Chemical Tools In Frankenstein Essay

Tools: The Creator or the Creation Itself?

With the progression of scientific achievement, the enhancement of tools has paralleled. First there were instruments simply for survival; as time went on, the tools became exponentially more complex and powerful. However, as seen in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, when these aids come into the wrong hands, disaster strikes, and downfall of the creator or the created initiates. Throughout the novel, Victor Frankenstein utilizes chemical tools to create life rather than to better it, disregarding the consequences of such an action; thus, the motif of assorted instruments consistently appears, showing how tools can either aid in the construction or the collapse of survival. As stated in the Oxford English

Dictionary, a tool can be defined as “a thing (concrete or abstract) with which some operation is performed;” in a way, Frankenstein’s creature can be considered as much a tool as the instruments which enabled him, since he was created to aid Victor in his path to glory (OED s.v. tool, n. 2.a.). Whether metaphorical or literal, tools ranging from crude to sentient can have equally destructive consequences when used in a certain way, and the consistent appearance of both adds great depth to the novel.
In Victor’s early life, he knows few tools, so when he attends Ingolstadt for university, his ambition and experience increase exponentially.

Frankenstein becomes preoccupied with natural philosophy, enthralled by the fact that “in a scientific pursuit there is continual food for discovery and wonder” whereas in the past he has felt his ambition quelled by outside forces (Shelley 29). As a result, Victor “improved so rapidly that at the end of two years [he] made some discoveries in the improvement of some chemical instruments, which procured [him] great esteem and admiration at the university” (30). Not only does this mark Victor’s first relationship with his instruments of creation, but it also kindles the spark of glory he craves, beckoning him to continue down the path of creating his own

destruction.
Resulting from his brilliance, Frankenstein begins experimenting with the creation of life, since he believes that if he achieves such a supernatural task, “a new species would bless [him] as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to [him]” (32).

Thus, Victor bestows life into one of such a species, created from humanity but so utterly inhuman. This singular being, he believes, will answer his prayers of glory and act as a catalyst to his exaltation. However, Victor could not be more incorrect, since by only focusing on his vehicle to fame he fails to recognize that this creature will be a living, breathing, sentient being rather than an object. Upon this horrific realization, “the beauty of the dream vanished, and the breathless horror and disgust filled [his] heart” (35). As a result, Victor falls victim to nervous breaks and panic attacks, and “when [he] was otherwise quite restored to health, the sight of a chemical instrument would renew all agony of [his] nervous symptoms” (43). Even by associating tools with his ultimate yet malicious tool, the creature, Victor experiences agony, and therefore dissociates from his chemical instruments for the majority of the book until his creation appears again with a unique

request.
After listening to the creature’s stunning story and plea that a female of his same species be created, Victor, driven by his sense of duty and the reasoning of his creation, obliges to create a second monster. However, before committing another atrocity, Victor reflects “with a bitter anguish” of the promise he plans to fulfill, hiding his disgust as he orders “that his chemical instruments should be packed to go with [him]” (111). After years of attempting to forget his wrongdoings, Victor must face the truth of his acts and reconnect with the long-lost chemical instruments, tainted by the memory of his sinful deeds. However, such a plan to concoct an additional being ruminates inside him, since the “enthusiastic frenzy [that] had blinded [him] to the horror of [his] employment” no longer remains; Victor fully realizes that this new tool will not lead him to glory as he had hoped with the original, and rather he “went into it in cold blood” with his “heart often sickened at the work of [his] hands” (120).
When Victor witnesses his original instrument gazing upon his new creation with approval, disgust transforms into rage, and Frankenstein destroys the creation before its very birth. Initially, Frankenstein cares little about the consequences of his actions, and he only “shuddered to reflect” that he “must pack up [his] chemical instruments, and for that purpose [he] must enter the room which had been the scene of [his] odious work” (124). “With trembling hand,” Victor “unlocked the door of [his] laboratory” and witnessed the “remains of the half- finished creature… scattered on the floor” (124). Not only does he associate the tools with his downfall, but his tools also force him to face his ruin, metaphorically and literally.
While both the monster and the chemical instruments can be considered tools to Victor’s downfall, the creature reminds him of the atrocities he’s committed against humanity whereas the instruments emphasize that Victor alone created the monster from nothing. While they both appear consistently throughout the novel, the creature calls him to acknowledge his tool’s poorly-conceived conception through recompense, and the chemical instruments force him to relive his disobedience in all its gory details. Without the instruments, Victor couldn’t have produced the creature; without the creature, Victor couldn’t have realized his burden on humanity. Without such a dynamic between tool and creator, creator and created, created and tool, this novel would not stand out so vividly from other science-fiction, and the creature would remain nothing more than a monster.