possessed by a youthful fixation: the desire to acquire scientific knowledge, and to create an indestructible man (42). He remarks that science is “a perpetual craving for discovery and wonder,” and tells Walton that he has solved the most impenetrable of scientific mysteries: the principle of life (51). Though the “stages of discovery” are diligently performed, his “astonishment” soon gives way to “delight and rapture”; the “overwhelming” nature of his achievement erases all the sinister steps that has led to his creation (53).

Discovery begins to acquire negative associations at the moment Frankenstein begins his narration. What one unearths may be worthless or misleading, as Frankenstein’s childhood reading of Agrippa makes clear: "A new light seemed to dawn upon my mind, and, bounding with joy, I communicated my discovery to my father. My father looked carelessly at the title