Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein almost two hundred years ago, but the themes in her novel may be more relevant today than ever. In the story, Frankenstein creates a large, living monster from lifeless body parts. While it is a monumental scientific feat, Frankenstein is appalled at his hideous creation. When he flees from his work, he leaves behind a dangerous monster to wander among innocent and unsuspecting people. The story is a scary warning about technology, especially grand pursuits to alter nature. The damaging consequences were exacerbated by Frankenstein’s egotistical scientific passion and lack of personal responsibility.
Below is a shortened version of Shelley’s Frankenstein. As you read it, pay attention to the dichotomy between the author’s view of science and her romantic view of nature. Frankenstein could not enjoy both worlds; in pursuing his scientific goals he sacrificed his connection with nature. Did it have to be that way? Ultimately he created something dangerous that he could not control. If you were advising Frankenstein throughout the story, what would you have told him to do differently? How would you develop a code of conduct based on lessons learned from this story?
In 1997 the National Library of Medicine produced a major exhibition entitled “Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature.” The exhibition encouraged audiences “to examine … their own views about personal and societal responsibility as it relates to science and other areas of life.” After you read this story, we will consider some of these leading questions in the context of today’s ethical debates regarding stem cell research, cloning, and genetically modified food.
In her preface, Mary Shelley writes that “I passed the summer of 1816 in the environs of Geneva. The season was cold and rainy, and in the evenings we crowded around a bluing wood fire and occasionally amused ourselves with some German stories of ghosts which happened to fall into our hands. These tales excited in us a playful desire of imitation. Two other friends and myself agreed to write each a story founded on some supernatural occurrence. The following tale is the only one which has been completed.” (Sept. 1817)
Rescue of Victor Frankenstein
The novel begins with a series of letters that the explorer Robert Walton writes to his sister back in England. Walton is looking for a new passage from Russia to the Pacific Ocean through the Arctic. In one of the letters, Walton says that the crew sees in the distance someone trailing a dog sled. He is described as “a being which had the shape of a man, but apparently of gigantic stature.” The traveler is making rapid progress and the crew eventually loses sight of him. Later in the novel, the reader learns that this was the monster that Victor Frankenstein created.
The next morning, the crew sees another man floating on an ice flow near the ship. The man is emaciated and near death. After he is rescued and nursed back to health, the reader learns that the man is Victor Frankenstein and that he had been chasing the monster. Speaking of him Walton says, “his constant and deep grief fills me with sympathy and compassion. He must have been a noble creature in his better days, being even now in wreck so attractive and amiable.” After he is much recovered from his illness, Frankenstein and Walton converse frequently. Frankenstein attentively listens to the minute details of the exploration plans, and his sympathetic manner leads Walton to share his personal feelings about the exploration.
“I was easily led by the sympathy which he evinced to use the language of my heart, to give utterance to the burning ardor of my soul, and to say, with all the fervor that warmed me, how gladly I would sacrifice my fortune, my existence, my every hope, to the furtherance of my enterprise. One man's life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought, for the dominion I should acquire and transmit over the elemental foes of our race.”
As Walton spoke he noticed a gloom spread over the listener’s face. Frankenstein covered his eyes with his fingers and tears began to trickle down. After some moments, he collected himself and Walton continued to talk about his personal ambition. Later, Frankenstein tried to explain why he responded in such a painful way. “You may easily perceive, Captain Walton, that I have suffered great and unparalleled misfortunes. I had determined at one time that the memory of these evils should die with me, but you have won me to alter my determination. You 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.”
Frankenstein as Narrator – His Early Life and Passion for Science
After Walton’s first few letters, Victor Frankenstein becomes the narrator though he is still revealing his story to Walton. He begins by recalling a happy childhood. He was born in Naples to a distinguished and loving Swiss family. “My mother's tender caresses and my father's smile of benevolent pleasure while regarding me are my first recollections.” He describes his parents’ benevolent disposition, especially his mother’s charity toward the poor.
Victor was the eldest child. In addition to his parents, he was very close to his adopted sister Elizabeth and his best friend Henry Clerval. It was his mother’s wish that one day, Victor and Elizabeth would marry. Victor also had a brother Ernest and a much younger brother William. Of his early years, Victor said, “No human being could have passed a happier childhood than me. My parents were possessed by the very spirit of kindness and indulgence. When I mingled with other families I distinctly discerned how peculiarly fortunate my lot was, and gratitude assisted the development of filial love.”
While Elizabeth was the romantic attracted to poetry and the outward beauty of nature, Victor had a strong passion for science. He spent his early teenage years reading books of science in a quest to learn “the physical secrets of the world.” Victor was particularly interested in chemistry and electricity. He said, “I have described myself as always having been imbued with a fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature. *** 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! Nor were these my only visions. The raising of ghosts or devils was a promise accorded by my favorite authors, the fulfillment of which I most eagerly sought.”
When he turned seventeen, Victor leaves home to become a student at the University of Ingolstadt in Germany. There he quickly established himself as an exceptional student. Even before he arrived at Ingolstadt, Victor was developing a growing ego. He was intrigued by the alchemists who had grand visions, but believed that the modern scientists were too limited in their goals. “I had contempt for the uses of modern philosophy. It was very different when the masters of science sought immortality and power.” At the university, Victor had two mentors: Krempe and Waldman. Both men explain the shortcomings of alchemy, but Waldman is the more respected. He counsels Victor to apply himself to all branches of natural philosophy.
Immersing himself completely in study, Victor’s progress is rapid. About his love of science, Victor says “None but those who have experienced them can conceive of the enticements of science. In other studies you go as far as others have gone before you, and there is nothing more to know; but in a scientific pursuit there is continual food for discovery and wonder.” After two years of intense study there was nothing new for Victor to learn from his professors. He had distinguished himself as a masterful, innovative scientist. “I made some discoveries in the improvement of some chemical instruments, which procured me great esteem and admiration at the university.” At this point, Victor considered leaving the university and returning home.
