Magical Frankenstein

For so many years criticism of the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley has been a inclined to say that the creature is a product of science but he is creature a magic. The creature being created by magical/alchemical means because Victor’s inspirations were alchemist /alchemical items, the text can be interpreted in two ways, and because of the 1931 movie Frankenstein. The creature in the novel is one of the main characters that has one thing that is consistent about its depictions. That one consistent thing is the creature being born by scientific means “I began the creation of a human being” (Shelley 80) “..infuse a spark of being into lifeless thing...” (Shelley 83) some of these quotes being the argument uses to provide evidence. Not once did someone give the argument that maybe the creature was made by magical or alchemical means. That is the argument that will be discussed in this essay.

Victor’s passion at a young age was of Natural Philosophy. Natural Philosophy is just another term for a “precursor of modern science” (Del Soldato) as stated in the Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and so yes, science is something that Victor studied but Natural Philosophy is still different. What makes it a precursor is that Natural Philosophy deals with magic, alchemy, and astrology which are all considered fake or debunked. Victor explicitly saying, “Natural Philosophy is the genius that has regulated my fate” (Shelley 68). The character even stated that Natural Philosophy was something that played a huge part in his life but yet he does not say science was the idea that played a big part of his life. The idea of Natural philosophy leads Victor into the philosophers Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus, and Albertus Magnus. All three of those philosophers were alchemist in their time with Paracelsus being the biggest one of them all. Paracelsus was an alchemist who had the belief of “artificial creation of minute living creatures resembling men (called “homunculi)” (Del Soldato) which is something that resonates a lot with what Victor did in the novel only on a grander scale. The creature has the “secrets of the human frame” (Shelley 81) from Victor stealing body parts from dead people giving us the image of the creature having the appearance of a human. He created a creature resembling man but on a larger scale. The quote from Del Soldato says an artificial creation of a living creature that resembles man is called a homunculi which is something that Victor duplicates in the novel. So by that definition the creature that Victor makes is a homunculus. Through infusing “a spark of being” into a lifeless creature to bring it life, he makes the creature a homunculi and thus, a product of an alchemical process. The spark of being and the instrument of life could be many things but one thing they could mean is the fabled Philosopher stone.

The Philosopher Stone is an item that Victor studied alongside the Natural Philosophers. The text mentions how Victor wanted to find or create the philosopher stone, the text says, “I entered with the greatest diligence into the search of the philosopher’s stone and the elixir of life.” (Shelley 69) and the stone is something is rumored to also have the ability to bring someone to life as well as the elixir of life. This is what I believe that Victor was striving for as it would be the “enabling factor” for his creation. Without that factor, he had a corpse. As I said, Cornelius Agrippa a philosopher that Victor also studied focused on the philosopher stone making the connection of the philosopher’s stone being something Victor closely knew. Cornelius Agrippa rewrote ancient documents that spoke about objects of magic or just magic in general. One being the philosopher’s stone which Cornelius called “embodying all wonders” (Del Soldato) is something that Victor a disciple of the Natural Philosophy to be the spark of being that created the creature. The philosopher stone was something that could transmute metals into silver or cure every illness known to man. The stone was something that was also called the “Masterpiece of alchemistic art” (Redgrove 30) and Victor said he started to search for the stone so maybe he found the stone or made the stone and used it to create the creature. The stone had to be the “perfect unity” and so many alchemists including Cornelius tried finding that perfect unity. According to Redgrove in his essay “Alchemy: Ancient and Modern” “the majority of their recipes containing word of unknown meaning” (31) with only depictions of white or yellow metallic alloys being the only thing to be made out. This stone would have been something that Victor was intrigued to find that stone so that he could have the pinnacle of Alchemy and maybe later on in the story use it to make his own homunculi as Paracelsus mentioned in his work.

The elixir of life is something that usually goes hand and hand with the Philosopher’s Stone basically being the liquid version of the stone or the “final ingredient” to the magical mix of life. There isn’t too much information about the elixir of life in description but it is something that is very interchangeable with the stone or when you have the stone, you also have the elixir. With all of that being said this information helps point us into the direction of viewing the creation of the creature in the novel to be an entity created by alchemical or magical means. The body was created by physical means but given life by magical means. The finding of this Stone or Elixir would be similar to the search for the Holy Grail to solidify Christianity or the quest to deliver the One Ring to Mordor. It embodies the story with a sense of wonder (will it be found) and grandeur (one object having great power is found and used).

