" 'Are you mad, my friend' said he; 'or whither does your senseless curiosity lead you? Would you also create for yourself and the world a demoniacal enemy? Peace, peace! learn my miseries, and do not eseek to increase your own." (page 156)
I'm starting to notice a trend here. Ever since the beginning of the story, Victor has been warning Walton about the dangers of knowledge. It can be a very harmful thing. Ever since the beginning of time, mankind has gotten smarter and smarter. The search for knowledge in the story (on Victor's behalf) was innocent. He wanted to find cures for illnesses. As the story went on, he became immersed in getting to know how to recreate human beings. This led to him creating a monster. The monster became immersed in learning as well, and found out the meanings of life. It cried when it read certain novels. It found numerous things about how humans work and how many things came to be. It learned about hatred and violence from others, and all these things added to the intensity of the monster. So: what is the meaning behind all of this information? What is Mary Shelley trying to say?
Personally, I believe that Mary Shelley sees knowledge as the monster. Her message is this: humans are figuring out how to do things that should not be known to man. Recreating humans is in God's hands, and this is what led to Victor's downfall. Knowing too much information is not always a good thing. That's why Victor did not even tell Walton of the hidden secrets because he didn't want to ruin Walton's life as well. We should just leave things alone and stop using knowledge to destroy mankind instead of improving our own lifestyles. Society is going downhill and we need to stop our minds before it's too late. But is this possible? How can we stop our minds? Our minds control our thoughts; this might be impossible.....
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