1. Victor Frankenstein and The Pursuit of Knowledge
‘Man,’ I cried, ‘how ignorant art thou in thy pride of wisdom! Cease; you know not what it is you say.’ (III.vi)

2. The Age of Enlightenment
Also known as the Age of Reason
18th Century (1700s)
Time period of Frankenstein
Marked by increased pursuit of science
Birth of modern science
Explosion of knowledge, discovery, exploration

3. Reaction against Religion
Takeoff of science led to attack on religion
Religion criticised as conservative and backward
Extreme cases saw denial of religion (atheism)
Age of Reason led to new confidence in man
Man’s fate in his own hands, not in God’s

4. Frankenstein: A Critique of Science
A questioning of science’s commitment
Objective truth and discovery regardless of consequences
Right or wrong?
Humphrey Davy: nature as female
‘Humphrey Davy’s Scientific Philosophy’

5. Mother Nature and Science
Davy: defined nature as female
Nurturing, growing, ‘Mother Nature’
Two ways to deal with nature through science
‘Descriptive science’, understanding how Nature worked
‘Interventionist’ science, changing or controlling the way Nature worked

6. Science and Gender Dichotomy
Nature as female, the scientist as male
The attempt to control nature being sexism
Nature as female entitles ‘male’ scientist to exploit her?
Money, power, status

7. Victor Frankenstein
‘Man,’ I cried, ‘how ignorant art thou in thy pride of wisdom! Cease; you know not what it is you say.’ (III.vi)

8. ‘The Modern Prometheus’
Frankenstein’s sub-title
Reference to Victor
Why so?
Who was Prometheus?

9. Dared to steal Fire from the gods…
Created Man and gave him the Fire of life to defy the gods…

10. …and was bound in agony by the gods with his liver pecked out daily by a vulture for his presumption.

11. Victor Frankenstein: the Modern Prometheus
Dared to steal the secret of life from Mother Nature…
Created ‘Man’ with that secret of life to supersede Mother Nature…

12. …and was hounded from society, pursued, and destroyed by Nature and creation alike for his presumption.

13. Victor and the Rape of Nature
Professor Waldman
The modern masters promise very little; they know that metals cannot be transmuted and that the elixir of life is a chimera. But these philosophers, whose hands seem only made to dabble in dirt, and their eyes to pore over the microscope or crucible, have indeed performed miracles. They penetrate into the recesses of nature and show how she works in her hiding-places. (I.iii)
Yet Frankenstein undertakes this penetration
Seeking the ‘secret of life’, using it to his own ends
The rape of nature to gratify personal lust for power

14. Victor’s Scientific Megalomania
"A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs." (I.iv)
Unlocks the secret of life for own benefit
Self-serving, dangerous

15. Victor and Sexism Significance of the creation of the Monster
The theft of the secret of Nature’s creation of life
Theft of the female reproductive ability
The ability to create males without females
Victor, a threat to social/biological survival of the race and ideal of the Female
Hence the destruction of Monster’s mate
Preservation of his monopoly on creation

16. Victor and Mary Shelley
Victor as Shelley’s criticism of modern science
Nature as female to be penetrated and possessed by male scientist
Dead matter to be reassembled at will
Unnatural; life created from dead things
As opposed to God’s creation
Life from the living (Adam’s rib?)

17. ‘Interventionist’ Science as Violation
William Frankenstein’s death as a loss of innocence
Killed by the creation of Victor
Died in the arms of Nature
Killed in Nature by an Unnatural creation
Nature grotesquely violated by the unnatural

18. Shelley’s Nurturing Alternative
Ernest Frankenstein as one with appropriate relationship to nature
Became a farmer, working with Nature
Not taking control of it
Henry Clerval as one who appreciates Nature
He was a being formed in the "very poetry of nature."…The scenery of external nature, which others regard only with admiration, he loved with ardour. (III.i)
Nature as a person to be treated with respect and reverence

19. Robert Walton
‘I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before visited, and may tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man. These are my enticements, and they are sufficient to conquer all fear of danger or death, and to induce me to commence this laborious voyage with the joy a child feels when he embarks in a little boat, with his holiday mates, on an expedition of discovery up his native river.’ (Letter 1)

20. Attitude to Discovery Overwhelming desire to explore North Pole
Believes in discovery for its own sake
Also for sake of mankind as a whole
Burning passion based on books

21. Walton and the Brink of Knowledge
Constantly advised by Elizabeth not to go on voyage of discovery
Inferred from letters to Elizabeth
But insists on going on it, citing noble aspirations and purpose
Is exhorted by Victor to go on, even as Victor relates what happened to him
Eventually forced to turn back by storms
Representing the ability to not go too far

22. The Storms of Nature
Frankenstein and Walton both accompanied on discoveries by storms
Nature’s reaction to Man’s penetration of her secrets
‘Female’ Nature resisting ‘male’ science
Whereas Victor pushes on, Walton turns back
Victor suffers consequences thereafter
Forced into Nature’s wildernesses
Exposed to the elements and storms

23. Knowledge as Pandora’s Box
Knowledge in Frankenstein is a gift with greater cost than benefit
The unleashing of greater forces and evils than expected
For Victor, knowledge of the secret of life brings only death and suffering
For the Creature, knowledge brings only loss of innocence
Greater desire to participate in society
Greater awareness of society’s rejection of him
Greater hatred, frustration, leading to self-destruction and destruction of others

24. The End