Whenever you hear the term or quote “Mad Scientist” you might always bring yourself to the image of some crazed man in a white lab coat, a hunchback named “Igor” and lastly, but not least the desiccated parts of many corpse loosely bound by stitches. Let’s move away from this mental image and try to erase it from your mind. No doubt, you’ve been force-fed some misinformation that old movies and/or recent movies have instilled in you. I’m not going to make you remember something out of a cheesy horror movie, but actually recount what the actual story is about. First off, let me explain to you that Frankenstein is the name of the so called “Mad Scientist”. Remember that fact and you will save yourself some trouble; not to mention your intelligence will increase! (Imagine a +1 to intelligence over your head like some game) But enough of the current ranting, let me explain to you what brings about the “Mad Scientist” in the mind of a young college student in Shelly’s Frankenstein.
The pursuit of knowledge that everyone believes in occurs during early stages of Vol.1 when a half-frozen man named Victor Frankenstein recounts his life tales. It is noted at an early age he grew interested in the texts of Cornelius Agrippa and into the field of old philosophy; now known as Alchemy. This pertains to the research of the philosopher’s stone, fountain of youth, elixir of immortality; the usual stuff that you’ve heard in tales. Victor’s father tells him old philosophy is nonsense as does his professors and that brings about an interesting conflict within his mind. This conflict can be called Morale vs. Defiance. What is this conflict exactly? Allow me to elaborate, this conflict is usually restricted to those who have a thirst for knowledge and seek to uncover thoughts beyond that of normal men. Morale is the form of ethics and guidelines that govern men within the realm of logical reasoning. Meaning that Victor was forced to accept that Natural Philosophy; or Science in today’s language is the domineering force and most things that were seen as magical of superstitious is actually science that has been overly exaggerated by people with creative minds. This promotes the scientist in Frankenstein. Then there is the Defiance; although eventually Victor gave up reading more of the books on old philosophy, his interest in old philosophy did not vanish. In fact, learning natural philosophy gave him a motivation to try something new. In short Frankenstein takes both old and natural philosophy and improvises. Bringing new ideas into old ideas is unfortunately frowned upon modern society and is also considered straying from the norms. This is where the Madness comes from, which in short dubs the term “Mad Scientist”. When Victor Frankenstein instills life into a creation of his own; in short a homunculus, he is anything but what you imagine to be a crazy and wicked man seeking to become “God”. He is nearly a nervous wreck and becomes fearful of the creation that he had brought into the world. Not exactly what I envisioned either. So, does the author Shelly bring the original meaning of “Mad Scientist?” or is her definition wrong concluding that the “Mad Scientist” is still an insane man in a lab coat doing a macabre dance in front of a moving corpse?
