Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
by Mary Shelley
Contents
Chapter II
Overview
Victor recalls a harmonious childhood with Elizabeth and Henry Clerval, contrasting their temperaments and influences. A chance discovery of Agrippa sparks Victor’s obsession with alchemy, unintentionally abetted by his father’s curt dismissal. A violent storm and an expert’s account of electricity overturn Victor’s occult studies, pushing him toward mathematics while ominously foreshadowing his ruin.
Summary
Victor describes his close upbringing with Elizabeth Lavenza, whose calm admiration of beauty balances Victor’s fervent desire to uncover nature’s causes. Settled near Geneva, Victor bonds with Henry Clerval, an imaginative boy devoted to chivalry and benevolence. Elizabeth’s gentleness tempers both boys, fostering Victor’s gratitude and domestic happiness.
From early on, Victor’s passions fix on the “secrets of heaven and earth,” not languages or politics. During a rainy day at Thonon at age thirteen, Victor discovers Cornelius Agrippa. His father casually dismisses the book as “sad trash,” but offers no explanation, and this slight fuels Victor’s zeal for Agrippa, then Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus, and dreams of the philosopher’s stone and the elixir of life.
Victor imagines banishing disease and even raising spirits, attributing failures to his own inexperience. He flounders through contradictory occult theories, driven by ambition and naiveté, until a dramatic event alters his course.
At fifteen, a violent storm obliterates a nearby oak with lightning. An esteemed natural philosopher present explains electricity and galvanism, eclipsing Victor’s occult idols. Disillusioned, Victor abandons natural history as vague and impotent, and turns to mathematics for its solid foundations.
Victor frames this shift as a last-minute victory of a “guardian angel” that briefly brings calm; yet he concludes destiny is stronger. This momentary retreat from alchemy, he suggests, could not avert the destructive fate already gathering over him.
Who Appears
- Victor FrankensteinNarrator; recalls idyllic childhood, burgeoning thirst for hidden laws, and pivotal turn from alchemy to mathematics.
- Elizabeth LavenzaVictor’s gentle companion; admires beauty and softens Victor and Clerval with kindness and sympathy.
- Henry ClervalVictor’s closest friend; imaginative, chivalric, and benevolent, inspired by heroic tales and moral ideals.
- Victor’s fatherBriefly dismisses Agrippa as “sad trash,” inadvertently deepening Victor’s fascination with occult science.
- Natural philosopher (unnamed)Explains electricity and galvanism after the storm, overturning Victor’s faith in alchemy.