Frankenstein

## Doctor Frankenstein

Frankenstein in the creature's arms

> *"Thus, the scientist **shuns** all of society, launching himself **headfirst** into the forbidden tundras of the **unknown!"***
>
>

> - Frankenstein (Ch6, p11)
>
>

"Dr." Victoria Frankenstein is a self proclaimed 'mad scientist' who developed reanimation through Galvanic Hydrotherapy in what was likely the 1840's and was said (inaccurately) to have died in the arctic. She had a memoire published about her exploits (though not her methods) entitled *The Mad Galvinist*, likely published by Captain Robert Walton as her scribe. Her character is based upon the character Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley's gothic literature classic *Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus* (1818). Victoria Frankenstein holds a deep and stubborn distaste for notions of convention, society, and legality. She is one of the primary antagonists in The Glass Scientists.

## Appearance

Frankenstein is an older woman of 55 with thick eyebrows, long blonde hair kept in a loose ponytail, and green eyes. She wears small circular wire framed glasses on the bridge of her nose, and is most frequently seen wearing warm, masculine attire. She wears a dark brown scarf, knee high boots, and elbow length gloves, a tan fur lined coat, a beige single breasted waistcoat, and dark khaki trousers.

## Personality

Frankenstein can be described as passionate, scathing, and unabashedly contrarian. She has an all consuming love for science and its integrity, and a similarly burning hatred for anything she perceives to oppose it. Even at her health's lowest point, she readily waxes poetic about its importance.

She loves to tell stories about her adventures, especially those unpublished after her main story's end, and when she's not bedridden completely, she spends her time in the Society on escape attempts, entertaining the Lodgers, and menial experiments.

She is not without nuance, of course, and despite seeming unwaveringly self absorbed, even blindly so, it is for her legacy and her scientific accomplishments, not the full scope of the events that transpired within her memoire. She's speculated by Creature to still regret what consequences they wrought, such as the death of her closest friend, Henry Clerval, and (at least in the book,) wife, Elizabeth Lavenza.

## Biography

A written full length summary of Frankenstein's life through Chapter 8 of The Glass Scientists.

Several years before the start of The Glass Scientists, (assuming her portrayal is faithful to the *Modern Prometheus,*) Frankenstein, aged approximately 19, defied all sense of morality in her pursuit to create life from the dead, with the end goal of an entirely new being. This resulted in the creation of her Creature. His visage disgusted her and she fled, abandoning him shortly after his 'birth'. He went on, eventually swearing vengeance against her for her selfishness and thus cruelty to him.

In her memoire, Elizabeth and Victor are presumably wed, or at very least romantically involved, but Victoria now never speaks of Elizabeth, leaving the exact details between her and Elizabeth up to interpretation. Creature hints in Chapter 7, page 15 that Frankenstein may have indeed had feelings for Elizabeth Lavenza, so it's presumable that the two had likely been in some sort of relationship.

After the approximately two years that Victoria lost track of the Creature, he went on to kill Frankenstein's younger brother, William, Frankenstein's best friend, Henry Clerval, and finally, Elizabeth. Enraged and racked with despair, Frankenstein chased the Creature across the globe, ending in the arctic where it was assumed that the two finally perished.

After *The Mad Galvinist* was published, retelling Frankenstein's escapades, her story became exceedingly popular. Throughout the 1850's, it inspired many different adaptations and plays. Her story inspired many scientists the world over, introducing many youths to the wonders of science. Even so, many adaptations in Britain, such as the Diodati Theater Company's "The Mad Galvinist", in accordance to Victorian attitudes and habit, only showed mad science as a dazzling but frightening spectacle, and often only something to be heavily condemned, feeding into the public's extant fears of the unknown (with varying degrees of success). Henry Jekyll himself was among those inspired by Frankenstein's story as a child, and he subsequently resolved to become a scientist like her.

Frankenstein's first appearance was on Chapter 3, page 22, seen held prone in the arms of the Creature. Though the world believed she'd died, she had in all actuality been living in the wilderness, and she'd gotten herself gravely sick. The Creature tried again and again to find medical help for her, but no matter where they went, they were either kicked out, or Frankenstein escaped. As a last resort, the Creature brought Frankenstein across Great Britain to London in search of Dr. Jekyll and his help. It was there that they encountered Hyde, who led them to the Society for Arcane Sciences.

