Frankenstein

02The Spark of Life and Immediate Regret

There is a very fine line between passionate dedication and dangerous obsession, and Victor completely obliterates that line upon arriving at the University of Ingolstadt. His initial experiences at the university only serve to push him further down his dark path. When he meets Professor Krempe, a gruff and unlikable man who teaches natural philosophy, Victor is harshly ridiculed for wasting his youth reading the outdated nonsense of the ancient alchemists. Krempe tells him he must begin his studies entirely anew. However, Victor soon attends a chemistry lecture by Professor Waldman, a man with a much softer and more encouraging demeanor. Waldman speaks of modern scientists with grand reverence, claiming that while they seemingly only dabble in dirt and microscopes, they have actually acquired almost unlimited powers. They can command the thunders of heaven and mock the invisible world. These words act as a match dropped into a powder keg. Waldman's elegant speech reignites Victor’s deepest, most god-like ambitions. From that day forward, Victor isolates himself entirely. He stops writing letters to his family in Geneva, he ignores his friends, and he stops taking care of his own physical health. He is consumed by a singular, burning question: where does the principle of life proceed from? To understand life, he realizes he must first deeply study death. This leads him to spend his days and nights in places most people would never dare to tread. He frequents charnel houses, dissecting rooms, and slaughterhouses, spending hours observing the natural decay and corruption of the human body. It is a gruesome, horrifying process, but Victor is so blinded by his scientific zeal that he feels no disgust. He is searching for the ultimate secret, and miraculously, in the midst of this darkness, he finds it. He discovers the exact cause of generation and life; he learns how to bestow animation upon lifeless matter. Armed with this terrifying new knowledge, Victor does not pause to consider the moral implications of what he is about to do. He immediately sets out to create a human being. Because working with tiny, intricate human parts would take too long, he decides to make his creation gigantic—about eight feet tall. He spends months gathering materials from graveyards and slaughterhouses, working in a secret, solitary room at the top of his house. His obsession turns him into a pale, emaciated ghost of a man. His hands tremble, his eyes are constantly bloodshot, and he lives in a state of continuous nervous anxiety. We often hear of people burning themselves out for the sake of a career or a grand project, but Victor’s burnout is tied to an act of unnatural creation. He is playing God, completely removed from the warmth of the human society he is supposedly trying to benefit. Finally, on a dreary night in November, the agonizing months of labor come to an end. It is a scene shrouded in deep atmospheric dread: the rain is pattering dismally against the windowpanes, and Victor’s candle is nearly burnt out. With trembling hands, he gathers the instruments of life around him to infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lies at his feet. Suddenly, the creature opens its dull yellow eye. It breathes hard, and a convulsive motion agitates its limbs. This is the moment Victor has sacrificed his health, his family ties, and his sanity for. He has achieved the impossible. He has conquered death and created life. But the reaction that follows is one of the most tragic and pivotal turning points in the entire story. Instead of feeling the overwhelming joy and pride of a creator, Victor is instantly struck by an unbearable, suffocating horror. The beauty of his dream vanishes in a split second, replaced by breathless disgust. He realizes that the creature he has made is not a beautiful triumph of science, but a hideous, terrifying monster. Its yellow skin barely covers the muscles and arteries beneath; its watery eyes seem almost the same color as the dun-white sockets they are set in; its complexion is shriveled, and its lips are straight and black. The reality of his project is so utterly revolting that Victor cannot bear to look at it. He completely panics. In an act of supreme cowardice and irresponsibility, Victor turns his back on the newborn life he just forced into the world. He rushes out of the room and retreats to his bedchamber, pacing the floor in absolute agony. Eventually, out of sheer exhaustion, he falls into a troubled sleep and experiences a horrific nightmare. He dreams of seeing his beautiful Elizabeth walking in the streets of Ingolstadt. He pulls her in for a kiss, but as their lips meet, she turns into the decaying corpse of his dead mother, complete with grave worms crawling in her burial shroud. This chilling dream symbolizes the corrupt nature of his creation—his attempt to bypass natural reproduction and conquer death has only brought death closer to the ones he loves. Victor wakes up in a cold sweat, only to find the nightmare has followed him into reality. The creature is standing by his bed, holding up the curtain. The monster’s jaws open, and it mutters some inarticulate sounds, while a grimace wrinkles its cheeks. It reaches out a hand, perhaps in an attempt to connect with its creator, just like a newborn baby reaching for its mother. But Victor does not see a vulnerable infant; he sees a demonic threat. He escapes the house and spends the entire night wandering the cold, wet streets of Ingolstadt, drenched in rain and shivering with absolute terror. He has unleashed something unknown into the world, and rather than taking responsibility for it, his only instinct is to run and hide. The next morning, Victor wanders the town aimlessly, terrified to return to his apartment. By a stroke of incredible luck, he runs into his dear childhood friend, Henry Clerval, who has just arrived in Ingolstadt to begin his own studies. Seeing Henry brings a sudden rush of joy to Victor, reminding him of the bright, untainted life he left behind in Geneva. But the relief is short-lived. Victor brings Henry back to his apartment, terrified that the monster might still be there. When he discovers the apartment is empty, the sudden release of tension is too much for his fragile nervous system. Victor collapses into a violent fit of nervous fever. For several agonizing months, Victor hovers near death, completely incapacitated by illness and delirium. Henry, acting as the ultimate devoted friend, puts his own studies on hold to nurse Victor back to health, entirely unaware of the dark, monstrous secret that caused his friend's collapse. Victor is physically healing, but the enormous, eight-foot-tall consequence of his ambition is now wandering blindly out in the vast, unforgiving world.

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