The Cause Of Death In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Frankenstein, in his quest to cure death, experiences a deific feeling when “[he] became capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter” (Shelley 37). His labors previously had been the study of the degeneration of cells, “the corruption of death succeed[ing] to the blooming cheek of life” (Shelley 37), yet his charnel house of study did not prepare him to look upon that “dull yellow eye of the creature [as it] opened” or the “convulsive motion [that] agitated its limbs” (Shelley 42). The beauty of his work had taken on a new form, and Frankenstein’s eyes, like the monster’s, were opened for the first time. His festive preoccupation gave way to
horror.