The desire to make history to discover what remains to be discovered, or to know what remains unknown is a timeless human goal. While many have failed to achieve this dream, very few have been extremely successful in pursuing it. The immortality offered to these select few, of course, only served to encourage those who come after. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein is a literary meditation on this intensely human desire, exemplified here by the title character's pursuit of personal glory through scientific discovery. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayBoth Victor Frankenstein and the Arctic explorer Robert Walton, whose letters open the novel, possess an insatiable thirst for insider knowledge of those things unknown to the common man. Shelley presents their stories as somewhat parallel to each other: each is a failure, and each suffers from the same fatal flaw. Walton, a traveler, explores the secrets of the natural earth, in the company of a crew of men on the same mission. Victor works in solitude to penetrate secrets of a metaphysical nature: that is, the principle of life. Although they explore completely different realms, Walton and Victor are both bound by a common cause. Each desires to advance the knowledge of humanity and glorify his name. The reader is invited to take the place of Mrs. Seville, Walton's sister and recipient of his letters. The selfishness of Walton's ambition is not immediately apparent; it only becomes clear when the reader takes into account the subtleties of Walton's point of view (Walling 35). In the opening letter, Walton tries to assure his sister that she is safe and to remind her of the reason for his journey: he wishes to confer an "inestimable benefit" on all mankind. The reader may initially perceive this desire as sincere, but this is not really the case. Above all, Walton craves fame and presents his desire as altruistic only to inspire the admiration of his beloved sister. She, for her part, had anticipated her trip with "bad forebodings". In subsequent letters he speaks of his intrepid crew, first briefly introducing his lieutenant, whom he describes as "madly desirous of glory". It's clear that Walton assumes that his crew has as much passion for this journey as he does; he believes they would willingly sacrifice their lives for the cause. Walton's hypothesis is spectacularly wrong and reveals him to be completely insensitive to the real motivations of his crew. Walton goes on to say that one man's life would be "a small price to pay" for the success of the expedition and the advancement of the entire race. Walton's "cause", however, is nothing more than his lust for fame. edifying for all humanity. Walton's self-esteem becomes evident in the fact that he never once asks about the state of his sister's health, despite not having seen her for several years. He believes she pines for him and spends every moment waiting for his return. In each of the letters, Walton reveals the disproportionate quality of his ambition through his redundant references to "glory," "admiration," and "triumph." Victor Frankenstein wishes to gain knowledge hidden from the eyes of the common man. He talks about ridding the world of disease as a means of making man immortal. Although his altruism seems genuine, the personal glory that his discovery would provide him dominates his thoughts. He aspires to the absolute and unlimited powers of a god and believes himself to be a genius, with a natural propensity to discover the secret of life itself. He states to Walton that hemen of his extraordinary intelligence "however wrongly directed" (28) almost always provide new benefits to humanity. The danger of pride and selfishness is one of the central themes of the novel(Kiely 166). Significantly, Victor begins his tale with the story of Beaufort, a man whose pride results in his own death, thus leaving his daughter an orphan. It is from the union of this girl with the elderly Frankenstein that Victor is born. The decision to adopt Elizabeth Lavenza ends Victor's days as an only child. If the dangers of pride and selfishness are part of the novel's foundation, then the horrors of isolation serve as one of its pillars. Shelley seems to suggest that solitude gives rise to pride and self-love; intimate companionship is therefore an absolute necessity for living a moral life. It is significant that, in Victor's mind, Elizabeth does not enter the family as an equal member but as a "gift" to him; it is as if his parents recognized the dangers presented by his loneliness and attempted to save him from them. Even after Elizabeth joins the family and a second child is subsequently born, Victor chooses to remain alone, avoiding crowds and having only one close friend. He seems almost proud of his introversion: he considers it an emblem of his individuality, his elevation above the common man. The novel reflects the philosophical views of Wollstonecraft Shelley. She alludes to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, philosopher of the French Enlightenment, whose theories interested her greatly. Rousseau argued that humanity was essentially good; only the influence of society has led to the corruption of man. He also argued, somewhat contradictorily, that human beings are weak and innocent at birth and therefore need proper guidance and education. Without such guidance, the nature of the isolated man would be irremediably degraded by society. Rousseau argued that “A man left entirely to himself from birth would be the most deformed of creatures” (Stevenson 110). This notion is absolutely crucial to Frankenstein: while it undoubtedly applies to Victor, it finds its most direct and literal illustration in the character of the monster. Frankenstein's quest, as well as the desire for fame that drives him, fascinate him to the point of neglecting it. his family and friends. Work in solitude; thus isolated, he becomes unable to resist his obsession. The obsessive quality of his work is evident in his description of himself through words such as "incessant", "dedicated", "tortured", "irresistible", "frantic" and "committed". He admits that he has become "pale from study", "emaciated from confinement"; he was so focused on his efforts that he "lost all soul or feeling except for this one pursuit." Frankenstein was written during the time of the first industrial revolution and contributed to some of the developing ideas of the time. The novel (as the Marxist theory it might be said to prefigure) implies that men embody themselves through their creations (Wolff 153). Wollstonecraft Shelley extends this idea to suggest that a creation can only be an enlarged image of its creator. Many critics have argued that Frankenstein lacks complex characterization, to the extent that Victor and his monster have the same personality. The confusion of the creator's name with that of his monster (who is deliberately given no name) is but one example of the results of this misreading. These critics fail to recognize the philosophical implications inherent in Victor's mirroring of his monster and vice versa. As man was created in the image of God, the creature is created in the image of its creator Frankenstein. The novel makes this explicit., 1998.