In Chapter Two, the narrator begins to pick apart and identify the aspects of his personality that will eventually lead to his downfall. He possesses what he calls a "thirst for knowledge." Thirst, of course, is a fundamental human need, necessary to one's very survival. Victor's desire to learn, therefore, is driven by nothing so insubstantial as curiosity: it is instead the precondition of his very being. Shelley thereby indicates that there is a compulsive quality to Victor's scholarship: it is something very close to madness.
Victoe expresses his creativity privately, amidst books and philosophical meditations. His reading is directed toward the learning of secrets of forbidden knowledge. This predisposition to secrecy plays an essential role in Victor's scientific work and its consequences. In Chapter Three, Victor is seduced into embracing the world of natural philosophy in hope of becoming a god, free of earthly law and limitations. He has become mad with the desire for not only discovery, but omnipotence (the state of being all-powerful) and omniscient (the state of being all-knowing) as well. Victor tells us that Waldman's words were the "words of fate"; it was at this moment that his destiny was decided. Here, again, Victor absolves himself of guilt and locates the source of his ruin squarely outside himself, outside the purview of his own will: the fault lies not with him, but with fate, or destiny.
Though Victor hesitates before beginning his research and after discovering the principle of life, he scoffs at his own discretion, saying that "cowardice or carelessness" have delayed or prevented many remarkable discoveries. He harbors real contempt for prudence and caution, believing them to be nothing but limitations upon what Man's capabilities. Frankenstein believes that Man should attempt to reverse death, to alter divine handiwork. Clearly, Victor will have to be punished for his hubris for his disrespect of both natural and heavenly boundaries.