Creation of the Monster
Rather than leave the University Victor decided to stay longer and pursue a grand undertaking – to examine the mystery of life. “I saw how the fine form of man was degraded and wasted; I beheld the corruption of death succeed to the blooming cheek of life; I saw how the worm inherited the wonders of the eye and brain. I paused, examining and analyzing all the minutiae of causation, as exemplified in the change from life to death, and death to life, until from the midst of this darkness a sudden light broke in upon me -- a light so brilliant and wondrous, yet so simple, that while I became dizzy with the immensity of the prospect which it illustrated, I was surprised that among so many men of genius who had directed their inquiries towards the same science, that I alone should be reserved to discover so astonishing a secret.”
In telling this part of his story, Victor added this caution for the explorer Walton: “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.”
Victor goes on saying, “I hesitated a long time concerning the manner in which I should [proceed]. Although I possessed the capacity of bestowing animation, yet to prepare a frame … with all its intricacies of fibers, muscles, and veins, still remained a work of inconceivable difficulty and labor. I doubted at first whether I should attempt the creation of a being like myself, or one of simpler organization; but my imagination was too much exalted … to permit me to doubt of my ability to give life to an animal as complex and wonderful as man. *** I began the creation of a human being. As the minuteness of the parts formed a great hindrance to my speed, I resolved, contrary to my first intention, to make the being of a gigantic stature, that is to say, about eight feet in height, and proportionally large. After having formed this determination and having spent some months in successfully collecting and arranging my materials, I began. *** Pursuing these reflections, I thought that if I could bestow animation upon lifeless matter, I might in process of time (although I now found it impossible) renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption.
“I collected bones from charnel-houses and disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human frame. *** The dissecting room and the slaughter-house furnished many of my materials; and often did my human nature turn with loathing from my occupation, whilst, still urged on by an eagerness which perpetually increased, I brought my work near to a conclusion.”
After two years of toil, Victor is ready to bring the monster to life. [Note that Shelley offers little detail of this momentous event; the account is surprisingly short.]
“It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils. With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet. It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs.
“How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips.
“Oh! No mortal could support the horror of that countenance. A mummy again endued with animation could not he so hideous as that wretch. I had gazed on him while unfinished; he was ugly then, but when those muscles and joints were rendered capable of motion, it became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived.
“I passed the night wretchedly. Sometimes my pulse beat so quickly and hardly that I felt the palpitation of every artery; at others, I nearly sank to the ground through languor and extreme weakness. Mingled with this horror, I felt the bitterness of disappointment; dreams that had been my food and pleasant rest for so long a space were now become a hell to me; and the change was so rapid, the overthrow so complete!”
Repulsed at what he had created Victor ran out of his apartment. He wandered the dark, rainy streets of Ingolstadt dazed and disoriented. In the morning he came to a familiar inn where he saw a carriage pull up. Stepping out of the carriage was his close childhood friend Henry Clerval who just arrived from Switzerland to enroll in the university. Victor was joyful to see Clerval, but still much shaken from the previous night. Returning to his apartment Victor found it to be empty, “freed from its hideous guest.” Assured that his “enemy” had indeed fled, he welcomed Clerval inside. In the apartment, Victor fainted. Afterward he was very sick for several months.
With the help of Clerval, Victor slowly recovered. He credited his recovery with the restorative powers of nature and friendship. “I was fond of exercise, and Clerval had always been my favorite companion in the rambles of this nature that I had taken among the scenes of my native country. We passed a fortnight in these perambulations; my health and spirits had long been restored, and they gained additional strength from the salubrious air I breathed, the natural incidents of our progress, and the conversation of my friend. Study had before secluded me from the intercourse of my fellow creatures and rendered me unsocial, but Clerval called forth the better feelings of my heart; he again taught me to love the aspect of nature and the cheerful faces of children. Excellent friend!”
Frankenstein Faces Tragedy and the Monster in his Return to Geneva
After receiving a letter of concern from his adopted sister Elizabeth, Victor makes plans to return to Geneva. The peace and happiness of Victor’s recovery is suddenly disrupted when he learns in a letter from his father that his youngest brother William was murdered. Missing from William’s body was a locket that he wore, a gift from Elizabeth to remember their deceased mother. The family suspects that stealing the locket was the motivation for the murder.
When Victor arrived at Geneva he had been away for six years and it had been almost two years since he had brought the monster to life. Arriving after nightfall he found the town gates were shut, which meant that he had to spend the stormy night in the nearby village of Secheron. Victor could not rest thinking about his murdered brother, when he catches a glimpse of the monster through flashes of lightning.
“I perceived in the gloom a figure which stole from behind a clump of trees near me; I stood fixed, gazing intently; I could not be mistaken. A flash of lightning illuminated the object and discovered its shape plainly to me; its gigantic stature, and the deformity of its aspect, more hideous than belongs to humanity, instantly armed me that it was the wretch, the filthy demon to whom I had given life. What did he there? Could he be (I shuddered at the conception) the murderer of my brother? No one can conceive the anguish I suffered during the remainder of the night, which I spent, cold and wet, in the open air.”
Upon arriving home, Victor learns that the family’s young servant Justine Moritz has been accused of William’s murder. Victor’s mother had brought Justine into their household to rescue her from an abusive upbringing. Justine was a sweet soul who became a beloved part of Victor’s family. The incriminating evidence against her is the missing locket that was found among Justine’s belongings. Victor knew that Justine did not commit the murder, but he also realized that no one would believe his story about the monster. He even considered confessing to the murder himself, but dismissed that idea because everyone knew that he was away when the crime occurred.
At Justine’s trial, the missing locket found among her belongings is incriminating. Her fate is sealed when she later confesses to the crime under the threat of being excommunicated from the church. The conviction and death of the innocent Justine and the murder of his brother William haunt Victor. His family notices his suffering, but they believe it to be the result of the recent tragedies. They are not aware that the full measure of his suffering comes from his profound feelings of guilt. “I was seized by remorse and the sense of guilt, which hurried me away to a hell of intense tortures such as no language can describe. *** Thus spoke my prophetic soul, as, torn by remorse, horror, and despair, I beheld those I loved spend vain sorrow upon the graves of William and Justine, the first hapless victims to my unhallowed arts.”
