Frankenstein and Exploration
Frankenstein and Exploration “Curiosity killed the cat. ” This phrase is used in reference to children, animals, and even adults. With cats, curiosity often leads to exploration. The phrase refers to a negative experience with exploration. A negative experienced exploration would be, for example, a stray cat that has found a family’s full garbage can to rummage through. Some people do not tolerate cats in their garbage cans, let alone cats themselves. This could get the cat in serious trouble or even killed.
On the other hand, an example of a positive experienced exploration for a stray cat is finding a good home with a family who takes care of the cat and accepts it into their home. The positive and negative aspects of exploration have many different outcomes and consequences not just for cats, but for people or even other beings as well, depending on the kind of explorations. Exploration is defined as the act of investigating unknown regions. The unknown regions could be a physical place in the world, a place in the imagination, or even the acquiring of knowledge.
Positive explorations are the most thought of aspects of exploration itself. They lead to great achievements in life for those who pursue it. As for negative explorations, they do not lead to great things. Sometimes acquiring too much knowledge can impact someone or something in a negative way, causing very bad consequences in their life. Exploring is mostly caused by a want of knowledge. Many great people in history are famous because of their strive for knowledge, causing them to go on a great exploration. The there are people like Victor Frankenstein.
He wanted so much knowledge that he went above and beyond the expectation of mankind; he created life. This led to the fall of Victor Frankenstein and his creation. This is one example of how exploring can affect you in a negative way with too much knowledge. You could say that the less you know, the better off you are. Curiosity is the desire to learn about anything. This goes hand in hand with exploration. Any being that explores is more than likely curious about something they do not know. Famous explorers or even cats start out being curious.
This curiosity leads to an exploration to gain the knowledge that they did not have before. Victor Frankenstein wanted to be famous. This led him to curiosity with life itself, which in turn led to exploring. He explored the ways of life and how life itself works. After all was said and done, Victor Frankenstein gained the knowledge that he nor anyone else had ever acquired. This knowledge led to his and the monster’s death. Maybe “curiosity killed the cats,” the cats being both the monster and Victor Frankenstein.
Walton is striving for knowledge of what is beyond the boundaries of the ordinary way of living. He is exploring the North Pole with hopes of returning with a plethora of new knowledge. On his voyage, he encounters Victor Frankenstein at the end of Frankenstein’s journey. Walton is warned by Frankenstein to stay away from the acquiring of too much knowledge. Victor Frankenstein has been through the whole process of being curious, leading an exploration, and gaining too much knowledge. He knows that if Walton is just like he is, Walton will end up like him.
Victor Frankenstein does not want to see anyone go through the misery that he was put through during his lifetime. The monster was created and then left on his own to fend for himself. He had no idea what the world consisted of and the dangers lurking everywhere he went. Much like a toddler, Frankenstein’s monster wanted to know and learn everything there was to learn in the world. He taught himself all the dangers of life, like fire and bad weather, and even how to speak and read. He acquired so much knowledge that he started looking back on his life.
He hated Victor Frankenstein for leaving him to battle the world alone. He hated his creator so much that the monster wanted to destroy Frankenstein. If he would not have gained the knowledge like he did, the monster would not have known anything about his creator and how negatively Frankenstein treated him. The monster’s way of exploring was through this gaining of knowledge. This way of exploring is seen in many ways, making exploration a symbol for gaining knowledge, and reversely gaining knowledge is then made a symbol of exploration. Walton, Frankenstein, and the monster all had explorations of their own.
Walton’s exploration was prevented by Victor Frankenstein for the good of Walton’s life. He was on his way to a negative exploration, and Frankenstein knew it. Frankenstein also knew that Walton’s exploration started with simple curiosity, much like himself. He did not want Walton going through what Frankenstein had to go through. The monster’s exploration was negative because he decided to use it in a negative way. He gained knowledge of Victor Frankenstein and decided to destroy him for making the monster’s life miserable. The monster is much like the cat.
He did not have a home; he moved from one place to another often and did not stay very long near populated areas. He was always getting into other people’s stuff, like at the village. The whole village went after the monster for terrorizing the village. This is similar to a stray cat getting into a family’s garbage can. More than likely, a member of the family will chase the cat away before it does any more damage. After being rejected all his life, the monster finally gave up and committed suicide. In a way, the monster is like the cat, and curiosity definitely killed this cat.
