Elsinore's Rose Garden 🌹

(All quotations and page numbers are taken from the 1994 Dover Thrift Edition)

Short Version:

“When I had attained the age of seventeen, my parents resolved, that I should become a student at the university of Ingolstadt.” (Chapter III page 23)

 “My departure was therefore fixed at an early date” (Chapter III page 23)

Ok. So Victor is seventeen when his parents decide he should attend Ingolstadt. It could be implied from “when I had attained the age” that this decision happened closely following Victor’s birthday, that this decision was made *because* Victor turned seventeen, though this is definitely speculation and not proof. His departure is fixed for “an early date” so it’s not like they decided they would send him when he was twenty. He would go imminently, still at age seventeen.

Here we have a count of Victor’s years at Ingolstadt from his own mouth, as he finally journeys home to Geneva:

“I passed through scenes familiar to my youth, but which I had not seen for nearly six years” (Chapter VII 48)

“Six years had elapsed, passed as a dream but for one indelible trace, and I stood in the same place where I had last embraced by father before my departure for Ingolstadt” (Chapter VII 51)

When Victor returns home, he seems quite bent on telling us that it has been six years since he was last there. Six years since he departed for Ingolstadt as a seventeen-year-old. He also mentions that:

“Two years had now nearly elapsed since the night on which [the Creature] first received life” (Chapter VII 50)

If six years have elapsed since Victor’s departure at age seventeen, he is now roughly twenty-three. Two years ago he would have been twenty-one. If one believes Victor was eighteen upon his arrival in Ingolstadt, he would have been twenty-two. 

There you have it, on the evidence of the text itself, Victor was likely 21, no more than 22 when he brought Creature to life.

Long Version (This is nitty-gritty specifics, tons of quotations, a little repetitive, and probably only interesting to you if you’re as crazed as me):

“When I had attained the age of seventeen, my parents resolved, that I should become a student at the university of Ingolstadt.” (Chapter III page 23)

 “My departure was therefore fixed at an early date” (Chapter III page 23)

Ok. So Victor is seventeen when his parents decide he should attend Ingolstadt. It could be implied from “when I had attained the age” that this decision happened closely following Victor’s birthday, that this decision was made *because* Victor turned seventeen, though this is definitely speculation and not proof. His departure is fixed for “an early date” so it’s not like they decided they would send him when he was twenty, he would go imminently, presumably still at age seventeen.

“My departure for Ingolstadt, which had been deferred by these events, was now again determined upon. I obtained from my father a respite of some weeks.” (Chapter III page 24)

The loss of Victor’s mother to scarlet fever disrupts the family’s original plans, but does not prevent Victor’s being sent away. I wasn’t able to find a definite answer, but scarlet fever seems to run its course in a matter of weeks or less, so this shouldn’t be a terribly major jump in the timeline. Even after this delay (seemingly a delay of a few weeks or less) Victor’s departure is only postponed by a few weeks. Maybe a few months altogether, between the illness in the family and the granted respite. If my theory is right that Victor’s departure was decided on around the time of Victor’s birthday, this wouldn’t affect his age. If we were to disregard that theory, it could be possible that Victor turned eighteen during this time, but as mere months have passed and not years, he could be no older than eighteen, and I think it even more likely that he was seventeen when he arrived in Ingolstadt.

“Two years passed in this manner, during which I paid no visit to Geneva, but was engaged, heart and soul, in the pursuit of some discoveries which I hoped to make” (Chapter IV page 29)

“at the end of two years, I made some discoveries in the improvement of some chemical instruments, which procured me great esteem and admiration at the university.” (Chapter IV page 29)

These quotations imply a two year period of time in which Victor is studying at Ingolstadt without working towards his future project of bestowing life on inanimate matter. Surely that could be the discovery he *hopes* to make, but as of these two years, he has not made that discovery, nor has he started any practical work upon it. These years seem to have been dedicated to more typical courses of study as well as some discoveries of a less tragedy-begetting kind. 

“When I found so astonishing a power placed within my hands, I hesitated a long time concerning the manner in which I should employ it.” (Chapter IV page 32)

After Victor does discover the secret to bestowing life he hesitates “a long time” before he puts it to use (which, good for him. I’m glad he did. But maybe you should have… talked to someone about it, Victor? Asked for advice? Thought about *consequences*, my dear boy?) and after his initial two years at Ingolstadt. We can’t say how long this period was, but from the other records of time, it doesn’t seem to have been longer than a few months, at most.