To ease his suffering, Victor decides to tour a nearby mountain and glacier. He hopes that the scenery and exercise will relieve his suffering. On the glacier, Victor sees a creature rapidly approach and recognizes it to be the monster. When confronted Victor wants the monster to either go away or engage in deadly combat. Even though the eight foot tall monster is much stronger, he has no desire to fight or go away. Instead he pleads with Victor to listen to his story. The monster says, “I will not be tempted to set myself in opposition to thee. I am thy creature, and I will be even mild and docile to my natural lord and king if thou wilt also perform thy part, the which thou owest me. Oh, Frankenstein, be not equitable to every other and trample upon me alone, to whom thy justice, and even thy clemency and affection, is most due.”
Victor is persuaded to listen to the monster’s story and follows him to his hut. There Victor hears from the monster what it was like in the first days of his existence. He talks of his first sensations of light and darkness, his first feelings of cold and wet and his first pains of hunger and thirst. Oppressed by the cold, he comes upon a fire left by some beggars. The monster is delighted to feel the warmth that it provides. Seeing the fire as a good thing he naively sticks his hand in the flame and is quickly surprised by the burning pain.
The monster tells Victor that one day he found a village that appeared “miraculous” with its gardens and homes. When he entered one of the cottages, the children screamed and a woman fainted. Some of the villagers fled, but others attacked him with stones and weapons. He escaped and found refuge in a small hovel in the woods. “Here, then, I retreated and lay down happy to have found a shelter, however miserable, from the inclemency of the season, and still more from the barbarity of man.”
The hovel was situated against the back of cottage that housed a blind man “with silver hairs and a countenance beaming with benevolence and love.” He was cared for by his son Felix and young daughter Agatha. Staying out of their sight, the monster was able to closely observe this poor, close-knit family of three. He found them to be “lovely creatures” and viewed them as secret friends. He secretly provided services to the family by chopping wood and laying it at their door (one of the son’s chores), clearing the path of snow and doing repairs. The family appreciated these anonymous contributions referring to the provider as “good spirit” and “friend.” The monster took pleasure in helping the family and the appreciation they showed for his efforts. However, he always kept himself hidden during the day to avoid the same panic as he experienced in the village. He considered them to be his friends, but he was afraid to face them for fear of rejection. Having seen his reflection in a pond, the monster knew that he appeared deformed. On the other hand, he also believed that if he was to be accepted by anyone, these neighbors were his best chance.
“I looked upon them as superior beings who would be the arbiters of my future destiny. I formed in my imagination a thousand pictures of presenting myself to them, and their reception of me. I imagined that they would be disgusted, until, by my gentle demeanor and conciliating words, I should first win their favor and afterwards their love.”
The monster could not understand the persistent melancholy of the son and daughter. But one day their mood changed when they received as a guest a beautiful Arabian woman named Safie. The son Felix was especially uplifted. As they taught Safie to speak French, the monster was able to learn the language as well through observation. From this understanding he came to know that Felix, Agatha and their father came from an upper middle class family in Paris known as De Lacey. Life turned for the De Lacey family when Felix tried to defend a wrongly convicted Turkish merchant. Felix went so far as to help the merchant escape from prison. As punishment, the De Lacey family lost their possessions and was exiled from France. During the ordeal and in spite of a language barrier, Felix and the merchant’s daughter Safie fell in love. Safie’s father initially encouraged the romance, but later opposed it when Felix was no longer needed. Returning to Turkey, Safie fled from her father to find Felix.
Living secretly next to the De Laceys, the monster is able to educate himself in a number of ways. He learns of the history of civilizations through a book that Felix uses to instruct Safie. He also finds in the woods copies of a few other books that he learns to read. Furthermore, in the garment that he took when he left Victor’s apartment are pages describing four months of experiments leading up to the monster’s creation. It is through these pages that the monster learns of Victor and his own origins. The more the monster learns about mankind, the more he realizes that he does not belong. He suffers the agony of his low status and loneliness.
“I knew that I possessed no money, no friends, no kind of property. I was … a figure hideously deformed and loathsome; I was not even of the same nature as man. I was more agile than they and could subsist upon coarser diet; I bore the extremes of heat and cold with less injury to my frame; my stature far exceeded theirs. When I looked around I saw and heard of none like me. Was I, then, a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled and whom all men disowned? I cannot describe to you the agony that these reflections inflicted upon me; I tried to dispel them, but sorrow only increased with knowledge. *** Of what a strange nature is knowledge! It clings to the mind when it has once seized on it like a lichen on the rock.”
When winter arrived, the monster’s thoughts were preoccupied by his desire to introduce himself to the family. Considering this loving group to be his best chance for acceptance, he plans to first gain favor with the blind father who will not be put off by the monster’s appearance. With the father on his side, the monster reasons that the younger ones might then be more tolerant. One day when the three young ones go for a walk and leave their father in the cottage, the monster musters his courage to knock on the door. He introduces himself as a traveler in need of rest and is welcomed in by the father. The monster goes on to say that he is “full of fears” and is seeking the protection of some dear friends. The conversation appears to be going well as the father questions him in a sympathetic manner. Eventually the father asks to know the names and residences of the monster’s friends. [Monster speaking] “I paused. This, I thought, was the moment of decision, which was to rob me of or bestow happiness on me forever. I struggled vainly for firmness sufficient to answer him, but the effort destroyed all my remaining strength; I sank on the chair and sobbed aloud.”
At that moment he hears the steps of the young ones returning. The monster quickly seizes the hand of the old man and cries for protection saying that the old man and his family are the friends he sought. When the cottage door opens, Felix, Agatha and Safie are horrified. “Felix darted forward, and with supernatural force tore me from his father, to whose knees I clung; in a transport of fury, he dashed me to the ground and struck me violently with a stick. I could have torn him limb from limb, as the lion rends the antelope. But my heart sank within me as with bitter sickness, and I refrained. I saw him on the point of repeating his blow, when, overcome by pain and anguish, I quitted the cottage, and in the general tumult escaped unperceived to my hovel.”
“There was none among the myriads of men that existed who would pity or assist me; and should I feel kindness towards my enemies? No; from that moment I declared everlasting war against the species, and more than all, against him who had formed me and sent me forth to this insupportable misery.”
