Limits In Frankenstein

Mankind should tolerate limits on what they should know, Gothic literature shows this in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. Using horror, Mary Shelley exposes the fear that emerges from overstepping boundaries. She also uses violence to show how knowing too much consequently causes mayhem in one's life, ruin their dreams and goals. Mary Shelley also uses the supernatural as an example of something we should not know too much about. Using man as his own worst enemy Mrs. Shelley shows that everything that went askew was all Victor’s fault, because he learned how to undo death, a talent no one should have. Mary Shelley affirms that mankind should have limits on what they learn using Gothic literature. Victor Frankenstein is overcome by fear and paranoia because of his creation, this is Mary Shelley using horror. Even before Ms. Frankenstein figures out how to undo death, he has to do horrific things to find out this knowledge. He feels he must “observe the natural decay and corruption” (37) done to the body after death. After Doctor Frankenstein brings The Creation to life, he goes to sleep and dreams that he “held the corpse of [his] dead mother” (44) after just previously holding Elizabeth in his arms in the same dream. This dream causes an amount of paranoia in
While figuring out the cure for death Victor has to “work for nearly two years”(43) to “[infuse] life into an inanimate body” (43). The supernatural has taken up a huge portion of his life, casing him to stop speaking to his friends and family back home in Geneva. The Creation is the embodiment of supernatural, he is larger than a normal human, stronger and faster. Victor purposefully made his creation this way, once while in the mountains he sees “the figure of a man… advancing… with superhuman speed” (85) this figure is The Creation. The knowledge that Frankenstein acquired was how to undo death, a supernatural