Frankenstein - Chapter 5

TW for brief mention of oedipal horror dream.

Well alright then

So Vic’s gone and done it.. He brought his monster to life. It’s actually surprisingly unceremonious. He just kinda says, in as laconic a manner as I think we’ll get out of Vic, that one night he just up and animated this patchwork of dead bodies.

This said, I think Vic’s behavior here is actually really bizarre. So let me see if I can run myself through this.

1)Vic is displeased with the fact that he couldn’t stitch together body parts well and his monster doesn’t look like Adonis

2)Vic awakens the monster. Rather than being happy about literally defying all the laws of nature, he’s pissed off that the monster looks ugly

3)Rather than deal with the thing he’s just made, even if it is in a negative fashion, his inclination is to just call it a night, just kinda… leaving the monster there, I guess?

During the night, Vic has a disturbing dream in which he kisses Elizabeth, who then turns into his mother’s corpse. It’s almost like Vic’s got issues surrounding the thought of other people dying.

He wakes up and finds his creation at the foot of his bed. Freaking out, Vic runs out of his house and into the courtyard, where he waits all night. That morning, he walks into town and runs into Henry Clerval of all people! The two agree to go catch up, but Vic’s really on edge. At first, he’s afraid of going back to his house and facing his creation. Then when he arrives and finds that Adam is nowhere to be found, he becomes jittery thinking that he’s going to pop out at any moment. Again, I think this actually shows that Victor’s become very selfish in this. He sees that his creature isn’t around and his first thought isn’t “OH MY GOD THAT THING COULD BE OUT AMONG PEOPLE!” instead it’s “that thing must be lurking around here somewhere!”

Amidst this rambling talk, Vic faints and finds himself in bed with Clerval tending to him. Apparently Vic spends the next several MONTHS in bed with Clerval helping him out. Jeez, Clerval’s kinda... more than just friendly to Vic, no? I mean, I know that my read on this is influenced by my more modern readers lens (I’ve learned that homosocial relationships were considered much more acceptable back then) but nursing a guy to health for MONTHS is really quite much. I also wonder if Captain Walton is realizing that hanging around this dude may be toxic at this point… Like, Vic seems like he’s the sort that charges himself into the ground and then just hopes others will help him back up, but he doesn’t really seem like he’d offer the same support to them.

Clerval is really kind of a saint, it feels like. After all of this care, Vic asks him if he can do anything to repay him. Clerval just asks Vic to write to his family. Like… wow Vic must feel like an ass now.