The monster tells how he left his hovel after the De Lacey family decided that they could no longer stay at the cottage. Eventually he makes his way to the outskirts of Geneva. When young William walks by, the monster grabs him hoping to make a friend. Instead he is subjected to the boy’s screams and insults. The boy warns the monster to let him go revealing that his father is Frankenstein. Seeking to silence the boy, the monster grabs him by the throat and in a moment the young boy is dead. “I too can create desolation; my enemy is not invulnerable; this death will carry despair to him, and a thousand other miseries shall torment and destroy him.” The monster removes the locket and places it with the belongings of Justine who he finds sleeping in a nearby barn.
The monster tells Victor that they cannot part until his creator promises to make another creature to be a companion for the monster. “I am alone and miserable; man will not associate with me; but one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me. My companion must be of the same species and have the same defects. This being you must create. *** You must create a female for me with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being. This you alone can do, and I demand it of you as a right which you must not refuse to concede. *** It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another. Our lives will not be happy, but they will be harmless and free from the misery I now feel. Oh! My creator, make me happy; let me feel gratitude towards you for one benefit! Let me see that I excite the sympathy of some existing thing; do not deny me my request! *** If you consent, neither you nor any other human being shall ever see us again; I will go to the vast wilds of South America.”
At first Victor refused the request to create a companion for the monster. He was eventually persuaded by compassion and most of all by the monster’s promise to leave Europe. “His words had a strange effect upon me. I felt compassion for him and sometimes felt a wish to console him, but when I looked upon him, when I saw the filthy mass that moved and talked, my heart sickened and my feelings were altered to those of horror and hatred. I tried to stifle these sensations; I thought that as I could not sympathize with him, I had no right to withhold from him the small portion of happiness which was yet in my power to bestow. *** His power and threats were not omitted in my calculations; a creature who could exist in the ice caves of the glaciers and hide himself from pursuit among the ridges of inaccessible precipices was a being possessing faculties it would be vain to cope with. After a long pause of reflection I concluded that the justice due both to him and my fellow creatures demanded of me that I should comply with his request. Turning to him, therefore, I said, I consent to your demand, on your solemn oath to quit Europe forever, and every other place in the neighborhood of man, as soon as I shall deliver into your hands a female who will accompany you in your exile.”
Frankenstein Plans to Create a Companion for the Monster
Back in Geneva, Victor makes plans to create a second monster. He needs to do this away from the family. Victor persuades his father to allow him to spend up to a year in England, on the pretense of desiring to tour the country. Importantly, Victor believes that the monster will follow him to England and the family will be safe while he’s away. He will bring along his chemical equipment and plans to acquaint himself with the latest advances in science. Promising to marry Elizabeth when he returns, Victor reaffirms his deep feelings toward her. “Dear father, reassure yourself. I love Elizabeth tenderly and sincerely. My future hopes and prospects are entirely bound up in the expectation of our union.” The father arranges for the cheerful Clerval to accompany Victor on his trip and stay in England.
After spending some months in London, the two best friends set out on a northern tour of the country. While exuberant Clerval reveled in the new experiences, Victor did his best to hide his feelings of trepidation. After they left Edinburgh Victor told Clerval that he wished to make the tour of Scotland alone. In a remote, barely habitable spot in the northern region of Scotland, Victor rents a small hut to set up his laboratory and carry out his work. Even in this remote and desolate place, Victor believes that the monster would follow him. With alternating feelings of horror and enthusiasm, his work was uneven. For days at a time he could not enter the laboratory and at other times he worked in a frenzy “intently fixed on the consummation of my labor.” “My spirits became unequal; I grew restless and nervous. Every moment I feared to meet my persecutor.”
Victor began thinking about the consequences of bringing a second creature into the world. “As I sat, a train of reflection occurred to me which led me to consider the effects of what I was now doing. Three years before, I was engaged in the same manner and had created a fiend whose unparalleled barbarity had desolated my heart and filled it forever with the bitterest remorse. I was now about to form another being of whose dispositions I was alike ignorant; she might become ten thousand times more malignant than her mate and delight, for its own sake, in murder and wretchedness. He had sworn to quit the neighbourhood of man and hide himself in deserts, but she had not; and she, who in all probability was to become a thinking and reasoning animal, might refuse to comply with a compact made before her creation. They might even hate each other; the creature who already lived loathed his own deformity, and might he not conceive a greater abhorrence for it when it came before his eyes in the female form? She also might turn with disgust from him to the superior beauty of man; she might quit him, and he be again alone, exasperated by the fresh provocation of being deserted by one of his own species.
“Even if they were to leave Europe and inhabit the deserts of the new world, yet one of the first results of those sympathies for which the demon thirsted would be children, and a race of devils would be propagated upon the earth who might make the very existence of the species of man a condition precarious and full of terror. Had I right, for my own benefit, to inflict this curse upon everlasting generations? I had before been moved by the sophisms of the being I had created; I had been struck senseless by his fiendish threats; but now, for the first time, the wickedness of my promise burst upon me; I shuddered to think that future ages might curse me as their pest, whose selfishness had not hesitated to buy its own peace at the price, perhaps, of the existence of the whole human race.”
These thoughts were running through his mind at night when he looked up to see the monster. “I trembled and my heart failed within me, when, on looking up, I saw by the light of the moon the demon at the casement. A ghastly grin wrinkled his lips as he gazed on me, where I sat fulfilling the task which he had allotted to me. Yes, he had followed me in my travels; he had loitered in forests, hid himself in caves, or taken refuge in wide and desert heaths; and he now came to mark my progress and claim the fulfillment of my promise.”
Frankenstein Destroys Work on Companion and the Monster Gains Revenge
With the monster at the door Frankenstein says, “As I looked on him, his countenance expressed the utmost extent of malice and treachery. I thought with a sensation of madness on my promise of creating another like to him, and trembling with passion, tore to pieces the thing on which I was engaged. The wretch saw me destroy the creature on whose future existence he depended for happiness, and with a howl of devilish despair and revenge, withdrew.”
A short time later the monster returned and says to Victor, “You have destroyed the work which you began; what is it that you intend? Do you dare to break your promise? I have endured toil and misery; I left Switzerland with you; I crept along the shores of the Rhine, among its willow islands and over the summits of its hills. I have dwelt many months in the heaths of England and among the deserts of Scotland. I have endured incalculable fatigue, and cold, and hunger; do you dare destroy my hopes?”
Victor: “Begone! I do break my promise; never will I create another like yourself, equal in deformity and wickedness.”
