Excerpt from Shelley’s Frankenstein: see excerpts – Frankenstein
… One of the phenomena which had peculiarly attracted my
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attention was the structure of the human frame, and, indeed,
any animal endued with life. Whence, I often asked myself, did
the principle of life proceed? It was a bold question, and one
which has ever been considered as a mystery: yet with how
many things are we upon the brink of becoming acquainted,
if cowardice or carelessness did not restrain our enquiries.
I revolved these circumstances in my mind and determined
thenceforth to apply myself more particularly to those branches
of natural philosophy which relate to physiology. Unless I had
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been animated by an almost supernatural enthusiasm, my
application to this study would have been irksome and almost
intolerable. To examine the causes of life, we must first have
recourse to death. I became acquainted with the science of
anatomy, but this was not sufficient; I must also observe the
natural decay and corruption of the human body. In my
education my father had taken the greatest precautions that my
mind should be impressed with no supernatural horrors. I do not
ever remember to have trembled at a tale of superstition or to
have feared the apparition of a spirit. Darkness had no effect
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upon my fancy, and a churchyard was to be merely the
receptacle of bodies deprived of life, which, from being the seat
of beauty and strength, had become food for the worm. Now I
was led to examine the cause and progress of this decay and
forced to spend days and nights in vaults and charnel-houses.
My attention was fixed upon every object the most
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insupportable to the delicacy of the human feelings. I saw how
the fine form of man was degraded and wasted; I beheld the
corruption of death succeed to the blooming cheek of life; I saw
how the worm inherited the wonders of the eye and brain. I
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paused, examining and analysing all the minutiae of causation,
as exemplified in the change from life to death, and death to
life, until from the midst of this darkness a sudden light broke in
upon me—a light so brilliant and wondrous, yet so simple, that
while I became dizzy with the immensity of the prospect which
it illustrated, I was surprized that among so many men of genius
who had directed their enquiries towards the same science, that
I alone should be reserved to discover so astonishing a secret.
Remember, I am not recording the vision of a madman.
The sun does not more certainly shine in the heavens than that
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which I now affirm is true. Some miracle might have produced
it, yet the stages of the discovery were distinct and probable.
After days and nights of incredible labour and fatigue, I
succeeded in discovering the cause of generation and life; nay,
more, I became myself capable of bestowing animation upon
lifeless matter.
The astonishment which I had at first experienced on this
discovery soon gave place to delight and rapture. After so much
time spent in painful labour, to arrive at once at the summit of
my desires was the most gratifying consummation of my toils.
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But this discovery was so great and overwhelming that all
the steps by which I had been progressively led to it were
obliterated, and I beheld only the result. What had been the
study and desire of the wisest men since the creation of the
world was now within my grasp….
… Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my
example, how dangerous is the acquirement 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.
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When I found so astonishing a power placed within my
hands, I hesitated a long time concerning the manner in which
I should employ it. Although I possessed the capacity of
bestowing animation, yet to prepare a frame for the reception
of it, with all its intricacies of fibres, muscles, and veins, still
remained a work of inconceivable difficulty and labour. I
doubted at first whether I should attempt the creation of a
being like myself, or one of simpler organization; but my
imagination was too much exalted by my first success to permit
me to doubt of my ability to give life to an animal as complex
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and wonderful as man. The materials at present within my
command hardly appeared adequate to so arduous an
undertaking, but I doubted not that I should ultimately succeed.
I prepared myself for a multitude of reverses; my operations
might be incessantly baffled, and at last my work be imperfect;
yet when I considered the improvement which every day takes
place in science and mechanics, I was encouraged to hope my
present attempts would at least lay the foundations of future
success. Nor could I consider the magnitude and complexity of
my plan as any argument of its impracticability. It was with
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these feelings that I began the creation of a human being. As
the minuteness of the parts formed a great hindrance to my
speed, I resolved, contrary to my first intention, to make the
being of a gigantic stature; that is to say, about eight feet in
height, and proportionately large. After having formed this
determination and having spent some months in successfully
collecting and arranging my materials, I began.
