Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - Essay Example

Oates in particular points to Milton’s Paradise Lost and suggests that the creature aligns himself with Satan in it, whilst I think it’s true that these books give him some knowledge and understanding of the world, they don’t fully relate to his life because he’s such a different being. The more knowledge the creature gains, however, unlike Victor’s experience, has a detrimental effect: “increases of knowledge only discovered to me more clearly what a wretched outcast I was” (93) This is essential because the creature takes on human mental capacity, yet still has the appearance of a monster and so will never be accepted as human, and as Victor refuses to make him a female companion, the creature remains alone.

This essay will discuss the education received by Victor and the Creature, in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein  (1818).  Anthony Backes claims: “Victor and his creature are portrayed as complementary opposites in many ways, but none is so telling as their dovetailed educations” (34). So, with that in mind, Victor and the Creature's education will be examined, comparing and contrasting their experiences good and bad, as the world around them fosters and hinders their educational goals.

Victor as a child showed a keen interest in learning, “it was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn,” (23) at that young age, he displays an interest in the creation of life. Victor studies the philosophical work of Cornelius Agrippa, and later reads Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus. Victor states that despite schooling in Geneva, he was “self-taught with regard to my favorite studies.” (24-25) His father was not able to pass on scientific knowledge to him, so Victor found his own books to study, became interested in renewing human life, ridding it of illness and disease. 

Victor’s educational goals are fostered by the natural world around him. Upon seeing a tree struck by lightning and destroyed, he focuses his studies on science: “this almost miraculous change of inclination and will was the immediate suggestion of the guardian angel of my life” (26). At 17 yrs old Victor attends University at Ingolstadt. He’s advised by one professor that the books he’s been studying are irrelevant and that he must learn afresh. Victor accepts this hindrance to his educational goals due to his “extreme youth, and my want of a guide on such matters” (29). However Professor M. Waldman fosters Victor’s education by introducing him to chemistry, and the ideas of new scientists and giving him the inspiration to create, thus Victor becomes: “capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter”’ (34).

In comparison to Victor, the creature is born into an adult state, yet he takes in all the new sensations that a child would usually grow up experiencing with parents guiding their way. The creature initially “knew, and could distinguish, nothing” (72). With time and experience, the creature learns about food and the animals surrounding him. He also learns too about dangers such as fire, “I thrust my hand into the live embers, but quickly drew it out again with a cry of pain”(73). The creature learns survival skills of fire, shelter, food, drink, and danger from humans as he is attacked and later shot at. Watching the De Lacey family and their interaction with one another, fosters the creatures’ educational experience, and he learns about love “sensations of a peculiar and overpowering nature: they were a mixture of pain and pleasure, such as I had never before experienced” (76). From continued observations of the family he learns speech, empathy, and compassion, he learns to read, in a Lacanian instance he learns to recognize himself, not in a mirror, but he views his reflection “in a transparent pool!” (80). He gains knowledge of history and civilization from listening to the family teach Safie, and from books, he finds in the forest. With time and disastrous attempts to join in civilization which hinder the creature, he learns to both kill and to “work mischief” (103) by allowing Justine to take responsibility for his crime.

The key differences between Victor and the Creature's education are that with Victor’s learning, whilst still self-educated (like the creature), Victor had the experience of growing from a child to an adult in a family, with formal schooling and University experience, with professors who were able to recommend texts. The more knowledge Victor gains, the more he is respected and gains acclaim at the University. John Bugg writes: “Shelley reveals an oppressive traditionalism at Oxford that severely constrains the minds and actions of its students, said to be "slavish" (657). We can see the limits of formal education presented as being insufficient for Victor in that they don’t cover the subject he’s interested in. Backes comments on Victor’s bookish education and states: “his education is utterly lacking in any practical experience”(34).