Monster: “Slave, I before reasoned with you, but you have proved yourself unworthy of my condescension. Remember that I have power; you believe yourself miserable, but I can make you so wretched that the light of day will be hateful to you. You are my creator, but I am your master; obey!”
Victor: “The hour of my irresolution is past, and the period of your power is arrived. Your threats cannot move me to do an act of wickedness; but they confirm me in a determination of not creating you a companion in vice. Shall I, in cool blood, set loose upon the earth a demon whose delight is in death and wretchedness? Begone! I am firm, and your words will only exasperate my rage.”
Before leaving the monster said, “It is well. I go; but remember, I shall be with you on your wedding-night.”
After rebuffing the monster and vowing never to undertake such endeavors, Victor fell asleep. “When I awoke, I again felt as if I belonged to a race of human beings like myself.” That day Victor had the unwelcome task of cleaning his laboratory in preparation for his departure. Not wanting to leave behind any evidence of his experiments, Victor put the remains of the half-finished creature in a basket. Under the cover of darkness, he sailed four miles from the shore and dropped the basket into the sea. A short time later he fell asleep.
When Victor awoke the sun was shining and he discovered that a strong northeast wind had taken him far from the shore. After some time the wind died down and Victor could see a line of high land towards the south. He steered a course towards the land, happy to see signs of civilization. Having reached the shore Victor was met by a group of people, but he did not receive the courteous welcome he expected. He was under suspicion for a murder that took place the previous night and escorted to the magistrate’s home. The magistrate and Victor listened to one witness tell how the dead body, still warm, was found on the beach. A woman testified that she saw a man in a boat like Victor’s leave the shore near where the body was found. None of this bothered Victor until it was revealed that the man had been strangled. The mode of death caused agitation, which was sensed by the magistrate. However, Victor was confident that he could prove his innocence - he had conversed with several persons on the island he had inhabited around the time of the murder. The magistrate then had Victor taken to another room to view the corpse. The dead man was Henry Clerval.
Upon seeing his dear friend’s body Victor threw himself on the body and exclaimed, “Have my murderous machinations deprived you also, my dearest Henry, of life? Two I have already destroyed; other victims await their destiny; but you, Clerval, my friend, my benefactor – .” Speaking in French, only the magistrate understood these words, but his “gestures and bitter cries were sufficient to affright the other witnesses.” During the next two months, Victor spent an unhealthy time in prison. When word of the situation reached Geneva, Victor’s father came to visit his distraught son and provide emotional support. Before his trial, proof arrived showing that Victor was on the Orkney Islands at the time Clerval’s warm body was found. Victor was then freed and ready to return home with his father.
Victor’s lingering despair was concerning to both his father and Elizabeth. They understood some of it to be caused by the tragic deaths suffered by the family, but they were at a lost to explain why his gloom was so prolonged and debilitating. Throughout his ordeals, Victor always kept the story of his monster a secret. Efforts and conversation by the father to alleviate his son’s suffering were unavailing. At times, Victor claimed responsibility for the murders, but these were dismissed as a symptom of his delirium. Speaking of Justine’s death Victor said, “I am the cause of this -- I murdered her. William, Justine, and Henry -- they all died by my hands.” Once when the father asked why Victor was infatuated with these self-accusations, Victor replied, “I am not mad, the sun and the heavens, who have viewed my operations, can hear witness of my truth. I am the assassin of those most innocent victims; they died by my machinations. A thousand times would I have shed my own blood, drop by drop, to have saved their lives; but I could not, my father, indeed I could not sacrifice the whole human race.”
The refined and gracious Elizabeth was concerned that perhaps Victor might be in love with another woman. She worried that his distress was caused by feeling bound by honor to marry her. From childhood it was their parents’ wish that the Victor and Elizabeth would marry. Growing up they were happy to accept this notion as they shared a deep affection for each other. In a letter to Victor, Elizabeth selflessly offered to step aside because his happiness meant more to her than their marriage, even though that had always been her dream. Victor quickly replied to Elizabeth that she remained the center of his affection. The sorrows, he wrote, were because of a guarded secret that he would reveal only after they were married. For Victor, his beloved Elizabeth appeared to be the last hope for his shattered life. However even this hope was threatened as he recalled the last words of his fiend, “I will be with you on your wedding-night!”
Soon after returning to Geneva, his father followed Victor’s wishes and made arrangements for the marriage to Elizabeth. Victor was still troubled by the prospect of having to confront the monster, but he put on his best face before all the well-wishers who came to visit. Speaking of the monster’s threat Victor said, “In the meantime I took every precaution to defend my person in case the fiend should openly attack me. I carried pistols and a dagger constantly about me and was ever on the watch.”
After the wedding ceremony, Victor and Elizabeth had plans to spend their first married days in Villa Lavenza alongside a beautiful lake. It was agreed that they would begin their journey by water spending the first night in Evian. On their way, the couple did their best to enjoy the scenery. The lake, the comfortable weather, an assemblage of snowy mountaintops and the foliage along the shore were delightful. Victor remarked, “Those were the last moments of my life during which I enjoyed the feeling of happiness.” Still the couple’s thoughts bore the weight of a foreboding sense of doom. When they landed at eight o’clock it was almost dark and the couple retired to their inn.
Wary that the monster might be lurking, Victor began to inspect the house after Elizabeth went to their room. He was checking every passage and corner when suddenly he heard a shrill and dreadful scream from the direction where Elizabeth had retired. There was a second scream and Victor rushed into the room. “Great God! Why did I not then expire! Why am I here to relate the destruction of the best hope and the purest creature of earth? She was there, lifeless and inanimate, thrown across the bed. Everywhere I turn I see the same figure -- her bloodless arms and relaxed form flung by the murderer on its bridal bier. Could I behold this and live? Alas! Life is obstinate and clings closest where it is most hated. For a moment only did I lose recollection; I fell senseless on the ground.”
Fearing for his father and remaining brother Ernest, the next morning Victor made arrangements to return to Geneva as quickly as possible. News of Elizabeth’s murder was heartbreaking to his aging father. After several days he died in Victor’s arms. After Victor lost his entire family and friends, he vowed that his continued existence would by sustained only by the single purpose of gaining revenge by destroying the monster.
