Victor Frankenstein - Thematic Explorer

Victor Frankenstein - Thematic Explorer of the Unknown In Mary Godwin Shelley's Gothic masterpiece Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, first published in 1818 as the result of a literary contest between Lord Byron, Mary Godwin, Percy Shelley, Clair Clairmont and Dr.

John Polidori at the Diodato chateau in Switzerland, the main protagonist, Victor Frankenstein, a young student of the alchemical arts and sciences, takes the reader on an exploration into the unknown, for his primary goal is to create life from the dead which, after much experimentation, produces a creature of hideous proportions and intellect bent on nothing but revenge.

But Victor is ideally a thematic character, for he stands as the penultimate explorer of the unknown, a theme which is highly effective and necessary for the overall plot of the novel. The novel itself is brilliant, passionate and sensitive and creates feelings of great sympathy, especially through Victor who causes much suffering for his entire family.

Yet Victor remains the so-called anti-hero throughout the novel, for Shelley describes him as a young man "deeply smitten with the thirst for knowledge" who sees the world about him as "a secret which I desired to divine" (27). This demonstrates Victor's exploratory nature and his inner longings to penetrate the unknown regardless of the consequences or the outcome of his later experiments. In addition, Victor acknowledges that "It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn..

The metaphysical, or in its highest sense, the physical secrets of the world" (28) which supports his thematic status as the curious and eager explorer of the unknown. During his encounter with Captain Walton aboard his ship, frozen and bound into the thick sea ice, Victor asks him "Do you share my madness? Have you drank also of the intoxicating draught? Hear me.. And you will dash the cup from your lips!" (17).

He then observes that Walton seeks "knowledge and wisdom, as I once did," and replies with the hope that Walton's temptations to explore "may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been" (19). With these observations, Victor is warning Walton not to explore the unknown, for it may come back to haunt him, just as it did for Victor when he created the monster.

But Victor is also making a distinct difference between knowledge and wisdom, for wisdom can only be gained through knowledge but at a very terrible price. With this in mind, in his final hours of life, Victor confesses to Captain Walton that he shares much sin with others who have attempted to take on the role of God: "I conceived the idea and executed the creation of a man.. I trod heaven in my thoughts, now exulting in my powers..

From my infancy, I was imbued with high hopes and a lofty ambition; but how am I sunk!" (229). With this confession, Victor is telling Walton that he is a broken man because of his inner desires to explore the unknown and by pretending that like God he has control over his own destiny and that of the creature he created. Thematically, Victor is relating that the pursuit of knowledge can often be a very dangerous affair.

At the point when the creature begins to show some movement upon the laboratory table, Victor realizes that he has made an abomination to nature. Later on, he relates a portion of what he calls his "wildest dreams": "I thought I saw Elizabeth, in the bloom of health.. I embraced her, but as I imprinted the first kiss on her lips, they became livid with the hue of death..

her features appeared to change, and I thought I held the corpse of my dead mother in my arms; a shroud enveloped her form, and I saw the graveworms crawling in the folds of her flannel." And then, upon awaking from this hideous nightmare, Victor "beheld the wretch -- the miserable monster whom I had created" (52).

This demonstrates the very depths of Victor's obsessive mind for exploration which has resulted in a crime against nature and womanhood, being an attempt to circumvent normal sexual practices as shared between husband and wife. For Mary Shelley, this represents the ultimate symbol of man's egotism, the supreme turning away from human society and into the self, the "id" which must result in utter desolation and self-rejection. On the morning after creating the monster, Victor goes.