Sie sind auf Seite 1von 5

Jackson 1

Christa Jackson
British Literature
Mrs.Winter
8 March 2016
When does knowledge become too dangerous?
When knowledge falls into the wrong hands it can become a danger to society. In
the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, published in 1818, Mary Shelley tells a story
about a man named Victor Frankenstein who goes on a journey to better his knowledge of
the world with hopes of creating something great. He gets the idea of creating a humanlike creature, but the outcome of his task was not as he expected. He neglects the creature
which then turns what seems like a gentle giant, into a monster that starts to destroy
Frankensteins life by killing his loved ones. The search for greater knowledge can be
beneficial in many ways, like learning more about the world and curing diseases, but
there is a point at which too much knowledge can be dangerous. The pursuit of
knowledge can become too dangerous when it puts other people in society in danger and
when the roles between the created and the creator or switched.
Too much knowledge can start to be a danger, instead of something to benefit a
person or society as a whole, when that knowledge is used in a way that can put people
and society at risk. This idea is shown in both Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley and in The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In Coleridge's poem a
Mariner takes his crew on a voyage across the sea to learn more about the world.The
Mariner ends up putting all of his shipmates in danger which eventually leads to their
deaths after shooting an albatross that was said to be a symbol of good luck. The mariner

Jackson 2
states, Ah! well a-day! what evil looks/ Had I from old and young!/ Instead of the cross,
the albatross/ About my neck was hung (Coleridge 139-142). The Mariner was
explaining how after he killed the albatross, many terrible situations arose that put them
all in danger and fighting for their lives. Soon after, they all died except for the Mariner.
The mariner continues to recount this event when he explains, a I closed my lids, and
kept them close,/ And the balls like pulses beat;/ For the sky and the sea, and the sea and
the sky/ Lay dead like a load on my weary eye, And the dead were at my feet (Coleridge
247-251). The Mariner was now forced to live with the guilt of what he had done. This is
similar to Mary Shelleys Frankenstein because he put the people closest to him in danger
while he tried to gain a better understanding of the way science works and it lead to the
deaths of many people that he loved. After creating a human-like creature with more
strength and power than any normal human being he got scared of what he had made and
neglected this creature who seemed to have a good heart in the beginning. In the novel
the creature says Believe me, Frankenstein: I was benevolent; my soul with love and
humanity: but am I not alone, miserably alone? (Shelley 87). If Frankenstein would have
treated the creature like a child and not like a monster other people may have learned to
accept him and the creature would be content with life. Since that did not happen;
however, the creature turned evil and the knowledge gained from Frankensteins
experiment all went to waste when he killed all of Frankensteins family and eventually
Frankenstein himself. Frankenstein knew the dangers of his experiment; and after the
creature asks Frankenstein to make him a companion he says Had I a right, for my own
benefit, to inflict this curse upon everlasting generations?...I shuddered to think that the
future ages might curse me as their pest, whose selfishness had not hesitated to buy its

Jackson 3
own peace at the price, perhaps, of the existence of the whole human race(Shelley 153154). He now recognizes the dangers of the creature he has made and also the dangers of
another creature. He stops thinking only about his own good and goes on to think about
the dangers of his knowledge and how it can affect many other people for many
generations. This is when he starts to realize that his pursuit of knowledge became too
much of a danger and he did not want to be responsible for the destruction of any more
lives.
The creator should always have the power over the created and when the pursuit
of knowledge causes these roles to be switched around, then the knowledge has become
too much of a danger. When Frankenstein first starts to create the creature he says 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 (Shelley 40). At this point he is expecting to have
power over the creature in the same way that a childs parent is more powerful than the
child. He thinks that the creature will turn out to be a magnificent being who will look to
him as God-like figure because Frankenstein created him. After Frankensteins creature
turns out to be uglier than expected, Frankenstein abandons him. The creature only sees
Frankenstein as someone who made his life miserable which causes him to want revenge.
Since the creature was made to be superhuman, the roles between creator and created
switch which is when knowledge becomes dangerous.When Frankenstein destroys the
creatures companion, the creature says Slave, I before reasoned with you, but you have
proved yourself unworthy of my condescension. Remember that I have power...You are
my creator, but I am your master-obey! (Shelley 155). The creature says how he has all

Jackson 4
the power because he is stronger, even though Frankenstein is the creator. This shows
how knowledge is too dangerous because now the created can destroy the creators life.
This role reversal can cause the creator to be weaker than ever because he is at the mercy
of the monster. The monster seems to have no sympathy and wreaks havoc on
Frankensteins life and after all of his friends and family are dead and he goes on a
journey to kill the creature. He becomes weak both mentally and physically which leads
to his death and the knowledge he gained is all wasted. In The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner Coleridge says Still as a slave before his lord,/The ocean hath no blast
(Coleridge 414-15). In this poem the creator still has all of the power. The created should
never have all of the power over the creator because then it makes the creator weak and
under the will of the created which can become dangerous.
Knowledge can be a great benefit to society. It can cure diseases, give people
information on nature, how the world works, and help to keep society as a whole happy.
There is a point; however, when this same knowledge that can help the world gets out of
hand and becomes a danger to everyone. Some signs of this are when the created has
power, leaving the creator weak and when society can get hurt from the experiments or
knowledge gained.

Jackson 5

Works cited
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein Or The Modern Prometheus. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston,
2009. Print.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (text of 1834).

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen