Chapter 4
Victor is an increasingly dedicated student, excelling and improving at an admiral rate. However, we see that most of this is due to the sacrifice of social life and connection to his family back in Geneva. Victor comes across an intense fascination in the workings of the human body, especially in the anatomy and how a body withers upon death.
Victor soon proves mastery in each subject his professors can teach him after a demanding series of years, using his new time to forge further in his fascination and unearths the hidden wonders of life and its creation especially.
Away from the eyes and ears of anyone at the university, locked up in his lodgings, Victor endeavours to construct and give life to a wholly new animate creature. Victor’s obsessive behaviour is shown in bright colours as the pursuit of this new fancy takes over his life completely until he wears the effects of such isolation on his face.
Frankenstein
Frankenstein is the classic gothic horror novel which has thrilled and engrossed readers for two centuries. Written by Mary Shelley, it is a story which she intended would ‘curdle the blood and quicken the beatings of the heart.’ The tale is a superb blend of science fiction, mystery and thriller.
Victor Frankenstein driven by the mad dream of creating his own creature, experiments with alchemy and science to build a monster stitched together from dead remains. Once the creature becomes a living breathing articulate entity, it turns on its maker and the novel darkens into tragedy.
The reader is very quickly swept along by the force of the elegant prose, the grotesque, surreal imagery, and the multi-layered themes in the novel. Although first published in 1818, Shelley’s masterpiece still maintains a strong grip on the imagination and has been the inspiration for numerous horror movies, television and stage adaptations.