Frankenstein (2):
Science and
the Consequences of Creation
Chaps 3-10
Main Issues:
The Nature of Scientific Creation vs.
Family and Nature
Destiny vs. Responsibility
Outline
Chap 3-5:
 Starting Questions
 Contemporary Science and Victor’s
Pursuit of Knowledge
 Study of Death and Creation of Man
 * Destiny or Choice
Chaps 5/6-10:
 Questions
 The Creature and * Victor’s Responses
(escape  guilt  duty)
 the Role of Family and Friends; The Use
of Letters;
 The Role of Nature
 * Justine and Frankenstein’s Secret
 * Monster vs. Victor
Starting Questions
Pursuit of Knowledge:
 Under what conditions does Victor go to study?
 What does he feel about studying? How does he
change with studying?
Creation of Man: Destiny and Responsibility:
 In the previous chapter (2), Victor sees all the
development as a matter of destiny. Do you agree?
 What are the characteristics of his creation of a
man? Is it described clearly?
 The consequences?
Before Going to the University
 Elizabeth ill with scarlet fever,
 The Mother contracts it and dies of it.
 Before her death, she asks for Victor and
Elizabeth’s union in marriage. (43)
 Victor’s mourning process:
 cannot accept her departure; reflections on her
sounds and images  in grief  realizes his own
duties to move on
 Elizabeth’s responses – veils her grief and
comforts others (44)
 Cherval: cannot go.
Victor and his Study of Contemporary
Science
(45)Alone: “ I loved my brothers, Elizabeth, and
Clerval; these were "old familiar faces," but I
believed myself totally unfitted for the company of
strangers. Such were my reflections as I
commenced my journey; but as I proceeded, my
spirits and hopes rose. I ardently desired the
acquisition of knowledge.
 Is he changed? Or is he just not sociable? (Are
you in a way similar when going to college?)
Victor and his Study of Contemporary
Science (2)
Between two teachers natural philosophy (note): Mr.
Kempe and Mr. Waldman
M. Kempe: “you must begin your studies entirely
anew.” (46)
  Victor: not disappointed, but not convinced
either (46) by the “little conceited fellow” to
“exchange chimeras of boundless grandeur for
realities of little worth” (47).
 M. Waldman: convinces him to believe in
chemistry or modern masters and to explore
different branches of natural philosophy. (47)
Victor and his Study of Contemporary
Science (3)
"The ancient teachers of this science … promised
impossibilities and performed nothing. The
modern masters promise very little; they know
that metals cannot be transmuted and that the
elixir of life is a chimera but these philosophers,
whose hands seem only made to dabble in dirt,
and their eyes to pore over the microscope or
crucible, have indeed performed miracles.” (47)
Victor’s Study of Life and Death:
 “Unless I had been animated by an almost
supernatural enthusiasm, my application to this
study would have been irksome, and almost
intolerable“ (51)
 “To examine the causes of life, we must first have
recourse to death.”
 From Death to the causes of life: the science of
anatomy  process of decay of human body.
 Not afraid of darkness, churchyard. (note)
The Process of Discovery (p. 52)
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 analysing 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 … that I
alone should be reserved to discover
so astonishing a secret.(?)
 The cycle of life; how the “human” gets
disintegrated into the non-human but life goes on.
The Creation of Man (2): Animation
(p. 52) “After days and nights of incredible labour
and fatigue, I succeeded in discovering the cause
of generation and life; nay, more, I became myself
capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless
matter.
Destiny and Responsibility
Victor: cannot stop his interest
Sees it as destiny:
 (chap 2) His Views: e.g. nothing can alter my
destiny (p. 30; 38; 42)
 (chap 4)
 P. 45 Chance--or rather the evil influence, the Angel
of Destruction, which asserted omnipotent sway
over me from the moment I turned my reluctant
steps from my father's door--led me first to M.
Krempe
 M. Waldman gives him some books, which
“decide[s his] future destiny.” (49)
Destiny and Responsibility (2)
Hesitates over how to use his power but persuaded
by his obsession, ambition and pride: pp. 52-55
 Obsession and single-mindedness: his
supernatural enthusiasm for something irksome;
 Ambition and Pride: Thinks that he “alone” finds
the secret. (p. 52) “What had been the study and
desire of the wisest men since the creation of the
world was now within my grasp.”
 p. 53 I was encouraged to hope my present
attempts would at least lay the foundations of
future success.
The Creation of Man and Victor
P. 54-55 –continued expression of pride, transgression
of boundaries and obsessiveness
 “Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I
should first break through, and pour a torrent of light
into our dark world.“
 “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.