However, the journey to save Frankenstein proved perilous. As they crossed the northern border into England, the pair caught the attention of the vivisectionist, Dr. Moreau, who'd wanted to study the Creature. Frankenstein was temporarily hospitalized in the Foyer of the Society while he and his experiments were fought off. After his detainment, Frankenstein awoke soon after to express her strong distaste for London, Jekyll, and all he stands for. She quickly charmed the Lodgers, capturing their hearts (or at least attention) with her reputation as a mad scientist and her verbose, yet inspiring speeches.

Of course, she still did her best to escape the Society throughout her stay, or at least to inconvenience and mock Jekyll at every turn, but despite her obstinance, he was still able to finally identify her ailment and provide her treatment. Thus, she was forced to stay at the Society for another week until her treatment's conclusion (though both she and Jekyll would likely have preferred her leave there and then).
## Trivia

* She is acknowledged not to really be a Doctor of anything at all.
	+ In *Frankenstein, the Modern Prometheus*, Victor Frankenstein was a college dropout. Despite his real world pop culture reputation from movies and other modern adaptations, he never became a certified doctor at all in the original novel. The same can assumedly be said of Victoria Frankenstein; her reputation as a Doctor was likely built on pop culture dramatization in universe as well.
* Despite English not being her first language, she most often speaks in confident and detailed prose.
* As she was born in Switzerland and studied in Ingolstadt, Germany, Frankenstein is noted to likely speak with a heavy Swiss-German accent.
	+ Common phonetic writing of German accents (such as replacing "th" with "z" or "s", and replacing "w" and "wh" with "v", e.g. "Vot is zis?") is never used in The Glass Scientists, however, on account of it being "cartoonish and distracting".
		- However, this isn't so for an affiliated but now non-canon work of Sage Cotugno's, which features a different, earlier interpretation of Frankenstein. (See: The Cliffs of Insanity) This prototype version of Frankenstein was male, dark haired, and his accent was written phonetically throughout his appearances in most all works which he appeared, from approximately 2011-2013.
* While details such as her gender and death were changed in the memoire, most of the major events which transpired, not to mention the animosity between the Creature and Frankenstein, are said by Creature to all be real in their entirety.
* The memoire itself was adopted into several plays and spin off stories, especially popular during the 1850's, inspiring countless scientists the world over.
* The 30 year gap between the memoire's publication and the present day were spent in almost complete isolation with her Creature.
* Frankenstein places a great importance on the aestheticism of mad science.
* Frankenstein absolutely detests London, and detests Dr. Jekyll.
* The 'mysterious' deteriorative illness that stumped so many doctors before Jekyll and ultimately brought Frankenstein to the Society for treatment is revealed in Chapter 8 to be spotted fireeater skink poisoning.
	+ This is to be addressed with an approximately week-long treatment of young willow's ash and consecrated myrrh.
* There was a plot point planned for Chapter 7 and then speculatively moved to Chapter 9, in which Frankenstein and Hyde would both sneak out from the Society and bond over graverobbing.
	+ This has been since dropped or delayed indefinitely, at first on account of it undermining the events of Chapter 5 (and overly-lengthening chapter 7), then perhaps further delayed or dropped for interfering with the flow of events in chapters 9 and 10.

## Quotes

> *"Creature! You **Judas!** You have delivered me to the very belly of the **Lion's Den!"***
>
>

> *"Hmm. You're mixing your biblical metaphors again."*
>
>

> *"Gott im himmel, you have taken me to **London!** Don't you know the air here is **poison?** You have **killed** me!"*
>
>

> - Frankenstein and Creature (Ch6 p7)
>
>

> *"You are the industrialist **slut** who is destroying the very **soul** of mad science!"*
>
>

> - Frankenstein to Jekyll (Ch6 p8)
>
>

> *"I did not need to be **rescued** like some helpless damsel. I had made **peace** with my fate. Any **true** scientist would be **happy** to die for his work."*
>
>

> - (Ch8 p13)
>
>

> *"Calm yourself, Doctor Henry. You are contaminating the **data.**"*
>
>

> - (Ch11 p10)
>
>

## Gallery

Chapter 4, page 7Chapter 6, page 7Chapter 6, page 8Chapter 6, page 11Chapter 6, page 24Chapter 6, page 25Chapter 7, page 16Chapter 7, page 19Chapter 8, page 13
## Works Cited

1. ↑ "The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein" posted to Deviantart December 22nd, 2011
2. ↑ Chapter 7, page 15.
*"An old childhood friend of Frankenstein's. Maybe **more.**" - Creature*
3. ↑ FAQ - Story and Characters.
4. ↑ The author's note below Chapter 6, page 7.
5. ↑ The author's note below Chapter 7, page 10.