Frankenstein by Marry Shelly - Essay Example

George Levine, in his essay, “Frankenstein and the Tradition of Realism” says very worthily about the heroes and forms of novels written at the closure of the eighteenth century and the wake of the nineteenth century; “The English novel, as a form, has rarely been kind to characters with large aspirations. For the most part it has preferred to chastise them and to praise those heroes reconciled to un-heroic lives” (14).Taking the clue of these quotes, if one ponders upon the life of the protagonist, Victor in the novel, “Frankenstein” and his quest for knowledge, which makes him pay too much with the discovery of the monster called, Frankenstein’, one would see the untimely fall of the hero and his fateful predicament that is very much undeserving upon Victor’s part as he has taken plunge to explore the unexplored and move ahead holding the light of knowledge.

But Mary Shelly’s “Frankenstein” shows that attempt of Victor to take plunges beyond the conventions of natural order and accepted limitations of mankind that makes him pay back so much . He loses his near and dear ones one by one and finally, when it comes to his life, the death of the creator of the obsessed monster, acts as a metaphor within the novel projecting that ruthless quest of knowledge, breaking the inherent natural order and law is a kind of a threat to mankind.

However, from a modern perspective, taking the clue of the George Levine further, it can be well quoted.. dge, which makes him pay too much with the discovery of the monster called, Frankenstein’, one would see the untimely fall of the hero and his fateful predicament that is very much undeserving upon Victor’s part as he has taken plunge to explore the unexplored and move ahead holding the light of knowledge. But Mary Shelly’s “Frankenstein” shows that attempt of Victor to take plunges beyond the conventions of natural order and accepted limitations of mankind that makes him pay back so much .

He loses his near and dear ones one by one and finally, when it comes to his life, the death of the creator of the obsessed monster, acts as a metaphor within the novel projecting that ruthless quest of knowledge, breaking the inherent natural order and law is a kind of a threat to mankind. However, from a modern perspective, taking the clue of the George Levine further, it can be well quoted that “It is possible, I think, to take a work like Frankenstein and see it as a representative of certain attitudes and techniques that become central to the realist tradition itself” (Levine 14).

At the outset, from the modernistic perspective, it might seem that the novel is not encouraging scientific quests. But a deeper insight into the text would allow the readers to know that the chase of Victor after the monster is not literal only. It is symbolic of the primal struggle inherent within man to overcome his greed. It does not matter that whether the greed is for knowledge or for wealth, but to break the laws of nature or surpassing the sublime realm of natural order is blasphemy eternally (Joshua 64-65).

CONCLUSION Whether the novel, “Frankenstein” by Marry Shelley criticizes the quest for scientific knowledge and suggests men to remain abstained from it, is a contention