THE PRICE OF KNOWLEDGE BY SARAH MENENDEZ JACQUELINE

THE PRICE OF KNOWLEDGE BY: SARAH MENENDEZ, JACQUELINE HOANG, JOSH MALVEAUX, ABBY MARRELLI, AND MELISSA SANCHEZ

PROMPT NUMBER 14 Knowledge (use/price) – Knowledge and its uses. The ethics of using knowledge. Is there forbidden knowledge? Is “Knowledge at any price” a good—or an evil– goal?

WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE? • Skills obtained from experience or education; the awareness of something, information, and understanding

KNOWLEDGE AND ITS USES • The novel is centered around knowledge • Victor Frankenstein and Robert Walton stopped at nothing for their pursuit of knowledge, going beyond into the unknown and sacrificing human relationships to gain insight. • The Creature was innocent, learning through the cottagers and Paradise Lost.

EXAMPLES IN TEXT #1 "'But Paradise Lost excited different and far deeper emotions. . . Like Adam, I was apparently united by no link to any other being in existence; but his state was far different from mine in every other respect. . . he was allowed to converse with and acquire knowledge from superior nature: but I was wretched, helpless, and alone'" (Shelley 92). Analysis: Paradise Lost is what triggers the creature's realization of its current situation; why it was being abandoned and violently rejected by humans. Acquiring this knowledge led to essentially, the creature losing its innocence, and now filled with evil and anguish to want to plot revenge against mankind.

#2 "Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow" (Shelley 31). Analysis: Victor admits that his desire to discover forbidden knowledge and placing himself on the same level as God to create life resulted in nothing but tragedy. He realizes the result of craving knowledge did him wrong and led him to his fate of continuing loneliness and emptiness.

LITERARY DEVICES FROM THE NOVEL #1 Theme: Robert Walton, Victor, and the creature all thirst for the acquisition of knowledge to fulfill whatever their needs may be, unaware of the deadly consequences that would be their fate. Mary Shelley centers the novel around the idea that once too much knowledge is acquired, it cannot be reversed.

#2 Internal Conflict: The three narrators' conflict within themselves to want to explore unknown fields of knowledge due to personal dissatisfaction results in growing anguish and evil from within.

#3 Doppelganger: The creature is a physical embodiment of Victor's own evil and loneliness. The creature's horrifying physical image is also a representation of Victor's deranged personality.

POINTS OF VIEW Victor's thirst for knowledge spirals into an abuse of his knowledge when he starts playing God and creating life. This abuse of knowledge leads to pain and destruction after the creature sets out to remove every positive aspect of Victor's life. He is blinded by the power he holds and doesn’t see the negative affects of his creation. The creature sees knowledge as a gift that should not be taken advantage of. He took pride in his ability to learn how to read and speak by observing a family. His greater understanding of how the world treated outsiders like himself, resulted in the downfall of his happiness and led to his rage toward Victor.

2015 PROMPT How does cruelty function in the novel and what does the cruelty reveal about the perpetrator and/or victim? The access and interest of scientific knowledge to Victor plays into the reason for cruelty against the monster and cruelty in how Victor's loved ones were killed because of Victor's creation. The Monster reads Paradise Lost, gains knowledge, and eventually turns around on Victor to kill his family.

FURTHER EXPLANATION • The cruelty stems from fear and a misunderstanding of science, Victor's desire to create Frankenstein stems from the loss of his mother. He is infatuated with creating life because he's known death for most of his own. • The creature on the other hand suffers from cruelty on all fronts, he's a creature born of rejection, and because of the misunderstanding that society has of him, he is nurtured into being a creature of violence. Its a matter of nature vs. Nurture. He was born as soft clay and was molded into what he is, because of the outside world, and since he was nurtured with cruelty his nature and his intention became cruel.

PIVOTAL SIGNIFICANT MOMENT #1 The creation- Victor goes off to university to gain a more variant understanding of science, mostly dealing with human life. With all the knowledge learned from school, Victor becomes dedicated to creating life himself to explore an undefined boundary of science. With Victor's attempt in generating the "perfect being, " he creates this hideous creature and decides to abandon him. This leads to the creature having to survive on its own, causing his transition from a pure to a malice being that has a thirst for terror. Victor's yearn for knowledge is what caused him to create The Creature, leading to the disastrous events occurring in Victor's life.

PIVOTAL SIGNIFICANT MOMENT #2 The monster observes the cottagers- In the novel, the Creature comes across the small hovel in the wilderness, and notices a small family that's neighboring him. He stays in this hovel and observes the family's interactions, learning to read and speak while also developing skills such as gathering wood and food. The Creature desires for knowledge so that humans can see past his deformity, and he can fit in with society. Unfortunately, society doesn't accept the Creature, the reason unknown to him until he learns of injustice and rejection, causing him to seek revenge on the one whom he believes put him in this situation, Victor. Knowledge is what caused The Creature to become this malicious being.

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