Defiance

A topic that particularly stood out in Frankenstein was the idea of defiance. We saw defiance displayed in both the characters of Frankenstein and his creature. Frankenstein, for one, created his own defiance when he crafted a human being; taking on the role of God. He also defied the law of nature, disproving the natural order of things by creating man artificially without the role of woman. His obsessive thirst for knowledge might have crossed a boundary that stood between what is known and what is not meant to be known. Therefore, Frankenstein busted out of the shell that encloses the scientific comfort zone of his day, and he created something that was not meant for humans to accomplish.

Next, we see defiance take on another form when the monster adapts his own personality, and realizes that his abandonment marks his loneliness. By living in isolation and fear of being spotted, the monster learns to despise Frankenstein for disregarding and hating him. The monster seeks to destroy Frankenstein's life and defies the role of creator and creation. He chooses to rebel against Frankenstein, which creates conflict for both of them.

Change in Frankenstein

Change is the transformation or alteration of something. The idea of change can be applied to anything. In literature, we watch stories and characters undergo change, and learn from their transformation. What makes a character change are his or her environment, personal conflict, and the people he or she interacts with. Victor Frankenstein, before immersing himself in the science world, was a young man who was uncorrupted by knowledge. However, once he grabbed hold of the idea of creating a living being, he changed dramatically and became obsessed with his work, and cut himself off from the world. All Frankenstein could think about was succeeding in his experiment, and he worked nonstop to accomplish his creature. At the time, he did not realize how desolate his state was, because he lived in the moment. Every minute he spent on his creature soaked life out of him as he grew weaker and less conscious of his own well being. The change Frankenstein exhibits results from his strive to accomplish the impossible, and his yearning for success made him obsess over accumulation of knowledge, which made him disregard his health and social life. However, Frankenstein never acknowledges his drastic change until he retells his story to Walton. The fact that he recognized a difference in himself shows that he awakened from his strange state, and will never take the same road again in his life.

Knowledge

Overall, Victor Frankenstein had his life set in two worlds. One stage consisted of innocent acquirement of knowledge, and the next stage was the consequences of accumulating knowledge. Therefore, Frankenstein is a great example of what accompanies the subject of knowledge.
Human beings are born with knowledge. And in life, we expand our natural knowledge by exploring and learning about the world. Knowledge is a gift, and we try to use it to our full extent, which is reflected in science and research. The problems of knowledge are that we don't know about the topic of interest, and are never prepared for what to expect. Knowledge is a never ending quest, because we feel we should know as much as we can about everything around us, and sometimes our ego can lead to disastrous ends, such as the atomic bomb and other destructive weapons. Knowledge is paired with moral standards, because people are essentially responsible for what they learn about, and how they put their new knowledge to use. In Victor Frankenstein's case, he kept his knowledge a secret, and the monster he creates is freed into the outside world and Frankenstein holds responsibility for what it has done.