 The theme of knowledge is a really powerful theme that's explored within Frankenstein. Indeed, remember the subheading of Frankenstein is the modern Prometheus. This notion that Victor Frankenstein, the creator of this creature, represents Prometheus. So the titan that stole fire from the gods and he gave it to humans, fire representing knowledge and then he was punished by Zeus, okay? So the destructive nature of knowledge and the destructive and continuous discovery of knowledge and humans pushing things too far, wanting to know things that are reserved only for the knowledge of God is explored within Frankenstein and of course science is used as the medium with which Victor Frankenstein tries to discover all of these hidden secrets of the world, hidden secrets that only God should know. And as a result, God punishes him just like the way Zeus punished Prometheus for seeking knowledge and giving this knowledge to human beings, okay? So this is a really important theme and it's explored of course in the character of Victor Frankenstein but also knowledge is illustrated through the character of Captain Walton. Indeed, it's his wish and his selfish wish for acquiring new knowledge, wanted to push the boat out further into the northern parts of the world and this pushes them into the Antarctic and then they get stuck, okay? And it's because he really wants to learn about new parts of the world but this is more for his own selfish discovery and then Victor Frankenstein wants him against this. Also, knowledge is illustrated through the creature itself. So the creature realizes human nature for what it is, human nature can be quite shallow. It can also be quite hateful and this knowledge drives him to become a bad person, okay? It's this knowledge of the dark side of human nature that leads the creature to detest all human beings, okay? So it's a very important theme that you need to be able to discuss in lots of depth and hence, as you can see behind me, I have prepared and selected the most relevant quotations you can talk about when writing about the theme of knowledge. So let's start with the beginning. Now this first quotation illustrates Victor Frankenstein's thirst for knowledge and how he uses science in order to discover things that many Victorian readers would have believed should have been only the preserve of God. Of course, in this case, what he wanted to discover was how to use science to create new life and it's only God according to Victorians who should know how to create new life and of course also take life, okay? Now here, this wish for knowledge and this selfish pursuit of knowledge is illustrated when Victor Frankenstein states the enticements of science ellipses. In a scientific pursuit, there is a continual food for discovery and wonder. So here we can see that Victor Frankenstein really fell in love with learning about how science can be used to really understand how the world works and most importantly how to create new human beings and this is what led him to create this creature. However, this is shown to be a very destructive wish, okay? Now, the word level analysis you want to focus on is firstly the repetition of the notion of science, okay? So science and scientific, this is repetition and this of course echoes Victorian fears at the time of scientific discoveries that were happening and this idea that we as humans were learning too much about the world through science and this could ultimately cause our demise and could make God angry at us just like how Zeus was angry at Prometheus, okay? Also the next word level analysis you want to focus on is this idea that science provides food for discoveries. Of course, this notion of food is a metaphor. What this is also showing is how science can be very alluring and it can seduce and tempt people into wanting to discover too much and this knowledge can be quite destructive. The second quotation relating to the theme of knowledge is when Victor Frankenstein once he discovers what he can do with science, he states, I cannot describe the delight I felt when I learned, okay? Now here again, this notion of learning, this notion of continuous pursuit of knowledge and how destructive it can be. How also it can make somebody very ambitious and this can lead to them developing a sense of hubris thinking that they are too powerful and this can be really destructive. Now the word level analysis you want to focus on here is firstly the repetition of the pronoun I, okay? And what this is illustrating is Victor Frankenstein wasn't necessarily using science and the knowledge that he was gaining to help the world. It was more to do with his own selfish ambition, okay? So also this is illustrating how knowledge can be used by humans for very selfish purposes. It's not always used for just to see how things can be made better for other human beings. Victor Frankenstein was only focused on creating this creature in order so that this new species can worship him again. This is shown to be a negative impetus, okay? This is a negative motivation, okay? Also the other word level analysis you want to focus on is the alliteration of D in describing delight. And of course this is illustrating how Victor Frankenstein was so excited when he realized he could use science to create a new human being. The third quotation relating to the theme of knowledge is again, when Victor Frankenstein states, I shall satiate my ardent curiosity, satiate means fulfill, okay? So he knew what he was doing was wrong, but he couldn't stop himself. He then decided to even go to grave sites. You know, people see graveyards in places where their dead bodies are sacred. However, he was