To enlist the support of the local authorities Victor told his incredible story to the Genevan magistrate. At first incredulous, he seemed to become more interested and attentive as Victor spoke with calm firmness and precision. However, when Victor concluded and it was time for the magistrate to act officially he replied, “I would willingly afford you every aid in your pursuit, but the creature of whom you speak appears to have powers which would put all my exertions to defiance.” Victor tried to implore the magistrate to perform his duty, but to no avail. Victor’s incredible tale was viewed as the effects of a delirious mind.
Rebuffed by the magistrate, Victor decided to leave Geneva and somehow try to find the monster. He packed jewels, money and some belongings. At night outside of town, he visited the cemetery where his father, William and Elizabeth were reposed. There he heard a familiar and abhorred voice whisper close to his ear, “I am satisfied, miserable wretch! You have determined to live, and I am satisfied.”
Frankenstein Chases the Monster; His Last Days on Walton’s Ship
Victor pursued the monster over many different lands. Often he subsisted by killing and eating wild animals. Along the way, he gained the friendship of villagers to help accommodate his needs for food and shelter. He also relied on villagers who saw the monster to point him in the right direction. When that failed, the monster left his own mark to both guide and infuriate Victor. On one occasion he inscribed on the bark of a tree, “My reign is not yet over --you live, and my power is complete. Follow me; I seek the everlasting ices of the north, where you will feel the misery of cold and frost, to which I am impassive.” Victor procured a sled and dogs to traverse the snow. His chase took him through mountainous ices of the ocean amidst cold that few inhabitants could long endure. After weeks of northward journey, he could discern the creature in the distance. Then the wind rose and he felt a mighty shock that caused the ice to crack and split until he was adrift on a scattered piece of ice. Victor is near death when Walton’s crew rescues him.
This scene brings us back near the beginning of the story and the reader is reminded that Victor was telling his story to Walton. At the end, Victor worries that he will die while the monster still lives. He asks Walton to chase the monster in the event that Victor dies before his vengeance is satisfied. The rest of the story is told by Walton in letters that he writes to his sister. As sensational as the story is, Walton believes it to be true. The apparition of the monster was seen in the distance and Victor also had letters from Felix and Safie. Throughout the narration, Walton took notes of the account. However, when he asked to know the particulars of how the monster was created, Victor refused to tell him. “Are you mad, my friend? Or whither does your senseless curiosity lead you? Would you also create for yourself and the world a demoniacal enemy? Peace, peace! Learn my miseries and do not seek to increase your own.”
Walton appears in his writings to admire Victor, seeing him as a kindred spirit who also set out to attain lofty goals. On his long exploration Walton had no friend to talk to who could appreciate his ambitious dreams. In Victor he sees the hope of having a special friend and is saddened by the prospect that his weakened guest might not survive.
In early September Walton writes his sister that his ship is “surrounded by mountains of ice which admit of no escape and threaten every moment to crush my vessel. The brave fellows whom I have persuaded to be my companions look towards me for aid, but I have none to bestow. There is something terribly appalling in our situation, yet my courage and hopes do not desert me. Yet it is terrible to reflect that the lives of all these men are endangered through me. If we are lost, my mad schemes are the cause.” Throughout the ordeal, Victor provides encouragement and hope for both Walton and the crew. “Even the sailors feel the power of his eloquence; when he speaks, they no longer despair; he rouses their energies, and while they hear his voice they believe these vast mountains of ice are mole-hills which will vanish before the resolutions of man. These feelings are transitory; each day of expectation delayed fills them with fear, and I almost dread a mutiny caused by this despair.”
With their precarious situation Walton feared that there might be a mutiny, and a few days later he is confronted by a half dozen of the crew. They insist that he promise to turn around and head southward if the ship is ever freed from the ice. When Walton hesitates to answer, the weakened Frankenstein addresses the group, “What do you mean? Are you so easily turned from your design? Did you not call this a glorious expedition? And why was it glorious? It was full of dangers and terror, at every new incident your fortitude was to be called forth and your courage exhibited. For this was it an honorable undertaking. You were hereafter to be hailed as the benefactors of your species, your names adored as belonging to brave men who encountered death for honor and the benefit of mankind. And now, behold, with the first imagination of danger, or, if you will, the first mighty and terrific trial of your courage, you shrink away and are content to be handed down as men who had not strength enough to endure. Do not return to your families with the stigma of disgrace marked on your brows. Return as heroes who have fought and conquered.” The men were moved by Frankenstein’s speech and Walton asked them to consider what he had said. If the crew still wanted to return, then Walton promised to do so if they became free of the Arctic ice trap.
By mid-September the danger had passed and at the crew’s urging the ship turned back toward England. In the end Walton did not believe that he could lead an unwilling crew to danger. While Walton was saddened by his failure, the crew was overjoyed to be returning. Meanwhile, Frankenstein became increasingly weakened by his illness. His final words were to Walton: “Alas! The strength I relied on is gone; I feel that I shall soon die, and he, my enemy and persecutor, may still be in being. *** During these last days I have been occupied in examining my past conduct; nor do I find it blamable. In a fit of enthusiastic madness I created a rational creature and was bound towards him to assure, as far as was in my power, his happiness and well-being. This was my duty, but there was another still paramount to that. My duties towards the beings of my own species had greater claims to my attention because they included a greater proportion of happiness or misery. Urged by this view, I refused, and I did right in refusing, to create a companion for the first creature. He showed unparalleled malignity and selfishness in evil; he destroyed my friends; [and I do not] know where this thirst for vengeance may end. Miserable himself that he may render no other wretched, he ought to die. The task of his destruction was mine, but I have failed. I asked you to undertake my unfinished work, and I renew this request now, when I am only induced by reason and virtue.
“Yet I cannot ask you to renounce your country and friends to fulfill this task; and now that you are returning to England, you will have little chance of meeting with him. But the consideration of these points, and the well balancing of what you may esteem your duties, I leave to you. I dare not ask you to do what I think right, for I may still be misled by passion.
“That he should live to be an instrument of mischief disturbs me; in other respects, this hour, when I momentarily expect my release, is the only happy one which I have enjoyed for several years. The forms of the beloved dead flit before me, and I hasten to their arms. Farewell, Walton! Seek happiness in tranquility and avoid ambition, even if it be only the apparently innocent one of distinguishing yourself in science and discoveries. Yet why do I say this? I have myself been blasted in these hopes, yet another may succeed.”
