In Chapter Four of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein describes his encounter with the principles of life and death, from which he discovered “so astonishing a secret.” Yet, in an aside to the reader, Frankenstein refuses to explain his extraordinary discovery:
“I see by your eagerness, and the wonder and hope which your eyes express, my friend, that you expect to be informed of the secret with which I am acquainted; that cannot be: listen patiently until the end of my story, and you will easily perceive why I am reserved upon that subject. I will not lead you on, unguarded and ardent as I then was, to your destruction and infallible misery. Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow” (42).
There are two fundamental reasons as to why Frankenstein does not share the secret with the reader. First, the withholding of information serves as alluring foreshadowing. This device entices the reader to keep reading to discover the “astonishing secret,” and it foreshadows the negative impacts of the secret. Second, this excerpt explains the dangers of acquiring knowledge and how it can lead individuals to evil or disastrous conclusions. Frankenstein does not want to share the secret with the reader because he knows the implications of possessing this information, and he is using his narrative as a means to caution the world about exploring ideas that they might not fully understand.
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