Frankenstein's ambition
Topic #3
Victor’s driving, obsessive ambition ruined his life and led to his own death and the murder of his loved ones. Illustrate how ambition affects not only Victor and Robert Walton, but also the creature in Frankenstein.
Thesis Statement: Ambition and the quest for knowledge is a fatal flaw in the characters of Victor Frankenstein, Robert Walton, and the creature.
In Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, ‘Frankenstein’, a recurring motif of ambition and the quest for knowledge is present among the characters of Victor Frankenstein, Robert Walton and the creature. Victor’s obsessive ambition is his fatal flaw, ruining his life and leading to the murder of his loved ones and eventually his own death. Robert Walton shares a similar ambition along with the creature with their desire and quest for knowledge. Shelley illustrates the ambitions of these characters through their parallel quests to obtain knowledge at the cost of their own wellbeing and safety. Their obsessive and ambitious nature becomes the fatal flaw of these three characters relating to ideas of Romanticism presented in the novel.
Growing up, Victor was overwhelmed by the power of nature with its beauty “majestic and wondrous scenes which surrounded our Swiss home” and the power of nature “watching its progress with curiosity and delight” as lighting struck a tree obliterating it. From this event stems the beginning of Victor’s ambition in natural philosophy with the ancient scholars Cornelius Agrippa and Paracelsus fascinating him. Victor had always had a fascination with the natural world shown through his recount of his adolescence ‘The world was to me a secret which I desired to divine’ and further on ‘it was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn’. Both of these quotes have religious allusions of ‘divinity’ and ‘heaven’ emphasising Victor’s obsession and ambition in natural philosophies. Following his quest for knowledge in natural philosophy, Victor attends the University of
Victor’s driving, obsessive ambition ruined his life and led to his own death and the murder of his loved ones. Illustrate how ambition affects not only Victor and Robert Walton, but also the creature in Frankenstein.
Thesis Statement: Ambition and the quest for knowledge is a fatal flaw in the characters of Victor Frankenstein, Robert Walton, and the creature.
In Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, ‘Frankenstein’, a recurring motif of ambition and the quest for knowledge is present among the characters of Victor Frankenstein, Robert Walton and the creature. Victor’s obsessive ambition is his fatal flaw, ruining his life and leading to the murder of his loved ones and eventually his own death. Robert Walton shares a similar ambition along with the creature with their desire and quest for knowledge. Shelley illustrates the ambitions of these characters through their parallel quests to obtain knowledge at the cost of their own wellbeing and safety. Their obsessive and ambitious nature becomes the fatal flaw of these three characters relating to ideas of Romanticism presented in the novel.
Growing up, Victor was overwhelmed by the power of nature with its beauty “majestic and wondrous scenes which surrounded our Swiss home” and the power of nature “watching its progress with curiosity and delight” as lighting struck a tree obliterating it. From this event stems the beginning of Victor’s ambition in natural philosophy with the ancient scholars Cornelius Agrippa and Paracelsus fascinating him. Victor had always had a fascination with the natural world shown through his recount of his adolescence ‘The world was to me a secret which I desired to divine’ and further on ‘it was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn’. Both of these quotes have religious allusions of ‘divinity’ and ‘heaven’ emphasising Victor’s obsession and ambition in natural philosophies. Following his quest for knowledge in natural philosophy, Victor attends the University of