I think it is worthy of note that Victor’s first and favorite philosopher is Cornelius Agrippa. While it was suggested that he was obsessed with other philosophers as well, the name Cornelius Agrippa has been repeated throughout the story several times. Therefore, I began to wonder if this person had any significance to the story itself.
After doing a bit of research (cruising wikipedia – don’t judge!) I found out that Cornelius Agrippa was famous for summoning demons and conjuring dark spirits. This a forshadowing of Victor’s own dally with “conjuring” demons. We, as modern readers, are inclined to view Victor’s monster as a scientific experiment gone wrong. However, no dials, or vials are mentioned in Frankenstein’s creation scene: only yellow eyes.
In the time period that the story was written, people were more familiar with the stories about Cornelius Agrippa – and the philosopher’s consequential influence in stories like Doctor Faustus’s deal with the devil, and Goethe’s Mephistopheles. In the early 19th century the idea of bringing the dead back to life was not only new and estranging to the common populous – but probably demonic and evil. After all, Frankenstein does call his creation a “demon” in several instances.
Therefore, if Shelley intended this creation to a parley with dark forces, one has to ask what the main message is here. The novel begs the question: is science a dark art in itself? Are there valid types of creation vs. evil types of creation? Are there frontiers to which no man should cross?
In the novel natural creations are celebrated. Shelley goes at lengths to describe the beauty of the mountains and the lakes in Victor’s childhood home. Victor has a poetic soul, and yearns to create natural beauty himself. Yet his attempts are an abomination of nature. His creation is estranging not because it is ugly in entirety, but because it contains beautiful parts corrupted.
