Summary
Victor throws himself into his schoolwork, reading all he can about the sciences, particularly chemistry. Gaining a reputation as a scientist and innovator among the professors and fellow students alike. Believing his tenure at Ingolstadt was nearing an end, Victor thinks of returning home to Geneva. However, he launches into a new venue of scientific experimentation — creating life from death and reanimating a dead body.
Visiting morgues and cemeteries for the necessary body parts, Victor fails several times before successfully bringing his creation to life. His work does take its toll on him, affecting his health and powers of judgment. This gruesome work carries on through the spring, summer, and fall of that year.
Victor lives for his work and throws himself into his pursuit so much that he shuts off all contact with the outside world. In the second summer Victor loses touch with his family. Letters from home go unanswered for long periods of time, and he delays sending a message home as to his health or well being.
Analysis
Shelley combines several themes in this one chapter: the Romantic notion of technology as a bad thing, the allusion to Goethe's Faust, and learning and the use of knowledge for good or evil purposes. Her Romantic background draws her to state that technology is evil; it is man who must control the technology, not the technology controlling man. Finally, the creation of the monster is not described at all. Perhaps Shelley had not worked out the details of the creation or the description would have been too much for nineteenth century readers. The mysterious creation is a Gothic element.
Victor is similar to Goethe's Faust character who went on a quest for knowledge, made a deal with the devil, and is rescued by God. Unfortunately, Victor does not have the benefit of divine intervention. Instead, he succumbs to the end that all men must face. Shelley also introduces the theme of using knowledge for good and evil purposes.
Victor's attention to the contrast between the living and the dead becomes an obsession. To study, he must experiment, and to experiment, he must collect samples upon which to practice. He looks at what causes life or death and states, "I saw how the worm inherited the wonders of the eye and brain." And from this restless pursuit, he succeeds "in discovering the cause of generation and life" and he becomes "capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter." He is now a creator of life. He is like Goethe's Faustus, a man eager for knowledge and experience that is good for mankind in the end. Faust is saved by God, unlike Victor, who is not saved and who knows he will perish without redemption.
Victor thought he was doing a service by creating a new human. He says, "A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. I might in process of time (although I now found it impossible) renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption." This goes back to the theme of learning and the use of knowledge for good or evil purposes. This quote also shows insight into Victor's state of mind, how he had built up his own ego thinking that he would be revered by the creature(s) he creates. It makes Victor like a human god.
Victor admonishes his listener by saying "Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the aquirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow." Shelley warns her readers about how knowledge can be too much and can cause catastrophic problems. It is this creation of another race of men that Shelley seeks to place in the mind of the reader. It is also now demonstrably clear that death can be conquered, and that man's replacement as God is now complete.
Victor is changing into a different person. His work is taking over his health, even though he knows, "a human being in perfection ought always to preserve a calm and peaceful mind and never to allow passion or a transitory desire to disturb his tranquillity. I do not think that the pursuit of knowledge is an exception to this rule." But his work is taking over his life, and he knows it. He says, "every night I was oppressed by a slow fever, and I became nervous to a most painful degree; the fall of a leaf startled me, and I shunned my fellow creatures as if I had been guilty of a crime." The last line in particular, "guilty of a crime," seems important. Victor knows his work on the monster is morally repugnant and that if any person knew of his work, the outside world would be repulsed by the nature of his experiments.
Glossary
chimera an impossible or foolish fancy.
palpable clear to the mind; obvious; evident; plain.
countenance the look on a person's face that shows one's nature or feelings; the face; facial features; visage; a look of approval on the face, approval; support; sanction; calm control; composure.
charnel-house a building or place where corpses or bones are deposited.
dogmatism dogmatic assertion of opinion, usually without reference to evidence.
pedantry ostentatious display of knowledge, or an instance of this; an arbitrary adherence to rules and forms.
physiognomy facial features and expression, esp. as supposedly indicative of character; the face; apparent characteristics; outward features or appearance.
arduous difficult to do; laborious; onerous; using much energy; strenuous.