When it comes to the discussion of the creation of the creature, in the conversation it focuses on the same words of “instruments of life,” spark of being,” and “convulsive motion” . This seems to imply that electricity is at play in the creation. Ulf Houe in his essay “Frankenstein without Electricity: Contextualizing Shelley’s Novel” describes the phrases “instruments of life,” “spark of being,” and “convulsive motion” by saying “None of these, to be certain, rules out electricity. But then again, none of these points specifically to it” (6) which those words do have many meaning associated with other objects / ideas than just electricity. The text surrounding the lead up to the creation of the creature is vague or can interpreted in two ways. For example the words “spark of being” at first glance those words makes you immediately think about electricity but it could also mean a small trace of something or the fiery particles from something burning that was started by other means then electricity. Ones’ first impression of sparks is electricity but these could be so much more. Sparks are always something small but that can cause something bigger and not just by means of electricity. A mere fire starter requires a flint and steel that causes sparks and this leads to FIRE. No electricity is involved. The fire comes from the sparks created entering into tinder and then into larger fuel. The sparks talked about in the book entered into the creature’s body (the fuel) and took hold. Behold, Life! Once the fire burns through the fuel, it sputters and if not renewed, it goes out. Unless it is put out intentionally.

The English language is something that can be very hard to understand if you don’t ask what the speaker or author was trying to say. Another idea that leads the conversation to the idea of electricity in the creation is the time of when Shelley wrote her novel and it being the time of electrical pioneering. It is a leap of logic to assume that the items and way of phrasing things are due to the time period that she was in but also there is no way to ask her, people just wanted to provide an answer to a very popular novel. The words can mean so many different things, they could mean the magical or alchemical context along with what the text is telling us or even Mary is trying to tell a story but used “instruments of life,” spark of being,” and “convulsive motion” for a lack of better terms. Sadly no one has ever asked her what she wanted to say with those words but only inject the discussion of those words being in connection with electricity. Though we have to look closer at the text to see what the text is actually trying to say.

Now there are points that could dismiss the argument of the creature being a product of magical or alchemical means entirely since when Shelley wrote her novel when electrically powered technology became more and more prevalent. The voltaic pile was invented in 1800 which was able to probe materials and animate them as long as the current was there. So the “next logical step” as Kathryn Harkup put it Frankenstein is the progress of this thought of animating corpses. That is a good point especially since in 1780 galvanism became a thing and it help stimulate muscles when exposed to electricity. We know from the bibliography in the beginning of Frankenstein that Mary Shelley was a very academic person so she could have wrote Frankenstein with those ideas in mind. Harkup before talking about the inventions and theories that was around Shelley’s time, she mentioned how Alchemy had been in close association with Chemistry which Victor studied both of. She never really brings up direct correlation to the text about how Victor could have been just a chemist who was about to make a full functioning person from corpses. Harkup only really explains what type of science was like before and after Shelley’s time to talk about how Victor could just be a chemist. It’s a valid point because at the time of Frankenstein there were things that did what Victor did to create the creature but Victor’s experiment proved be the most successful one. That argument though sounding very full proof, it is just an association fallacy. Associating things that seem right but it is poor reasoning. Even though those inventions and theories were around during Shelley’s time the text doesn’t reflect that since it is vague or some words having more than one meaning like how I spoke about earlier in the paper.

The creature of Frankenstein is something of mystery in the literary world. Scholars say it is a product of scientifically means making the novel one of the biggest science fiction novels out there. The creature could also be a product of alchemical means. Victor followed philosophers of Natural philosophy that were also alchemists who talked about creating artificial beings. He wanted to search for the Philosopher’s stone and the elixir of life which also had rumors of raising the dead or dealt with bringing life. The text does can have multiple meaning and not just being associated with electricity. Usually, it talks only of the two items being together to animate or create life. The most known argument of the creature being made by electricity is something of a good point but is only based of associations of what sciences were going on in Shelley’s time. The possibilities for what Shelley could mean with her use of words like “spark of being” (Shelley 83) or “instruments of life” (Shelley 83) but there is more evidence to lead us to the idea of the entity being created by Victor from magical or even alchemical ways. The creature that Victor made is something that is very interesting to look at but it is shrouded in mystery for the novel’s interpretation is lost with the author Mary Shelley so we may never know what created the creature.