Frankenstein's Ironic Climax

“One man’s life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought…” This is a quote from the novel Frankenstein, from the ‘protagonist’ Victor while he is in a frenzy state of passion finishing his creation. However, this is an important symbol of foreshadowing: “one man’s life or death” ends up applying to Victor himself. Victor’s well being, family, and friends ends up being the “price” for his “acquirement of knowledge.” The quote itself has a vain attitude “life or death were but a small price” and sinister appeal “knowledge which I sought…”. The ironic climax that shifts on Victor himself serves him right. Good cannot root from evil; in this case, lust and vain for non-acquirable knowledge cannot stem into benevolent being.

Power Corrupts

Too much of anything is vain. Lord Acton’s famous phrase, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men” is an example that supports the foundation of this statement. It is proven several times throughout literature the evils of “too much”. For example, as Shelley quotes in her novel Frankenstein, “A human being in perfection ought always to preserve a calm and peaceful mind and never to allow passion or a transitory desire to disturb his tranquility.” Her character Frankenstein simply was in love with knowledge beyond normal science, and that led him to his own destruction and agonizing torture. Other examples can be concluded from history; Hitler, Castro, Mussolini, etc., were men in absolute power of their people, and in each result pain broke through. As a nation in the United States, we rely on moderation. Compromise is key because absolute certainty in one subject is dangerous.

Frankenstein's components of Gothicism and Romanticism.

Frankenstein, a novel sui generis, uses an impressive tool of crossing between boundaries of Romanticism and Gothicism. The author Mary Shelley, as stated in her prefatory, engendered her very inspiration from the waking dream of extraordinary vividness. Shelley’s idealistic writing brings themes of surrealistic and hallucinatory fantasy within her literature, which thus creates the foundation of Frankenstein’s crossed roots.

Shelley’s introduction to the themes starts with her declaration of passionate emotions. One of the most prominent characteristics of her novel is the fierce passions of her characters. It almost seems as if each character devotes their lives to an emotion and attends to it, ever fueling the emotion with surroundings of passionate pursuits. This shouts of Romantic genre; however, all the while, Shelley maintains deep roots of 

Gothicism. 
For example, Shelley keeps a cool overall atmosphere of deep gloominess, which only entrenches the setting more as the novel progresses. Moreover, Shelley takes a walk from reality into supernatural realms of spirits, and unconventional creations of beings. Shelley uses a heavy idea of fate and omens to guide the character’s into their lives rather than action and free will. And lastly there is the component of a hero, in this case, an unlikely hero brought upon from the least likely character, the monster, or as Oates would call “Frankenstein’s Fallen Angel.” 

The author's advantage to her manipulation of genres lies in her writing style. Shelley envelopes multiple levels of narration to allow the content to travel in different genres and perspective.

The creation of the book and the monster, sprang from the deepest level of surrealism. This abstract process complements the smooth flow of different genres. 

The value of studying this type of literature lays in the emerging themes of passionate emotions. It helps the reader see the connection between passionate response and willing action-- or in this case, negligence for action-- of the character.