Walton Meets the Monster
While Walton is writing this account of Frankenstein’s last words, he hears a hoarse voice coming from his dead friend’s cabin. Walton enters and sees a hideous gigantic form hung over the coffin. The monster springs toward the window, but Walton calls on him to stay. The monster appears saddened by his creator’s death and utters “wild and incoherent self-reproaches.” However, Walton expresses his doubt that the monster is deserving of any repentance. The monster replies that he suffered much more anguish than Frankenstein, that his heart was fashioned to be susceptible to love and sympathy, but that it was faced with vice and hatred that caused unimaginable torture. Frankenstein sought his own enjoyment while the monster was forever barred from having any happiness. This caused the monster to feel envy and indignation along with an insatiable thirst for vengeance.
Walton was at first touched by these expressions of misery, but he remembered that Frankenstein warned him that the monster possessed powers of eloquence and persuasion. Once again indignant Walton replied, “Wretch! It is well that you come here to whine over the desolation that you have made. You throw a torch into a pile of buildings, and when they are consumed, you sit among the ruins and lament the fall. Hypocritical fiend!”
The monster interrupted, “Oh it is not thus – not thus. Once my fancy was soothed with dreams of virtue, of fame, and of enjoyment. Once I falsely hoped to meet with beings who, pardoning my outward form, would love me for the excellent qualities which I was capable of unfolding. I was nourished with high thoughts of honor and devotion. But now crime has degraded me beneath the meanest animal. I cannot believe that I am the same creature whose thoughts were once filled with sublime and transcendent visions of the beauty and the majesty of goodness. I am alone.
“You, who call Frankenstein your friend, seem to have knowledge of my crimes and his misfortunes. But in the detail which he gave you of them he could not sum up the hours and months of misery which I endured wasting in impotent passions. For while I destroyed his hopes, I did not satisfy my own desires. They were forever ardent and craving; still I desired love and fellowship, and I was still spurned. Was there no injustice in this? Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all humankind sinned against me? I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on. Even now my blood boils at the recollection of this injustice. But it is true that I am a wretch.”
The monster tells Walton not to worry about any future mischief. He says that he will leave the vessel and seek the most northern spot on the globe. There he will kill himself in flames. “Farewell! I leave you, and in you the last of humankind whom these eyes will ever behold. Farewell, Frankenstein! I shall die, and what I now feel be no longer felt. Soon these burning miseries will be extinct. I shall ascend my funeral pile triumphantly and exult in the agony of the torturing flames. The light of that conflagration will fade away; my ashes will be swept into the sea by the winds. My spirit will sleep in peace, or if it thinks, it will not surely think thus. Farewell.”
He sprang from the cabin window as he said this, upon the ice raft which lay close to the vessel. He was soon borne away by the waves and lost in darkness and distance.
THE END
At the end of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein the monster leaves Captain Walton’s ship. He promises to “seek the northern most spot on the globe” and kill himself in flames. Let’s continue the story as follows. Instead of heading north, the monster heads back to society where he continues to make mischief. Most of what he does is damage to property, but occasionally he injures or even kills someone. Within a couple years, the public knows about the monster and the fact that he presents a danger. To deal with this problem, the government creates an agency known as the Monster Protection Agency. The Agency was created to minimize and, if possible, eliminate the danger. For this purpose, the Agency forms a technical department to study the Monster’s habits. Based on the department’s findings, the Agency issues regulations that all towns and cities must follow. For example, on certain nights when there is a full moon the city gates must be closed by 9 pm and on certain days a freshly baked pie cannot be left on a windowsill for more than 5 minutes. Eventually, researchers at the University learn how Frankenstein was able to create the monster, and they reproduce his work using small animals that are kept locked in a cage. Almost as soon as this scientific know-how is at hand, the Agency issues further regulations prohibiting anyone from “engaging in activities that are designed to create artificial human life.”
Dr. Leland Webster, one of the researchers at the University, believes that Frankenstein made a mistake when he decided not to create a companion for the monster. Among the experts on monster behavior, Webster is the only one who believes that a companion would placate the monster and make the community a safer place. He submits to the Agency a detailed proposal in which he asks for permission to create the companion and sets forth his reasoning. Since the Agency regulation does not allow for any exception to its prohibition against creating life, his request is denied. Webster is very disappointed, but he’s convinced it’s the right thing to do.
One night he creates a female companion for the monster.
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Novel Introduction: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Activity:
There are at least eight main themes that Shelley presents in Frankenstein, and these themes include but are not limited to: beauty, revenge, pursuit of knowledge, ambition, science, conflict with parent and child, friendship, and nature. 1.You will each be assigned a theme to ponder and write about. Begin by free writing/brainstorming for three minutes. Start with “Revenge is…” and go from there. Write down anything that comes to mind; words, phrases, thoughts about your theme. Then reflect on your personal experiences with the topic, telling a story of your personal encounter with the theme. Finally, decide if the theme/idea is good, bad, or a combination of both, and explain why you judge it as so. Be prepared to discuss your thoughts with the class.
2. You will get into groups of 3 or 4with all of your classmates who have been assigned the same theme. Your job is to come to a consensus about whether the theme is good, bad, or a combination of both. Use examples to defend your group’s opinion. You will then present your findings to the class.
The Author:
Mary Shelley’s fame as a writer rests on a
single novel, Frankenstein. Millions of people
who have never heard of Mary Shelley know
her story through the films and other media
inspired by the novel. The word “Frankenstein”
has become a synonym for monster, and
Shelley’s tragic tale—about a well-intentioned
student of science and his human-like creation—
has been given myth-like status.
Born in 1797, Shelley was the daughter of
two of England’s leading intellectual radicals.
Her father, William Godwin, was an influential
political philosopher and novelist. Her mother,
Mary Wollstonecraft, the author of A Vindication
of the Rights of Woman, was a pioneer in promoting
women’s rights and education. Shelley never
knew her mother, who died ten days after giving
birth, but she was influenced throughout her life
by her mother’s writings and reputation.
When Mary was four, her father remarried.
Mary received no formal education, but Mr.
Godwin encouraged his daughter to read from
his well-stocked library. The Godwin household
was also a place of lively intellectual conversation.
