“'Learn from me, if not from my precepts, at least from my example, how dangerous is the acquisition of knowledge, and how much happier is that man who believes that his native city is the world , than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will permit'” (35), warns Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Looking back on his life, Victor believes that all his misfortunes - the deaths of his innocent family and friends and his own illnesses - stem from the knowledge he gained in Ingolstadt. During his time at the University, scientific advances occurred regularly, and like most other scholars, Victor desired to make discoveries of his own. Frankenstein's obsessive pursuit of understanding leads him into trouble, not into the acquisition of knowledge itself. Isolated from human contact, Victor's thirst to understand the natural world grows and he eventually attempts to control it; therefore, refusing to accept its place in the natural order of the world. Blinded by his denial, he creates the Monster, a miserable creature originally intended to be an improved human, but immediately rejects his work. Throughout the novel, Frankenstein's thoughts and actions show that knowledge itself does not cause his misfortunes; instead his pursuit of glory by actively working against the established order of the world and failure to take responsibility results in his misadventures and unhappiness. Frankenstein's attempt to learn more about the world and get answers seems like an innocent quest for knowledge, but it turns into a dangerous journey in search of glory at all costs for himself. The catastrophe of this tree aroused my extreme amazement; and I eagerly asked my father the nature and origin of thunder and lightning” (24). At a young age, the mysteries of the natural world captured his attention. Victor's desire to learn more about the lightning that destroyed the tree