Frankenstein

CHAPTER 2: The Story of Victor Frankenstein - Told in His Own Words

My family comes from Geneva. My father worked hard when he was a young man. So hard, in fact, that he thought of nothing other than his duty to his country. Even love seemed less important. He didn't marry until he was much older.

The true nature of my father's goodness can be seen in the story of how he and my mother came to be married. My father had  a dear friend named Beaufort who lost everything and fell on hard times. His life as he knew it was ruined. Beaufort barely had enough money to pay backwhat he owed before he and his daughter moved to Lucerne. After what had happened, Beaufort did not want to see his friends. He was a proud man who didn't want anyone to see what had become of him.

For ten long years my father looked for his friend. He thought he could make Beaufort come home. He wanted to help him get back on his feet again.

When he finally found him, the situation was far worse than my father had imagined. Beaufort was very sick. His daughter Caroline, had lost her job because she had to care of him. Together, they had little more than a few cents to rub together. In spite of her hard life, Caroline had remained kind and tender-hearted. My father saw this and fell in love with her.

Beaufort's heath grew worse, and he died within a few months. Caroline was very upset. Not only was she poor, but now she was all alone in the world. The day of her father's funeral she cried and cried. What else could she do? She fell down beside the coffin and wept. Her father's death upset her, but she also wondered what would happened to her now.

My father gently lifted her up from her knees. He told her he would bring her back to Geneva and take care of her. They married two years later.

Despite the difference in their ages, my parents had a happy marriage. They loved and repected each other. My father left his job to spend more time with her. Long years caring for her father had made my mother's own health poor. To make her feel better, my parents traveled to the warmer climates of Italy. I was born in Naples, and went with them in all of their trips. My parents loved me completely.

When I was five years old, we visited Lake Como. My mother often helped out with poor families during our travels. She wanted to give back to the world, helping others just as my father had helped her. During our stay on Lake Como, she came across a man and his wife caring for their very large family. A pretty girl with fair skin, blond hair, and beatiful blue eyes stood out from the rest. She was very sweet, and my mother fell in love with her at once.

Mother visited with the family for many days and spent a lot of time helping the poor mother and her large family. She brought food and clothes, spent time with the children, and had a lovely time. During her stay, my mother watched the beautiful girl closely. She saw her gentle nature, her good manners, and her kind laugh.

One afternoon, my mother and the woman sat talking. The children were playing in front of them, laughing and running.

The woman told my mother that the girl was not her daughter. She had come to the family after her parents had died, leaving her an orphan/ The woman said that although the girl had come from a rich family, she had no money now. My mother's heart almost burst at that moment. The girl's story was so similar to her own taht she asked if the girl could come to live with us. The woman agreed, and that's how the beautiful Elizabeth Lavenza came to live as a part of our family.

I loved Elizabeth from the first time I saw her. She was a bright and charming child who became my whole world. We never fought or even spoke a mean word to each other. We were very different, but that only made us love one another even more. Elizabeth loved poetry and pretty things: wild flowers, sunshine, and butterflies. I loved science, the nature world, and great thinkers.

The world was a big secret that I wanted to solve. Elizabeth liked how things looked, but I wanted to figure out what made them work. We worked together on all of our studies, spending hours walking about the fields, swimming in the lakes, and reading until all hours of the night.

After my brother Ernest was born, my parents decided to return home for good. We settled into a house in Geneva and bought a small cottage in Bellerive, on the eastern shore of Lake Geneva. We lived in the country far more than in the city. It was a great place to grow up.

Elizabeth and I spent every moment together. We were often joined by our friend, Henry Clerval. He was outgoing and fun-loving. We three were as different as night and day, but we loved one another all the same. The three of us had a very happy childhood. They were my best friends, and I knew we would always be closed.

I was a serious child with a very busy mind. I wanted to learn everything and anything. The secret of Heaven and Earth fascinated me to no end. All I thought about was a world wround me: How does it work? Why we are here? How did we all get here? What makes something alive? If my study made me rough and angry, as they often did, Elizabeth could calm me down. When I became too focused on one subject, Henry made me laugh.

As I grew older, I fell deeper and deeper into my studies. The power of modern science amazed me. I read al the time and filled notebook after notebook with my thoughts. The words of scientists became my life. The more I studied, the more I wanted to know. I read more and more. But the more I read, the more upset I became. No one scientist ever really answered my questions. No one book ever told me exactly what I wanted to know. My mind raced on and on, often all night. My friends and family were kind and ignored my moods. They were supportive even though I spent far too much time with my nose buried in dusty old books.

Nature remained a wonder and a mystery too me. I looked for the secret of life. In truth, I wanted to creat life - but I knew I could not do so. Time and money meant little to me. The only thing I cared about was making a great discovery. Maybe I could save humankind from disease. Maybe I could stop a violent death. Perhaps I could finally answer those mysterious questions.

The summer I turned fifteen, we were staying at our summerhouse. A violent and terrible storm came on almost without warning. Thunder burst high in the sky. The heavens were alive with flashes of light. I stood at our back door and stared at the clouds, watching the weather unfold. Suddenly, thunder boomed all around! A split second later, a bolt of lightning crashed from the sky and hit an old oak tree right in front of me. The force of the blast split the tree in half and it burst into flame.

When I went out to look at the tree the next morning, all I found was a burned stump and wood scattered everywhere.

I became very focused on eletricity. I needed to know how all that power found its way into a bolt of lightning. I started with the basics and taught myself math. I knew the basics held the key to making my own power. The logic of number soom swam around my brain. Maybe if I had known then what would happen to me in later years, I would have stopped - but fate worked in its own way, and the storm happen for a reason.