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of the novel. His "Pains of Sleep," in which he recounts the psychic repercussions
of a nightmare induced by opium, was published in 1816, shortly before Mary Shelley
began writing Frankenstein.
of the novel. His "Pains of Sleep," in which he recounts the psychic repercussions
of a nightmare induced by opium, was published in 1816, shortly before Mary Shelley
began writing Frankenstein.
1247
during his fourth voyage to the north in 1611 resulted in the renowned explorer's
death. Even so late as his polar exploration of 1829, Sir John Ross experienced a
mutiny on one of its ships.
1246
to whom Victor originally gave "life and spirit" was so horribly mutilated in his
creation as to provoke universal aversion from all whom he met. Now, in the text,
Victor hopes in some way to rectify that lack of initial perspective and clean up
either what he once called his "filthy creation" (I:3:9), or lacking success at that
aim, at least his own image. The secondary irony is that neither he nor his Creature
can expect an individual "posterity" since each has denied the other the possibility
of procreation. The posterity that will determine their lasting reputations is thus
composed solely of readers of the present text that Victor is so assiduously determined
to rewrite.
1245
as a physiologist. What the reader cannot miss, however, is the extent of self-absorption
that could lead a man in the process of discovering his wife's corpse to note his
own bodily symptoms with such detached scrupulosity.
1248
much of a piece with other literary productions by the Geneva circle during the summer
of 1816, most particularly The Prisoner of Chillon, written by Lord Byron in the week
after he and Percy Bysshe Shelley visited the Castle of Chillon during their boat
trip around the lake in mid-July. Shelley included an account in the letters he appended
to A History of a Six Weeks' Tour. In Byron's poem, at the end of his long captivity,
François de Bonnivard, the prisoner, claims, "It was at length the same to me, / Fetter'd
or fetterless to be" (lines 372-73) and ruefully notes, in much the same language
as Victor employs here, that "iron is a cankering thing, / For in these limbs its
teeth remain, / With marks that will not wear away" (lines 38-40).
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the Creature and Victor acknowledged their similarities toward the end of the colloquy
on the Mer-de-Glace (II:8:36, II:9:2, II:9:5).
1243
the late Enlightenment. A major reason for this was the presence of the Royal Society
for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, founded in 1660 shortly after the restoration
of Charles II: its periodical, Philosophical Transactions, was still in Mary Shelley's
day the principal scientific journal of the world. The president of the Royal Society
at the time of the publication of Frankenstein was Sir Joseph Banks, one of the great
explorers and botanists of the eighteenth century. Although Banks's diverse interests
would not have specifically engaged Victor Frankenstein, we can be sure that his example
would have been a guiding light for Walton. That of his successor, Sir Humphrey Davy,
however, would have equally drawn Victor's admiration, since he was perhaps the premier
scientist experimenting with the chemical effects of electricity in the first quarter
of the nineteenth century.
Percy Bysshe Shelley, it should be noted, attended a number of anatomical lectures
by John Abernethy in 1811.
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The near-catatonic state in which Victor exists is a sign of profound mental disturbance:
Mary Shelley's repetition of the word "listless" from the chapter's beginning indicates
that Victor leaves in the same state in which he has existed since his interview with
the Creature: compare III:1:1 and note.
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the Creature had disappeared from view in Volume 1 (I:L4:3) and Volume 2 (II:9:18).
Given its profound association with the epic of Milton that so haunts this work, that
term may be thought to be a marker for the Creature's entire existence.
1208
this question, even if none would construe the passion that consumes Victor as in
any conventional sense, whether erotic or paternal, that of love. Whatever the problems
of the fictional time scheme, it is apparent that for the past four-and-a-half years,
which is the lifetime of Victor's offspring, not to neglect the months of concentrated
labor that went into his gestation, Victor has been obsessed with the Creature to
the neglect, even destruction, of any other relationship.