Frankenstein - Chapter 4

And here’s where Vic’s starting to lose me.

I’m actually surprised that we’re getting into the “horror” stuff this quickly. Victor basically decides that it’s about time for him to drop out of college after two years, thinking he’s learned everything he can from the institution. Okay, this right here is problem number one. Now, the problem here isn’t Victor dropping out of the university. I’m one of those people who, aside from the unfortunate financial environment in which universities have been placed all but necessitating bachelor’s degrees (and accompanying debt), thinks that college is necessary. (<-that sentence is a mouthful). I know plenty of people who get along perfectly well without college. My brother is perfectly content doing work as a carpenter. I think there’s definitely something to be said for gaining knowledge outside of academia. No, the problem here isn’t Victor dropping out, it’s that he’s dropping out because he holds a lot of contempt for the people around him. While M. Krempe wasn’t exactly friendly, Victor seems to regard him as entirely unfit to be in an institution at all.

I mean, I’ve been frustrated at times with what I see as the niche focus of certain academic fields. However, it’s important to remember, I think, that academics are more than the papers they write. Victor starts to see those around him as being lesser than him in terms of ambition, and begins to pursue his interests less out of a fondness for knowledge so that others might benefit, and more out of a personal wish for fame and power to come from his experiments. It’s then that he comes upon the question of “what causes life” and decides that he’s going to figure this out by examining the dead. (ASOIAF spoilers up through book five: V nyjnlf gubhtug gung gur pbzcnevfbaf orgjrra Dlohea naq Senaxrafgrva jrer znvayl qhr gb gur rkcrevzragf jvgu Tertbe. Ubjrire, abj V'z frrvat gung Dlohea ernyyl qbrf frrz gb whfg or Ivpgbe Senaxrafgrva chg vagb gur jbeyq bs Jrfgrebf. Tenagrq, Ivp unfa'g fgnegrq gbeghevat crbcyr lrg.)

Victor learns how to animate dead bodies, at least physically, using electricity I’m going to assume, given the mention of galvanism a few chapters back, and because the pop culture image of the lightning storm is so ingrained. He then decides he’s going to go about making a creation. I mean, dude, you could’ve done any of this experiment with single-celled organisms, or even animals, and gotten essentially the same results. He decides that he’s going to create a fully-formed person out of body parts from dead people. I like that the reason the monster is going to be eight-feet tall is only just because Vic noticed that the pieces were too small to work with easily at a more standard size.

Vic also notes that during this time his father tried contacting him and Vic repeatedly shunned any contact from him. Aww, poor papa Frank. Though I will say the standard he sets for his son is pretty passive aggressive, “You must pardon me if I regard any interruption in your correspondence as a proof that your other duties are equally neglected”.

Also, I’m just realizing now that Victor is doing this at the age of nineteen. Someone really needs to put this kid in an ethics class. Like, Vic what’s your plan here? Even if you do create a functional person are you just going to go parent it? Will it have the same rights as you? There’s a lot of thought surrounding this, even in your time (read some Spinoza). I’m wondering if we’ll meet our creation soon, and if so, how much more there is in the book. I always kind of figured that the events after the monster is born are kind of in rapid succession.