ABSTRACT

We know that the creature in Frankenstein must be a human/animal hybrid because Victor visits slaughterhouses for materials. But what was Victor gathering from slaughterhouses? And what did slaughterhouses evoke for nineteenth-century readers? I demonstrate that slaughterhouses were associated with death, disease, and especially blood. With no running water, drainage, and poor waste management systems, blood cascaded through the streets. This history suggests that Victor and nineteenth-century audiences would have likely seen slaughterhouses as a resource for blood. I present histories of slaughterhouses and blood transfusion experiments that produce a matrix of meaning: in the context of the slaughterhouses, blood signifies death, disease, and immorality; in the context of blood transfusion experiments, blood signifies life, health, and virtue. Both contexts are integral to understanding Frankenstein: Victor’s initial motivation is to discover a means to ‘renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption.’ When he brings the creature to life, Victor effectively uncouples death and ‘corruption’: the creature is alive, but its corruption – which I trace to the slaughterhouse – remains intact. Although blood transfusion experiments were imagined as bestowing life, health, and virtue, what Victor creates invigorates disease and corruption: life in a ‘corrupted’ body.

摘要

我们知道弗兰肯斯坦中的生物必须是人/动物的混合体，因为维克多去屠宰场寻找材料。但是维克多从屠宰场收集了什么？屠宰场给 19 世纪的读者带来了什么？我证明屠宰场与死亡、疾病，尤其是血液有关。由于没有自来水、排水系统和糟糕的废物管理系统，血液在街道上流淌。这段历史表明维克多和 19 世纪的观众很可能将屠宰场视为血液的来源。我展示了屠宰场和输血实验的历史，它们产生了一个意义矩阵：在屠宰场的背景下，血液意味着死亡、疾病和不道德；在输血实验中，血液象征着生命、健康和美德。弗兰肯斯坦：维克多最初的动机是找到一种方法来“在死亡显然使身体腐化的地方重生”。当他让这个生物复活时，维克多有​​效地将死亡和“腐化”分开了：这个生物还活着，但它的腐化——我追溯到屠宰场——仍然完好无损。虽然输血实验，想象中的那样赐予生命，健康和美德，什么维克托创建活血疾病和腐败现象：生活在一个“破坏”身上。