{"id":553,"date":"2012-11-07T20:02:34","date_gmt":"2012-11-08T01:02:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.briancroxall.net\/lit-tech\/?p=553"},"modified":"2012-11-07T20:02:34","modified_gmt":"2012-11-08T01:02:34","slug":"dive-into-your-imagination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.briancroxall.net\/lit-tech\/2012\/11\/07\/dive-into-your-imagination\/","title":{"rendered":"Dive Into Your Imagination"},"content":{"rendered":"

Albert Einstein once said, “I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”\u00a0 In other words, one needs to step outside knowledge in order to explore and encompass the world beyond its boundaries.\u00a0 In Mark Shelley\u2019s Frankenstein, <\/em>Robert Walton steps outside his comfort of knowledge to explore \u201ca part of the world never before visited\u2026a land never before imprinted by the foot of man\u201d (Shelley 6).\u00a0 When one embarks on a journey to an unknown place, the mind no longer dwells inside the boundaries of one\u2019s knowledge, but rather, one reaches into their imagination.\u00a0 This idea is evident in Frankenstein <\/em>as Walton\u2019s desire to surpass previous human explorations and discover the unknown opens his mind to his imagination.<\/p>\n

Frankenstein<\/em> opens with four letters, each written by an Englishman Robert Walton to his beloved sister Margaret describing his journey as he departs from Russia to the North Pole. \u00a0Before Walton even begins his journey, he lets his mind wonder past the limits of his knowledge, imagining the pole to be \u201cthe seat of frost and desolation\u2026the region of beauty and delight\u2026 [where] the sun is visible\u201d (Shelley 5).\u00a0 Even before Walton enters this unknown world, he opens his mind to imagination, describing the scenery of what he envisions the North Pole to appear like.\u00a0\u00a0 Furthermore, \u201cthis expedition has been the favorite dream of [his] early years\u201d (Shelley 7).\u00a0 Shelley gives the readers insight that Walton has been imagining this voyage to the North Pole since he was a little boy. Despite his excitement to \u201cfix his intellectual eye\u201d (Shelley 7), Robert feels this \u201ctrembling sensation, half pleasurable and half fearful\u201d (Shelley 15) of what he might encounter in these unexplored regions.\u00a0 This is the result of Robert\u2019s imagination picturing different scenarios of what might occur on his expedition.<\/p>\n

In the fourth letter, the stranger tells Walton, \u201cYou seek for knowledge and wisdom, as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been\u201d (Shelley 28). \u00a0\u00a0This quote leads me to ask, is it our imagination that gives us this desire to seek for knowledge?\u00a0 At what point does our imagination hurt us, or better yet, disappoint us?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Albert Einstein once said, “I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”\u00a0 In other words, one needs to step outside knowledge in order to explore and encompass the world beyond its boundaries.\u00a0 In Mark Shelley\u2019s Frankenstein, Robert Walton<\/p>\n