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  • Essay / Knowledge is not wisdom

    You can never have too much knowledge. People often like to argue this against the cliché that “too much of a good thing is bad for you.” However, with knowledge comes the importance of a relatively equal amount of wisdom. Mary Shelley demonstrates this idea through Victor Frankenstein and the unstable monster he creates. Victor's lack of responsibility in his creation is reflected physically through the monster's appearance, leading to the monster's separation from society. The revelation of Victor's lack of wisdom and responsibility deteriorates his mental health, and he perishes in his efforts to compensate for his neglect of the monster. Say no to plagiarism. Get Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get Original Essay When Victor created the monster, he did not take into account what would happen after he successfully brought the monster to life body of the monster. The monster would be part of society and would have feelings and perceptions like all the complex creatures of this world. Physical appearance is a strong source of judgment in this world, and Victor's inability to fully recognize this in the creation process leads him to create a being eight feet tall with horrible features, including lips black and shriveled skin. The pressure he felt to create the Monster is illustrated in the following quote from Frankenstein at the time of the Monster's creation: "I had labored for nearly two years, with the sole aim of breathing life into a body inanimate. For this, I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardor which far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream disappeared, and breathtaking horror and disgust filled my heart” (Shelley 35). His anxiety and obsession with simply creating life resulted in a creature with physical defects. If Victor had been more wise, patient, and open-minded about creating a being, the monster might have seemed much more suited to human society than he was. The monster is born as an innocent and curious being, as any baby would be. As Victor turns his back on him, the Monster develops his first feelings of loneliness and abandonment. As he grew up, he came to a solid conclusion about society: “I learned that the possessions most valued by your fellows were high and intact offspring united with wealth. A man can be respected with only one of these advantages; but without either, he was considered, except in very rare cases, a vagabond and a slave, condemned to waste his powers for the benefit of a chosen few” (Shelley, 85)! The Monster affirmed his perception that fame and money are what determine the quality of a man, and without either, a man is essentially worthless, except for use of his human skills to strengthen those above him. Being a different creature and of a different nature, the Monster is able to look at society as a whole and deduce from his observations that he does not feel part of it. This also gives him a strong feeling of loneliness, which is expressed through the thoughts which continue: “I was, moreover, endowed with a hideously deformed and repulsive face; I wasn't even of the same nature as man. I was more agile than them and could subsist on a coarser diet; I endured the extremes of heat and cold with less injury to my figure, my stature far exceeding theirs” (Shelley 85). The Monster's feelings of loneliness deepen when his observations of society affirm the contrast of his nature with it, and.