Chapters 3-4
English Lit: Edexcel A Level Frankenstein, topic 5.2.2
Chapter 3, Volume I
Now that Victor is 17 years old, his parents decide he should continue his education at the University of Ingolstadt.
Caroline's death
- Just before Victor is due to leave for university, Elizabeth catches scarlet fever.
- Caroline nurses Elizabeth back to health, but then contracts the illness herself and dies.
- Caroline's final request is for Elizabeth and Victor to marry and have children.
Professors at university
- Elizabeth also agrees to stay at home and look after the children, adopting the maternal role in the family.
- Victor travels to University to study and meets two professors: M. Krempe and M. Waldman.
- The former has a very pejorative effect upon Victor, especially when he tells the professor about his interest in Agrippa et al., and is mocked for his academic choices.
M. Waldman
- M.Waldman is more sensitive in his choice of words to Victor, but still debunks the theories of Agrippa and his contemporaries. He still understands Victor’s interest in such areas of science.
- He convinces Victor to study under his tutelage and become a student of chemistry.
Chapter 4
Victor's studies become his "sole occupation" and he begins to neglect his social life and his family in Geneva. He makes rapid progress, becoming more and more ambitious in his work.
Creating life
- Victor becomes fascinated with anatomy and how life comes to be.
- He discovers how to bestow life on lifeless matter and sets out to bestow life on a creature as complex as a human.
- Victor believes this creature will adore him as his creator and he hopes that, in undertaking this work, he will one day be able to bring the dead back to life.
Working compulsively
- Victor collects his "material" from charnel houses and graveyards, which fills him with "loathing".
- Victor isolates himself and his work has a detrimental impact on both his physical health and all other aspects of his life.
Feminising nature
- "I pursued nature to her hiding place" - note the feminisation of nature here and how Victor posits himself as the hunter and nature as the prey.
- Shelley may be commenting on the usurping of the female from the process of life-giving and how men push women into the submissive role in society.
Test yourself on Chapters 3-4
At what age was Victor sent to continue his education at the university of Ingolstadt?
What is Caroline's final request on her deathbed?
What does M. Waldman convince Victor to study?
What kind of relationship does Victor expect to have with the creature?
What dynamic does Victor introduce between himself and nature with this quotation?
"I pursued nature to her hiding place"