It is said that every story has a moral, or sometimes if you look hard enough, there are many different morals within one story. In the well-written novel Frankenstein, the teenage author, Mary Shelley, teaches us about moral values. In most cases, moral values result in a positive way, but if there is an obsession for wanting something too much, it could turn into a negative situation. Shelley makes it evident that in most situations, too much desire for a moral value such as knowledge, love or ambition can result in suffering and agony for the characters in the novel.
             The first moral value that leads to suffering for the characters of the novel is knowledge. At the beginning of the story, Victor thrives on learning about natural sciences. When he is thirteen, Victor comes upon a volume of the works of Cornelius Agrippa. After he studies the whole works of Agrippa, he moves on to Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus:
             But here were books, and here were men who had penetrated deeper and knew more. I took their word for all that they averred, and I became their disciple. It may appear strange that such should arise in the eighteenth century; but while I followed the routine of education in the schools of Geneva, I was, to a great degree, self-taught with regard to my favorite studies. My father was not scientific, and I was left to struggle with a child's blindness, added to a student's thirst for knowledge. Under the guidance of my new preceptors I entered with the greatest diligence into the search of the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life; but the latter soon obtained my undivided attention. Wealth was an inferior object, but what glory would attend the discovery if I could banish disease from the human frame and render man invulnerable to any but a violent death! (pp. 39-40)
             It is evident that this is the point in Victor's life that his knowledge about natural sciences helps him first develop his crazy idea to ...