Many writers visited Godwin to talk about
philosophy, politics, science, and literature.
When Mary was nine, she and her stepsister hid
under a sofa to hear Samuel Taylor Coleridge
recite his poem “The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner.” This popular poem later influenced
Shelley as she developed her ideas for
Frankenstein.
Mary’s future husband, the widely admired
poet Percy Shelley, was one of her father’s frequent
visitors. When Mary was sixteen, she and
Percy eloped to France. They married in 1816
and lived together for eight years, until Percy’s
early death. They spent their time traveling in
Switzerland, Germany, and Italy, visiting with
friends; studying literature, languages, music
and art; and writing. In her journal, Shelley
described her years with Percy as “romantic
beyond romance.” Her life during this period was
also filled with personal tragedy. She gave birth
to four children in five years, three of whom died
as infants. Many critics have pointed out that
thoughts of birth and death were much on
Shelley’s mind at the time she wrote Frankenstein.
Mary Shelley did not put her name on the
novel when it was published in 1818. Many
reviewers and readers assumed it was written by
Percy Shelley because he had written the preface.
Mary Shelley’s name was first attached to the
novel in the 1831 edition for which she wrote the
introduction. Remembering back fifteen years, she
explained in the introduction how an eighteenyear-
old came to write the unusual novel.
After Percy’s death in 1822 in a boating
accident, Mary Shelley returned to England and
supported herself, her son, and her father with
her writings. She wrote four novels, including
The Last Man (1826), a futuristic story about the
destruction of the human race. She also wrote short stories, essays, and travelogues. To preserve her husband’s literary legacy, she collected and annotated Percy Shelley’s poems for publication. She died in 1851.
Introducing the Novel:
In the introduction to the 1831 edition of
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley explains how she came
to write her famous novel. In the summer of 1816,
she and Percy Shelley were living near the poet
Lord Byron and his doctor-friend John Polidori on
Lake Geneva in the Swiss Alps. During a period of
incessant rain, the four of them were reading ghost
stories to each other when Byron proposed that
they each try to write one. For days Shelley could
not think of an idea. Then, while she was listening
to Lord Byron and Percy discussing the probability
of using electricity to create life artificially, according to a theory called galvanism, an idea began to grow in her mind:
Perhaps a corpse would be re-animated;
galvanism had given token of such things:
perhaps the component parts of a creature might
be manufactured, brought together, and
[endued] with vital warmth.
The next day she started work on Frankenstein.
A year later, she had completed her novel. It was
published in 1818, when Shelley was nineteen
years old.
Frankenstein is an example of a gothic novel.
This type of novel was popular between 1760 and
1820. The main ingredients of the gothic novel
are mystery, horror, and the supernatural. The
word gothic itself has several meanings. It can
mean harsh or cruel, referring to the barbaric
Gothic tribes of the Middle Ages. It can also
mean “medieval,” referring to the historical
period associated with castles and knights in
armor. In literature the term applies to works with
a brooding atmosphere that emphasize the unknown and inspire fear. Gothic novels typically feature wild and remote settings, such as haunted castles or wind-blasted moors, and their plots involve violent or mysterious events.
While the atmosphere of Shelley’s Frankenstein
is nightmarish, the novel is much more than a
horror story. Shelley’s central characters—a
young student of science and the man-like being
he creates—are both morally complex. Through
their conflict, Shelley poses profound questions
about science and society and about the positive
and destructive sides of human nature. These
questions struck a chord with Shelley’s readers in
the early 1800s—a time of startling breakthroughs
in science and technology and a growing
faith in the power of science to improve human life. Today, in a world where scientific advances such as cloning and genetic engineering seem to be redefining life itself, her questions are no less relevant.
The Time and Place:
The novel takes place in the late 1700s in
various parts of Europe, especially Switzerland
and Germany, and in the Arctic. Frankenstein
was published in 1818 in England at the height
of the Romantic movement. This movement in
art and literature was based in part on the feeling
of optimism about human possibilities that pervaded
Western culture after the American and French revolutions. In England the post-revolutionary period was also a time of economic suffering and social disorder as the new industrialism transformed English
society. Shelley’s readers lived in hopeful, but also
disturbingly turbulent, times. The Romantic movement, which lastedfrom about 1798 to 1832, pulled away from the period known as the Enlightenment, which emphasized reason and logic. English writers of the Romantic period believed in the importance of the individual. They valued subjectivity, imagination, and the expression of emotions over rational thought. The typical Romantic hero, found especially in the poetry of Lord Byron and Percy Shelley, is passionate, uninhibited, and unconventional. Often the hero is an
artist who is a social rebel or a melancholy outcast from society.
The Romantic poets, including William
Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, and Percy Shelley, transport their readers to the private worlds of the poets’ imaginations. Often, they isolate themselves in nature and celebrate its beauty or its elemental rawness.They were also attracted to stories and settings from the past. Percy Shelley, for example,
made Prometheus, the symbol of creative striving
in Greek mythology, the hero of his poetic drama
Prometheus Unbound.
Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein was
labeled “romantic fiction” by an early reviewer. It
is a powerful work of imagination that uses exotic
natural settings and emphasizes the emotions of
fear and awe. Many scholars also see her novel as
a critique of Romantic ideals. The “modern
Prometheus” she holds up for readers’ evaluation,
Dr. Frankenstein, is an ambiguous character who
may or may not be worthy of our admiration.
Science:
In the early 1800s, scientists were on the verge
of discovering the potential of electricity. At this
time, scientists knew about the existence of static electricity as well as electricity produced by lightning. But they were just beginning to discover that electricity could be produced by a chemical reaction.
In the 1780s, Luigi Galvani, a professor of anatomy in Bologna, Italy, conducted experiments on animal tissue using a machine that could produce electrical sparks. He concluded that animal tissue contained electricity in the form of a fluid. Galvani’s theory of “animal electricity”
was shown to be incorrect, but he had proven that muscles contracted in response to an electrical stimulus. His research opened the way to new discoveries about the operation of nerves and muscles and showed that electrical forces exist in living tissue. In the novel,
Frankenstein learns about the controversial theory of “galvanism” as part of his scientific training at a university in Germany. Today, galvanism refers to a direct current of electricity produced by a chemical reaction.
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