Editor's Choice
How long does Victor take to create his creature in Frankenstein?
Quick answer:
Victor takes nearly two years to create his creature in Frankenstein. This duration is mentioned in chapter five, where Victor reflects on his hard work and obsession with understanding life and death. Throughout this period, Victor's studies and experiments become all-consuming, leading him to neglect his own life and relationships.
To answer this question, take a look at chapter five of the novel. Early in this chapter, Victor states that he has spent close to two years creating his creature:
I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body.
The desire to build the creature came from Victor's passion for the natural sciences, particularly for physiology, which he developed shortly after arriving at the University of Ingolstadt. Victor believed that if he was going to uncover the mystery of life, he would first have to understand the mystery of death. He spent many hours collecting and studying corpses, trying desperately to understand life and death. In fact, these private studies quickly became an all-consuming obsession.
It was Victor's deepest hope that by understanding life and death, he could dramatically improve the human experience. He also dreams of being the creator...
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of a new species. However, his creature proves to be so initially frightening that he cannot bear to look at it. It is this fear which prompts Victor to leave his creature and hope that he will never see it again.
Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein depicts the life of a "student of unhallowed arts" and his success at reanimating life. Shelley's Victor, created as the result of a nightmare, began his life "kneeling beside the thing he had put together" (taken from the 1831 Introduction to Frankenstein).
Mirroring Shelley's challenges with coming up with a ghost story, as part of the compact made between Lord Byron, John Polidori, Percy Bysshe Shelley (her husband) and herself, Victor's success at reanimating life did not come easily. Instead, it took almost two years for Victor and his trials to see success. Almost two years after his experimentation began, Victor, on a "dreary night of November," was able to behold "the accomplishments of his toils."
I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body.
Readers can see the impact the two years it took to create his "son" had on Victor. He openly admits that, over the prior years, he ignored both his own life and the lives of his friends and family. The two years it took to create his "son" were long and unsatisfying.