I agree with where Julia Douglas and Occasionalbologna (sorry, I do not know who in my group has that username:) were going with their blogs. I also thought about how Suvin states, “SF concentrates on possible futures and their spatial equivalents, but it can deal with the present and the past as special cases of a possible historical sequence seen from an estranged point of view” (378). There is in fact a process or even “sequence” containing logical scientific ideas in the novel where Victor’s normal world becomes a world filled with a horrible monster brought to life from body parts of dead people. As Occasionalbologna said, there are no alterations in the 18th century world. And, Victor would serve as that “estranged point of view” that Darko Suvin was describing. Julia mentioned the idea that Victor was raised on Necromancers that desired to break the boundaries of science for power, and Victor certainly desires some kind of power.
But, I want to add even more milestone events in Victor’s life that are critical to the creation of the monster. First, I would have to mention Elizabeth. In one of his first descriptions of her, Victor states, “I loved to tend to her, as I should on a favorite animal” (Chapter 1 20). It struck me as odd that he would compare Elizabeth to a pet. It is as if Victor thinks of humans as playthings that he can control and manipulate. More significant to the science aspect of the novel would be the moment Victor first experienced the power of electricity. Also in Chapter 1, Victor witnesses a lightning bolt turn an oak tree into a stump (23). Then, his father begins to perform little experiments involving lightning. Right after he describes his father’s experiments, Victor points out, “This last stroke completed the overthrow of Cornelius Agrippa, Alberta Magnus, and Paracelsus” (23). He finds a variable which his mentors had been missing. He is already thinking to surpass them in their “miracles” at a very young age. But, another important milestone leading to the birth of Victor’s monster would have to be the death of his mother. Soon after, Victor goes to Ingolstadt, where he ponders the origin of life (30). All these details, and several others, led to the creation of the monster, or what Suvin calls the “exclusive interest in a strange newness, a novum” (373).
Thinking more about the first Suvin quote I mentioned above, I wanted to ask some questions that have probably been asked before, but they are interesting questions nonetheless:
Did Mary Shelly write Frankenstein to warn people, particularly, from creating some kind of artificial intelligence like a robot/ clone or to make us question the uses of science in general? Or, do you think she simply tried to create a monster as logical as possible for a gothic romance novel?