restless, frantic, (54) engaged, heart and
soul, in one pursuit. (55)

his lack of correspondence
Victor: Then and Now



His Father – V thought him “unjust” then; now
he sees himself as not being “altogether free
from blame.”
pursuit of study affects his “affections” and
“taste for simple pleasure” (pp. 55-56)
Isn’t this a good reminder for us to balance our
own “passionate” pursuit (of knowledge,
happiness, etc.) with maintaining our
sympathy for those around us and our simple
pleasures in regular lives?
After the Creation (chaps 5-10) –
Questions
 What are Victor’s responses to his creation
of the creature? Why is he disgusted by the
creature?
 How does he fail to be responsible?
 What do you think about the use of letters
in these chapters?
The Creation –Negative and a Collage
 The negative words used even when he describes
his efforts: e.g. “dabbled among the unhallowed
damps of the grave or tortured the living animal to
animate the lifeless clay? ”(54) “collected bones
from charnel-houses and disturbed, with profane
fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human
frame. ” “filthy creation”
 Collects materials from charnel house, dissecting
room and slaughterhouse  implications: monster
as a collage, symbolic of our own identities
The Creation—A Collage
pp. 57-58 --mixture of beauty and horror ” The
creature: 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 dunwhite sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled
complexion and straight black lips.
Victor’s Dreams
Two kinds of dream – his dream of creation and his
nightmare of his mother and Elizabeth 
“I embraced her, but as I imprinted the first kiss on her
lips, they became livid with the hue of death; her features appeared to
change, and I thought that I held the corpse of my dead mother in my
arms; a shroud enveloped her form, and I saw the grave-worms crawling
in the folds of the flannel.”(58)
 nightmare as a condensation of Victor’s multiple desires
and feelings
 of guilt and horror over his lack of responsibility,
and his assumption of the role of a Creator ( the
Mother’s role)
 of desire for Elizabeth and the mother.
 Signs of death intertwined with that of life. (later:
the mother’s portrait as evidence of Justine’s guilt p.
79)
Victor’s Views of the Monster and First
Responses
 First Responses: “the wretch, the miserable
monster” Escape, glad to see his enemy “fled”; ill,
sees his creature as his “enemy” haunting him (p.
61)
(temporary relief –with Clerval and in nature)
 The father’s letter about William’s death
Remorse;
 (p. 80): the monster as “the living monument of
presumption and rash ignorance”
 (pp. 91-92) “I had been the author of unalterable
evils, and I lived in daily fear lest the monster
whom I had created should perpetrate some new
Victor’s Views of the Monster and First
Responses (2)
 First encounter: wants to “extinguish the spark
which [he] so negligently bestowed” (99)
 End of chap 10: “For the first time, also, I felt what
the duties of a creator towards his creature were,
and that I ought to render him happy before I
complained of his wickedness. (102)
Temporary Relief:
Victor and his Friends/Family
 Clerval –
 comes to rescue just in time (59) and “brought”





