Frankenstein Lab Reports

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley illustrates the results of Victor Frankenstein’s experiment in bringing new life to the world through a frame narrative depicting multiple layers of recollection and observation. Considering Victor’s scientific exploration is the inciting incident that gives rise to The Creature’s conflicts in the narrative, it seemed unreasonable that a formal, written report depicting the experimental methods of bringing The Creature to life was not included in the book. The generation of a formal lab report fills the scientific void left by the text, providing the avenue for Victor to convey his experiences creating The Creature. Furthermore, writing a lab report as a creative outlet appeals to my interests and area of study

Historical accuracy, even in the midst of a creative journey, is one of the main aspects I wanted to include in my work in order to remain consistent with the work of Mary Shelley and the time period in which Frankenstein was set. This guided me to do some initial research on the technology and scientific capabilities of the eighteenth century setting of Frankenstein as well as the early nineteenth century to include the advancements that influenced Shelley’s creation. Most of the research consisted of identifying the timeline of innovation, especially as it relates to Benjamin Franklin’s lightning rod, the invention of Leyden jars, and the research of galvanism. This allowed me to identify the resources Victor could have used to harness, store, and direct electricity. Although I employed much of my knowledge and experience pertaining to batteries, capacitors, and soldering, which I greatly relied on in order to convey a realistic experimental process, significant creative liberty was used in designing a method to harness electricity from lightning. Inspired by Victor’s fascination with lightning and thunderstorms after a lightning strike split a tree in two, I specifically chose lightning as the source of the voltage in the

According to the National Weather service, a lightning strike has an average of 300 million volts, and, in comparison, a typical household has 120 volts. The lab report was designed to suggest that Victor was handling a very high voltage in a workspace with unreliable safety conditions. Due to these safety concerns, Victor would have not survived connecting the electrodes to the figure and monitoring its development for the duration of the three hour experiment. Victor dying during the final step of his experiment acts as preemptive karma for irresponsibly parenting and guiding The Creature as his creator and father-figure. Similarly, the inclusion of religiously significant numbers, including the numbers seven, three, and forty, highlighted Victor’s god complex. I also decided to never capitalize “The Creature” in the report because capitalization suggests that “The Creature” serves as a name for a human or a living being. The narrative suggests that Victor did not recognize the humanity of his creation because he merely saw The Creature as a byproduct of scientific expiration. Victor’s disdain regarding his creation was emphasized as he describes The Creature as a “wretch” that caused the “beauty of the dream to vanish, and breathless horror and disgust [to fill] my heart,” which demonstrates the lack of humanity Victor gave The Creature (Shelley, 42).