Theres Def More That Are Slipping My Mind - Blog Posts

could you talk about. Autistic victor frankenstein. If you like. (reading 1818 and have brainworms)

it is my genuine opinion victor as a low empathy autistic person is a lot more sensible reading of victor's character then just "selfish dick" because a lot of his other behavior fits it. obviously, a disclaimer that I am fully aware autism did not exist as a disorder in the time the novel was written and mary shelley certainly didnt say "my protagonist will be autistic", but also autistic people always existed, etc. anyways!

special interests: this one's a given. victor's obsessive interest in alchemy in his later teens is the most obvious, and then later on in chemistry in university, but also victor states a lot that since he was very very young he wasfascinated by the workings of the world itself. admittedly this is made more apparent in 1831 with the "it was the secrets of heaven and earth that i desired to learn" and "the world was a secret which I desired to discover" and other lines, but it's also made quite plainly obvious by him talking about how excited he was just to watch a thunderstorm

low empathy: he can't pick up on the extent of the feelings of others, and paired with his own very strong emotions, is why i think we often see victor talk about how he's the world's most miserable human creature. it also leads to him saying some pretty rude things, like that he feels worse then justine who's on death row and telling ernest to stop crying over william so he doesnt get more upset

literalism: "i will be with you on your wedding night", very plainly did not catch what the creature was threatening bc he took his words at face value. he genuinely thought the creature would be with HIM on his wedding night. because that is what he said

volatile emotions: victor on repeated occasions goes from calm to very upset or vice versa very quickly. walton mentions it when talking about victor's tone: Sometimes he commanded his countenance and tones, and related the most horrible incidents with a tranquil voice, suppressing every mark of agitation; then, like a volcano bursting forth, his face would suddenly change to an expression of the wildest rage, as he shrieked out imprecations on his persecutor.

repetitive speech: this comes up multiple times in the book in victor's dialogue, where when he gets agitated or upset he tends to repeat words and phrases. i cannot thing of examples off the top of my head but they are definitely there

repetitive body motions: victor repeatedly gnashes his teeth was agitated or irritated, the creature also does this once as I recall but I believe victor does it about three times