The way in which this text is so bound up with the idea of
there being limits to our knowledge or achievements as humans is crucial to this answer.
Both Frankenstein and Walton are shown to have embarked on quests to delve beyond what,
the author suggests, are God-given limits to our understanding and achievements. The
frenzy and diligence with which Frankenstein embarks on his quest to create life is
therefore matched with his realisation at the profound wrongness of what he has done
when he achieves success. Note how Chapter Five describes
this:
I had
worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an
inanimate body. For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with
an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the
dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my
heart.
The author of this
great novel thus uses Frankenstein's gut reaction of disgust to suggest that what he has
actually achieved is profoundly wrong in terms of trespassing beyond the limits given to
us as humans. The kind of dedication and sacrifice that Frankenstein makes in order to
pursue this discovery is also shown to be questionable through the way that he becomes
so focused and obsessed on this experiment that he forgets even his own needs, and
ignores his family. The abhorrence he feels thus indicates the way that he recognises he
has gone too far.
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