Loss of Innocence

I know we've been talking about innocence nonstop for the past couple blogs but in Frankenstein its such and integral and, to tell the truth, intriguing aspect of the novel. All throughout the first four letters and the following ten chapters we see innocence in a variety of forms but also how it is lost, twisted, and torn asunder. But, I'll just be going aver a couple of my favorites.

First, we've got Walton's development seen through the letters addressed to his sister. Few and far between, they start with a childlike exuberance and enthusiasm that enfuses the reader; but, throughout all this there is an underlying sense of apprehension that Shelley builds using artfully placed phrases. However, as the letters go on the disillusionment hinted at earlier becomes clearer and much more overt. This is in part due to his loneliness it's mostly because of the state he finds Victor in. He goes from wonder and awe at the all the new things he has experienced and the sense of adventure, " I feel a cold northern breeze play upon my cheeks, which braces my nerves and fills me with delight," to a more jaded melancholic view, "How can I see so noble a creature destroyed by misery without feeling the most poignant grief?" With this we see how he's become exposed to the other side of life and the despair it's capable of.

Another interesting example I enjoyed was Victor's intellectual development. As a child he's fascinated by the "scientists" of yore, studying alchemy, the summoning of the otherworldly, and the like. But after experiencing for himself electricity and destructive power of physical science he abandons his old mentors and instead embraces what he calls "real knowledge." This loss of innocence wasn't unwanted nor would it have had ill effects, actually Victor himself says that it was a last ditch attempt by providence to steer him away from his descent to wickedness.

The most interesting things about both of these, however, are the various connections that can be drawn between them. Both are bestowed with inquisitive minds that only only helped along by their curious natures. Both have/had a need to quench their thirst for knowledge, willing to leave behind their family and relationships, any actual communication sparse and sporadic. Both seeking to unravel the mysteries of the world. But that's where it stops, at least as far as we can see. The question i have though is whether or not Victor's warnings are Walton's version of the lighning and if he's due for his own fall from grace.