The Pursuit of Knowledge in Frankenstein - Essay Example

The 1931 make of film based on this sci-fi thriller talks about how scientists at the time were not satisfied with what human life had to offer. Victor was devastated and bereaved by the death of his mother and soon began to create a human life to bring back those memories that he shared. However, his emotions got warped within the scientific aspects of life and gave birth to destruction instead. He questions his friend, Robert Walton, "Are you mad, my friend? Or whither does your senseless curiosity lead you? Would you also create for yourself and the world a demoniacal enemy? Peace, peace! Learn my miseries and do not seek to increase your own".

Scientists have never given up on understanding the working of the human body, and just like most of them, Victor challenged himself to move his thoughts and ideas onto a more productive work sphere to not think about his past and family life. However, the film has a very tragedian note as it helps the audience understand the protagonist’s regret upon formulating a monster that ends up killing his loved ones. He realizes that one cannot create new life because it will lead to devastation finally. Scientists have a yearning to find out more and more, however, the film helps the audience understand that sometimes it is enough to stop and comprehend how such mystical situations need to be left to the hands of God.

Victor Frankenstein says towards the end, “My imagination was vivid, yet my powers of analysis and application were intense; by the union of these qualities I conceived the idea and executed the creation of a man. Even now I cannot recollect without passion my reveries while the work was incomplete. I trod heaven in my thoughts, now exulting in my powers, burning with the idea of their effects. From my infancy I was imbued with high hopes and a lofty ambition; but how am I sunk! Oh! My friend, if you had known me as I once was, you would not recognize me in this state of degradation. Despondency rarely visited my heart; a high destiny seemed to bear me on, until I fell, never, never again to rise.” By these very lines, he talks about the superhuman thirst for knowledge that ultimately ended up destroying him by creating a monster.