Sublime

I am confused when it comes to the definition on sublime. I feel that sublime is a state of incomplete understanding of a great, powerful emotion. A time when you are speakless or the only thing you can say is "woah". What I am confused about is: is it possible to experience the sublime and know exactly what is happening to you? 

I agree that a quest for knowledge is beneficial, but with that quest, is solitude included, or is it just part of the side-effects? I know that with Victor it was part of the quest, because from the very beginning the "earnest..to learn....[were] among the earliest sensations [he] could remember". He would pretty much do anything to get that knowledge he so desperately wanted. Whereas in contrast his "closest" friend, Henry, "deeply read in books of chivalry and romance" showing his more abstract side. Henry is thristy for knowledge, but is he desperate like Victor? If Henry was Victor in this story would he have isolated himself from his whole family like Victor did, or would he keep in touch with everyone and tell them about what was going on?

Was it evil?

I like the discussion on the pursuit of knowledge, but I have a question; where do we draw the line when knowledge stops being good and starts being evil? It's not evil when doctors find ways to keep people healthy and give them longer lives. It's not evil when we find ways to save someone on the brink of death. What if they had only been dead a second, and we did whatever Victor did to bring them back to life? Is that wrong? We use defibulators to restart hearts, and most people have been taught CPR; isn't that kind of like bringing back a life? If we knew how to save someone who died at the scene of an accident an hour before, would it be evil to bring them back? What about bringing back to life someone you loved who died a year ago? When does it stop being okay? It's not just Victor that's "playing God" since we prolong lives unnaturally and save people that should have died. I guess I'm not entirely convinced that what Victor did was really evil, since it's only a step or two away from what we do now and consider good.

A quest for knowledge is always beneficial. The quest (act of seeking), knowledge (the state of understanding gained through experience), and beneficial (conducive to personal well-being) are all benign terms that do not suggest the wanton passion of a raving scientist named Frankenstein. This poor excuse for a human rarely willingly acknowledges his fellow beings as such. He instead refers to homo sapiens as either "creature" or "animal." Victor does not seek knowledge, rather he seeks to further seperate himself, who he sees as a superior individual, from the rest of mankind. He sees the pursuit of knowledge as the pastime of children, as he abandons this endeavor early after his adolescence to seek not power (which is knowledge), but the satisfaction of his desire to compensate for the misery created by his "misfortunes." Frankenstein does not have the strength to pursue knowledge. One who accepts this "quest" means that they do no more than acquire the understanding necessary to advance further into the dark mess of the unexplored. Whether this is referring to that which is unexplored on a personal or universal level is non consequential. Great mental determination is needed in either case to simply attain this knowledge and not implement it or experiment with it. This is where Frankenstein strays. Experimentation is almost always a necessary part of the quest, but it is always beneficial. Victor does well to explore this area, but cannot resist the need to go further. Therefore the quest is beneficial, but the uneeded exploration with the knowledge attained in the quest is detrimental.

Quest vs. Obsession

I think Victor's mistake was in allowing his quest for knowledge to become an obsession. It was healthy to begin with - I know I get eager when I'm interested in learning something new. Victor was the type of person to think that there are no limits; he wanted to go the distance instead of being satisfied with a less intense field of study. Henry supports this argument by searching for knowledge, even at the same university as Victor, but his goals were much more attainable. He was happy during his studies, finding joy in nature, socializing, and keeping in touch with his family. Even if Victor had attained an understanding cancer or something of that nature, it would have been an enormous discovery that was beneficial to mankind and it would give him the power that he wanted to "rid the human body of disease" or whatever it was. A quest is just a quest, but obsessions will destroy a person the way it did with Victor.

I think that the quest for knowledge is beneficial as long as you allow it to be. Victor's "disorder" and his inability to connect with his family, because of his experiment are his decisions. Victor allowed himself to create something that terrified him, and to allow himself to look at the negatives of the creature. I believe that this alone created his disorder. His very own horror at what he had done, and what he allowed himself to unleash on the world created his disorder, nothing more. I also believe that it was Victor's decision to not put off the creature, but to instead ignore his family and continue with his experiment. It was Victor's choice to continue with his quest for knowledge, and it is shown that he accepts responsibility because during the time of his obsession, he fails to call it "fate" or even mention "misfortune" until after the creature's creation. Victor sees a great deal of himself in Walton, and the creature is also very much alike Victor, yet he fails to see that everyone is different. Everyone perceives their actions differently, and this affects the outcome of his quest for knowledge. What went wrong for Victor may be beneficial for Walton. The creature's quest for knowledge has led him to speech and to intellect, yet it has also allowed him to see humans negatively, and react accordingly.

I agree with Kate and Megan. The quest for knowledge is beneficial only in moderation. I also think that it has to do with solitude. Victor's quest for knowledge turns bad when he confines himself to his laboratory all day and doesn't keep in touch with his family. He chooses to put himself in solitude and, in turn, he creates a creature that ends up ruining his life.