Medicine In Frankenstein: His University Years

This paper is about the medicine in Frankenstein and the years that Victor, the main character, spent in the university studying medicine. When he was 17 his parents decided that he should study at the University of Ingolstadt. Once he was there, his professors told him that everything that he had studied before about medicine was useless because it had been already denied. So he attended both classes of natural philosophy and chemistry. After some time of study and investigations, he tried to give life back to something dead.

Somehow he succeeded and decided to create a person using only parts of dead bodies. This became his great challenge. He finally achieved his purpose by creating a monster. An eight-foot man with the mind of a newborn. All of this was possible thanks to the medicine classes that he had been attending for a long time.

‘From this day natural philosophy, and particularly chemistry, in the most comprehensive sense of the term, became nearly my sole occupation.

’ In the nineteenth century, medicine continued growing. According to Cárdenas Historia Medicina, there was a great development in anatomy, with the study of pathological anatomy. Also, new techniques were incorporated into medicine, such as coloration, which is, according to Britannica, ‘the general appearance of an organism as determined by the quality and quantity of light that is reflected or emitted from its surfaces.’ There were some important scientific like Murcia 2 M. Schultze, W. His, P. Langerhans, and Camilo Golgi, that made some advances in those years.

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The improvements in medicine are reflected in the novel, as well as the new methods. This can be seen in the part in which Frankenstein arrives at the university and one of his professors tells him that everything that he has studied was in vain.

‘Every minute,’ continued M. Krempe with warmth, ‘every instant that you have wasted on those books is utterly and entirely lost. You have burdened your memory with exploded systems and useless names.’ New theories appeared and substituted the old ones. Furthermore, Victor makes also advances in anatomy by giving back life to parts of a dead body. This was something new and the fact that he could finally achieve his goal was extraordinary. He was also surprised because of this and that is why he ran away when he first saw the monster, and although he did that, he described his action as a catastrophe. ‘How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe.’ In the following lines, he describes how he chose the parts of the body carefully but it turned out to be a disaster, mostly because of his watery eyes, his yellow skin, his black lips, and a shriveled complexion. He regrets having spent 2 years creating such a body when in the end it became a horrible image; not what he expected.’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 ardor that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.’ In short, the medicine in the nineteenth century was changing, and it is reflected in this novel with the creation of the monster from dead parts of different bodies. This was a unique event that had not happened before. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the medicine during the years of the University of Victor Frankenstein and how he used his knowledge in science to create a life from dead people. In today’s science, there had been many advances and improvements. It has nothing to do with Murcia 3 the one used three centuries ago that would harm more than healing. Also, the use of medicine to heal the illnesses is more effective in some cases, but others still have no cure nor treatment. That is why scientists continue investigating about it, and try to find a way to treat and heal those people.