“The summer months passed while I was thus engaged, heart and soul, in one pursuit.” (Chapter IV page 33)

“Winter, spring, and summer passed away during my labors” (Chapter IV page 34)

“The leaves of that year had withered before my work drew to a close” (Chapter IV page 34)

“It was on a dreary night of November, that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils” (Chapter V page 34)

Victor has at last begun his notorious project, and we see summer, presumably fall, winter, spring, summer, and another fall pass away in his labors. His dedication to and work on this project very well could have begun earlier than he documented here, for next he states:

“I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body” (Chapter V page 35)

There we go. In his own clear words. If we take all the prior claims as true, that Victor arrived at Ingolstadt at the age of seventeen (eighteen at the latest), spent two years in study prior to beginning work on Creature, then “nearly two years” on the project of reanimation it self, then on that fated “dreary night of November,” he was either twenty-one or twenty-two. 

Four years after his arrival in Ingolstadt, or a little more if we consider his hesitation of what to do with the power of life to have been a matter of months, rather than weeks. Four and a half years at the most.

“This was the commencement of a nervous fever, which confined me for several months” (Chapter V page 38)

The morning after that Dreary Night™️, Henry Clerval arrives, and Victor promptly collapses into a nervous fever for several months (Understandably so. Lord knows this boy wouldn't recognize self-care if it smacked him in the face and even then he would probably have a heart-attack at the mere sight of it). Meaning this fever began in November.

“I perceived that the fallen leaves had disappeared and that the young buds were shooting forth from the trees that shaded my window” (Chapter V page 39)

By the time Victor is recovered enough to be aware of his surroundings, it’s sometime in spring. The months of that nervous fever carried us from November to spring.

“Summer passed away in these occupations, and my return to Geneva was fixed for the latter end of autumn, but being delayed by several accidents, winter and snow arrived, the roads were deemed impassable, and my journey was retarted until the ensuing spring” (Chapter VI page 44-45)

Here we account for summer, autumn, and winter, being spent in Ingolstadt with Clerval, bringing us to the following spring:

“The month of May had already commenced, and I expected the letter daily which was to fix the date of my departure” (Chapter VI 45)

The letter Victor anticipates (though filled with dreadfully unanticipated news) is dated May 12th, and he likely received it not terribly long after. From Victor’s recovery from his illness to the arrival of the letter that summons him home, roughly one year elapses, or a year and a half after the creation of Creature. Roughly five and a half years, closer to six years if we’re giving Victor a generous amount of time for his hesitation between his original studies and the beginning of his work on Creature, since his arrival at Ingolstadt at age seventeen.

And to finalize those numbers, here we have the count of years from Victor’s own mouth, as he journeys home to Geneva:

“I passed through scenes familiar to my youth, but which I had not seen for nearly six years” (Chapter VII 48)

“Six years had elapsed, passed as a dream but for one indelible trace, and I stood in the same place where I had last embraced by father before my departure for Ingolstadt” (Chapter VII 51)

When Victor returns home, he seems quite bent on telling us that it has been six years since he was last there. Six years since he departed for Ingolstadt as a seventeen-year-old. He also mentions that:

“Two years had now nearly elapsed since the night on which [the Creature] first received life” (Chapter VII 50)

If six years have elapsed since Victor’s departure at age seventeen, he is now roughly twenty-three. Two years ago he would have been twenty-one. If one believes Victor was eighteen upon his arrival in Ingolstadt, he would have been twenty-two. 

This means. That from the evidence of the text itself. Victor is 21 when he brings Creature to life. 22 at the very latest.

Stars, I love having evidence and definitive ages 🥹

Was I sad to discover he was not a quite a teenager as I suspected him to be? Yes. Am I happy about him being this exact age for other reasons? Also yes.

So yeah. Victor was young. Maybe not a teenager, but certainly closer to a teen than to the crazed old man he’s often portrayed as. 

21 and having lived in grief, relative isolation, and ill-health for the preceding four-ish years of his life. Please read him with compassion <3

Do I have quotations collected from the entire rest of the book in an attempt to figure out his age throughout the whole novel