back Victor’s memories of his family
Nurses V when he is sick
Moves his apparatus away
Never asks to draw secret from him (68) Victor
does not tell either.
Interested in oriental languages  Victor finds in
them temporary amusement (69)
Taught V to love nature and the cheerful faces of
children
 Recovery: (p.62) –observe outward object with
pleasure; thanks Clerval (62, 70)
Clerval  Nature
  gaiety regained: chap 6 (70) “A selfish pursuit
had cramped and narrowed me, until your
gentleness and affection warmed and opened my
senses; I became the same happy creature who, a
few years ago, loved and beloved by all, had no
sorrow or care. When happy, inanimate nature
had the power of bestowing on me the most
delightful sensations.” (70)
  “A serene sky and verdant fields filled me with
 ecstasy.” (chap 6)  (chap 7, after the letter) “The
sky was serene; and, as I was unable to rest,…”(75)
(more later)
Family (2): Elizabeth’s Role
 Letter: to show concern and to report the recent
development of his family members (father,
Earnest)
 Happy and contented with doing “trifles.” (p. 64)
 “Reminds” Victor of the way Justine arrives and she
used to be his favorite.
 Justine’s return  prepares for the later
development
Letter Writing
 The father’s and Elizabeth’s letters: make them
more present in Victor’s life and the novel as a
contrast to Victor’s negligence of them.
 Unconvincing in terms of story-telling
 a convention in the 19th-c novel.
Letters: Another Narrative Function
 As evidence of identification: (identity—artificial
construct)
 Elizabeth Lavenza– when introduced to
Frankenstein's family, she has her mother's fortune
secured to her "via accompanying documents" (F,
65);
 Safie -- arrives at the de Lacey cottage in possession
of the "letters" composing hers and Felix's earlier
relationship (F, 148);
 Frankenstein -- on the Irish shore along with letters
which conveniently identify him to the local
magistracy during the period in which he is
comatose
The Roles of Nature
Frankenstein’s object of study: Natural
Philosophy – the causes of nature
2. Nature // human nature: F, as well as the
monster, finds solace in nature—before they get
entangled in their battle of revenge
3. “the natural”  F changes the natural course of
life (larger and later implication)  Frankenstein
Food//GM food
1.
Victor and Nature (chap 7/8)
 Finds solace in grander nature (the sublime) // a
motif of the Romantic hero
 (p. 74) "'Dear mountains! My own beautiful lake!
how do you welcome your wanderer? Your
summits are clear; the sky and lake are blue and
placid. Is this to prognosticate peace, or to mock at
my unhappiness?'"
  tempest (76) This “noble war in the sky”
elevates his spirit
 [sees the monster at the spot of the murder]
Victor and Nature (chap 9/10)
[after the Justine case]
Like a Romantic Hero, he seeks to release his passions and
forget himself by wandering in grand natural scenes. (the
Alpine valleys)  cease to fear
(94) “The immense mountains and precipices that overhung
me on every side, the sound of the river raging among the
rocks, and the dashing of the waterfalls around spoke of a
power mighty as Omnipotence--and I ceased to fear or to
bend before any being less almighty than that which had
created and ruled the elements, here displayed in their
most terrific guise. Still, as I ascended higher, …”
Victor and Nature (chap 9/10)
(more on chap 10: pp. 96, 98)  grief subdued,
pleasure found ( cannot find comfort in nature
 later wandering in North Poles)
 p. 96: “These sublime and magnificent scenes
afforded me the greatest consolation that I was
capable of receiving. They elevated me from all
littleness of feeling, and although they did not
remove my grief, they subdued and tranquillized
it. ”
 P. 98 “My heart, which was before sorrowful, now
swelled with something like joy”
Justine’s Case –
Lack of Justice in her Trial
 Suspicious because 1) she’s out all night; 2) when
being questioned, she looked “very strangely”; 3)
the picture found on her clothes pocket; 4) she
falls ill (hysterical) immediately after the body is
found.
 Her self-defense:
 Out at an aunt’s house;
 Goes looks for Williams and sleeps only a few
minutes at a place near the dead body;
 Her character
 Forced to confess “a lie” (87)
Victor’s Silence in the Justine Case
 What do you think about Victor’s silence re. Justine’s




innocence?
P. 76 – has no doubt that the monster is the murderer;
"My first thought was to discover what I knew of the
murderer, and cause instant pursuit to be made. But I
paused when I reflected on the story that I had to tell“ (77)
 nobody would believe it
Nobody could arrest him. (77)
"I was firmly convinced in my own mind that Justine . . .
was guiltless of this murder. I had no fear, therefore, that
any circumstantial evidence could be brought forward
strong enough to convict her" (80)  the story will induce
horror and be seen as mad
Victor’s Silence in the Justine Case
 Remorse: 85
 Still silent 88
 90 believes that he does it with good intention.
The Confrontation
between Victor and the Monster
 The Monster’s plea for his right to be happy
(Victor’s duty), to cherish his life;
 His plea for compassion and justice
 His threat of having more power; of seeking
revenge
 “Listen to my story and then decide.”  Gives
Victor a choice
Frankenstein: 1) fight
(“Begone, or let us try our strength in a fight, ”);
2) selfish concern
(“You have made me wretched beyond expression. ”)
The Monster’s Plea
 Identity and right: "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."
 Equity, justice and compassion: "Oh, Frankenstein,
be not equitable to every other, and trample upon
me alone, to whom thy justice, and even thy
clemency(仁慈) and affection, is most due" (100)
Note (1): The Resurrection Men
 In the beginning of the nineteenth century,
London surgeons and students bought and
mutilated thousands of dead bodies that had been
stolen by the so-called “resurrection men,” the
lowliest members of society. During this period,
the midnight quiet of graveyards could suddenly
erupt in gunfire and confrontation between the
"resurrection men" (or grave robbers) and
authorities.
Note (2): Natural Philosophy
 In natural philosophy, we discussed the phenomenon in
the Nature world, including cosmology, material objects,
space, time, motion, natural law, and the origin of life, etc.
I think the range is wider than physics and science, because
natural philosophy also discuss something metaphysical.
The major difference between natural philosophy and
science lies in the "goal." Science searches for "what" and
"how" in the Natural world; however, natural philosophy
searches for "why" (the ultimate reason). Therefore, these
two kinds of knowledge can exist at the same time and they
do not conflict. (Alfonso Liu)
 Considered to be either the counterpart,
or the precursor of modern science
(source)
 Studies of cosmology, chance, elements
and quantities of nature. In today’s univ,
occupied mainly by Physics professors.
Reference
 "Mary Shelley: Frankenstein", in Literature and Its
Times: Profiles of 300 Notable Literary Works and
the Historical Events that Influenced Them,
Volume 1: Ancient Times to the American and
French Revolutions (Prehistory-1790s), edited by
Joyce Moss and George Wilson, Gale Research,
1997.