Victors friend. He is adventurous and wants to be known and famous. Henry Clerval is every bit as intelligent as Victor Frankenstein, if not more so. However, his intelligence is combined with a deeply compassionate nature that sets him apart from his more egoistic friend.
Clerval is killed by The Monster in Scotland in revenge for Frankenstein not keeping his promise to create him a companion. And, unlike Victor, Henry has no interest in science. He's into the "moral relations of things," a tricky phrase that means something like, "how to be a good person. He wants to be famous for being a "gallant and adventurous benefactor of our species" 2. In other words, he's our humanities guy.
While Victor blows up his mom's garage with a chemistry set, Henry is reading superhero comics. The nice superheroes. So why doesn't he intervene?
Why doesn't he keep Victor from creating a murderous monster? Because Victor never tells him. Clerval is perceptive—he's " always quick in discerning the sensations of others " 6.
Big mistake. What we can't decide is this: is Victor subtly blaming Clerval? Would this whole tragedy somehow been averted if Clerval had been a good enough friend to make Victor confess?
At the age of 13, Victor discovers the works of Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus, and Albertus Magnus, all alchemists from an earlier age. His voracious appetite for knowledge thus begins, and eventually leads him to study science and alchemy.
At age 15, Victor witnesses an electrical storm that peaks his interest in electricity and possible applications for its use. Victor tells how he and Elizabeth are brought up together as "there was not quite a year difference in our ages. The reader now sees a small glimpse of Victor's obsession with knowledge and learning. It is not unlike Mary Shelley's own lust for learning as a child and as the wife of Percy Shelley.
Victor is the seeker of knowledge, "delighting in investigating their causes. When Victor's parents return to Geneva to settle down, Victor is more solitary, doesn't like crowds, and finds himself alone at school.
He befriends Henry Clerval, a Romantic character, who becomes his life-long pal. Henry is a writer and poet, a more creative person than the scientifically minded Victor. We now begin to see Victor's personality type as sometimes "violent and my passions vehement. At the age of 13, Victor makes a discovery that forever changes his life. A storm confines him to remain inside one day where he discovers a volume of Cornelius Agrippa's works.
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