Electricity
Although Mary Shelley finesses the
scientific instrumentation of her novel
-- and she could hardly do otherwise in allowing Victor to overstep the
known boundaries of science -- in this scene she clearly prepares us to
understand that the dynamic secret of life Victor will discover is
intimately connected to electricity as a "vital fluid." Her
use of the term "spark of being" at the point of the Creature's coming
into existence (1.4.1) seems intended
to follow through on this conceptualization.
