Synopsis and Analysis of the Novel Frankenstein
Synopsis and Analysis of the Novel Frankenstein
Victor Frankenstein had a wonderful life as a child. He was loving and cared deeply for his family. At the age of thirteen the works of Cornelius Agrippa fascinated him. His father called it ’sad trash’, which only fuelled his curiosity and enthusiasm ‘the fatal impulse that led to my ruin.’ His thirst for knowledge of science continued for two years until he witnessed the total destruction of a tree in a thunderstorm. The explanation of electricity shattered all of his ideas and concepts that he thought he knew and completely turned him against any more science. He decided to stick to maths studies ‘but it was ineffectual. Destiny was too potent and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction.’ The reader is given a sense of doom even at this stage in his life.
When his mother died he was devastated, his initial grief and disbelief gave way to a determination and an aim in life, which was to find out a new life form that would be stronger and smarter and would not die from disease.
At university his interest in chemistry soon became apparent, almost to obsession. He tirelessly and relentlessly studied ‘ change from life to death, and death to life, until from the midst of this darkness a sudden light broke in upon me’ Frankenstein was staggered that he ‘alone should be reserved to discover so astonishing a secret.’ He genuinely believed that he had the ability and knowledge, fuelled from the fantasies that he had read as a young boy to become the creator of life. Feeling completely rational and justified in his work Frankenstein states “Remember, I am not recording the vision of a madman.” This statement gives the reader the impression that he is trying to justify himself. He worked night and day until ‘I succeeded in discovering the cause of generation and life; nay more, I became myself capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter.’ His passion to succeed and feelings that ‘a new species would bless as its creator and source.’ There were moments when his conscience surfaced ‘often did my human nature turn with loathing from my occupation, but his feelings ‘like a hurricane’ to create a ‘being of a gigantic stature.’ Frankenstein worked to the point of exhaustion for the next few years ‘for the sole point of infusing life into...