so consumed by this pursuit of knowledge that he ignored the sacred sanctity of a dead body. He would take all of these bits of different bodies and then put them together to create this new creature, okay? So this is illustrating how this pursuit of knowledge made him even do things that were very unholy, okay? Now, what you want to focus on in terms of word level analysis is firstly the sibilance of shell and satiate, okay? This is showing the insidious nature of knowledge. Also you want to focus on the adjectives ardent and curiosity, showing that he really, really only cares about really fulfilling this knowledge to the expense of even other people, okay? The other quotation relating to the theme of knowledge is now this is to do with Captain Walton. So remember Captain Walton, how the story starts is through a series of letters. He is pushing through the Antarctic. He wants to discover new parts of the world and with him realize he does this for his own selfish gains. Now, he then admits that one man's life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought. So here we can see that Captain Walton was driven by the same drive that pushed Victor Frankenstein, okay? So he really wanted to discover new parts of the world so that people can know him as the explorer. His knowledge was more for a selfish reason rather than actually thinking about, okay, how can I advance human knowledge and humanity, okay? And what this therefore led was for him to be willing to sacrifice the lives of others. Again, here we can see the dangerous nature of knowledge. The word of analysis you want to focus on is firstly the oxymoron of life or death, okay? Here we can see that he's so keen and so focused on, you know, discovery and making his mark on the earth and making his marks that everybody can remember him that he did not care whether people died in the process. Also, the other word of analysis you want to focus on is the alliteration of P in price and pay, showing that he literally would stop at nothing. This is Captain Walton because he was driven by the same impetus and the same wish for knowledge that Victor Frankenstein was driven by. The next quotation relating to the theme of knowledge is when Victor Frankenstein, again, here he's talking about how he really wants to create this new species and he states, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers. And here this is to talk about this idea that he's now discovering the secrets of the earth. Secrets are only previously only known to God, but now he's so happy that he can pioneer. He can be the first person to create this new species of humans, okay? And this is illustrated through the verb pioneer and also the adjective unknown, this idea that he's using science in order to advance knowledge on how to create new beings. However, this is quite destructive and also this is a very selfish pursuit of knowledge. The next quotation relating to the theme of knowledge is when Victor Frankenstein states, and this is now him very consciously eluding and referring to the fact that he basically wanted to play God, he wanted to know the same information that God knew because he states, it was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn. And in terms of word level analysis, you want to focus on the notion of heaven and earth. This is what we call celestial imagery, okay? And here we can see that he almost wanted to play the role of God. Here we can see that this relentless pursuit of knowledge according to Frankenstein can make people so ambitious, so hubristic, they think that they can almost become God and this is portrayed as very destructive, okay? This ambition is portrayed as incredibly destructive. The next quotation relating to the theme of knowledge is now what the creature says when he realizes how horrible and evil human beings are, how much they're very shallow. So they look at him and because he looks scary, they run away from him or they attack him and there's this knowledge of human nature, the dark side of human nature. This is what causes him to become a terrible person, okay? This is what causes him to develop this grudge against humanity. He never had a problem with humanity beforehand but then once he realized what kind of people humans really are, he then realized the hypocrisy and the shallow nature and this is what caused him to detest human beings, okay? So here, again, we can see that knowledge has caused the creature who was really innocent before to become really hateful of human beings and the creature even reflects and states of what strange nature is knowledge, it clings to the mind. This idea that once he realized the real nature of humanity, he just could not stop thinking about how terrible human beings were, okay? So this new knowledge of humanity and human nature made him hateful towards human beings. Now, here, again, we can see the destructive nature of knowledge. Through first, see this exclamatory sentence when he says what strange nature is knowledge, he seems to be really tortured by this knowledge of human beings and this horrible side of human beings, okay? This is shown through the exclamatory sentence. Remember, an exclamatory sentence is a sentence that shows a strong emotion and it always ends with an exclamation mark. And then finally, of course, knowledge is personified as clinging to the mind. It's hard to forget, it's hard to unknown once you discover this really destructive knowledge, okay? So that's really it when it comes to key quotations and word-level analysis to do when you are writing about the theme of knowledge in Frankenstein, either for your course or exam. So thank you so much for listening.