My imagination, unbidden, possessed and guided me
With an uncanny artistry that must be considered deliberate, in this and
the next paragraph Mary Shelley
internalizes within her own writing the
imaginative process by which Victor Frankenstein is first swept along by
his scientific advances ("my imagination was too much exalted," 1.3.5 and note), then becomes concerned by their
obsessiveness ("[it] had taken an irresistible hold of my imagination," 1.3.7 and note), and finally finds himself
haunted by his own terrifying creation ("I imagined that the monster
seized me," 1.4.7). Throughout the
novel,
although the power of the human imagination is universally underscored,
its uses or effects are as much deeply questioned as they are celebrated.
In her introduction Mary Shelley appears to be purposefully collapsing the
customary distinction between the curiosity of the scientist and the
creative afflatus of the writer, a design we see carried out as well in
the novel itself. Following these introductory materials, we will turn
immediately, as yet a third example of the same elemental process, to the
imaginative enthusiasm with which Robert Walton foresees his polar
explorations (Letter 1.2).