No one can conceive the variety of feelings which bore me
onwards, like a hurricane, in the first enthusiasm of success.
Life and death appeared to be ideal bounds, which I should first
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break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world.
A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many
happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. No
father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I
should deserve theirs. Pursuing these reflections, I thought that
if I could bestow animation upon lifeless matter, I might in
process of time (although I now found it impossible) renew life
where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption.
These thoughts supported my spirits, while I pursued my
undertaking with unremitting ardour. My cheek had grown
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pale with study, and my person had become emaciated with
confinement. Sometimes, on the very brink of certainty, I failed;
yet still I clung to the hope which the next day or the next hour
might realize. One secret which I alone possessed was the hope
to which I had dedicated myself; and the moon gazed on my
midnight labours, while, with unrelaxed and breathless
eagerness, I pursued nature to her hiding-places. Who shall
conceive the horrors of my secret toil as I dabbled among the
unhallowed damps of the grave or tortured the living animal to
animate the lifeless clay? My limbs now tremble, and my eyes
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swim with the remembrance; but then a resistless and almost
frantic impulse urged me forward; I seemed to have lost all
soul or sensation but for this one pursuit. It was indeed but a
passing trance, that only made me feel with renewed acuteness
so soon as, the unnatural stimulus ceasing to operate, I had
returned to my old habits. I collected bones from charnel-houses
and disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of
the human frame. In a solitary chamber, or rather cell, at the top
of the house, and separated from all the other apartments by a
gallery and staircase, I kept my workshop of filthy creation: my
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eyeballs were starting from their sockets in attending to the
details of my employment. The dissecting room and the
slaughter-house furnished many of my materials; and often did
my human nature turn with loathing from my occupation, whilst,
still urged on by an eagerness which perpetually increased,
I brought my work near to a conclusion….
It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the
accomplishment of my toils. With an anxiety that almost
amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around
me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing
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that lay at my feet. It was already one in the morning; the rain
pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly
burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light,
I saw the dull yellow eye of the creation open; it breathed hard,
and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs.
How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how
delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I
had endeavoured to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I
had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God!
His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and
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arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing;
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his teeth of pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed
a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed
almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which
they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips.
The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the
feelings of human nature. I had worked hard for nearly two
years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate
body. For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had
desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but
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now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and
breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure
the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room
and continued a long time traversing my bedchamber, unable to
compose my mind to sleep. At length lassitude succeeded to
the tumult I had before endured, and I threw myself on the bed
in my clothes, endeavouring to seek a few moments of
forgetfulness. But it was in vain; I slept, indeed, but I was
disturbed by the wildest dreams. I thought I saw Elizabeth, in
the bloom of health, walking in the streets of Ingolstadt.
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Delighted and surprized, I embraced her, but as I imprinted the
first kiss on her lips, they became livid with the hue of death;
her features appeared to change, and I thought that I held the
corpse of my dead mother in my arms; a shroud enveloped her
form, and I saw the grave-worms crawling in the folds of the
flannel. I started from my sleep with horror; a cold dew
covered my forehead, my teeth chattered, and every limb
became convulsed; when, by the dim and yellow light of the
moon, as it forced its way through the window shutters, I
beheld the wretch—the miserable monster whom I had
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created. He held up the curtain of the bed; and his eyes, if eyes
they may be called, were fixed on me. His jaws opened, and he
muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his
cheeks. He might have spoken, but I did not hear; one hand
was stretched out, seemingly to detain me, but I escaped and
rushed downstairs. I took refuge in the courtyard belonging to
the house which I inhabited, where I remained during the rest
of the night, walking up and down in the greatest agitation,
listening attentively, catching and fearing each sound as if it
were to announce the approach of the daemoniacal corpse to
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which I had so miserably given life….
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