A Letter to Alphonse

I chose to write a letter to Alphonse from my character, Henry Clerval, telling him of the new developments regarding his son’s illness because it seemed like something that the character would do out of concern for both Victor and the Frankenstein family. As it says in the novel, Henry spent a lot of time in the Frankenstein household growing up, so he would naturally be comfortable with Alphonse and feel a sense of respect for his friend’s father. I used the words “regret to burden you” when referencing the information Clerval is about to tell Alphonse because Clerval is a character who seems to care about others and wouldn’t want to upset them for no reason. As it says in the novel, Clerval “spared them [Victor’s family] the grief by concealing the extent of [Frankenstein’s] disorder” (Shelley 41). I added in the letter a part about Alphonse assuming that his son’s illness was from his studies because that seemed to be how his father would perceive it considering his knowledge surrounding his son’s very eager quest for information. One particular time when Alphonse would have realized his son’s dedication to his studies is when he finds him reading natural philosophy text by Cornelius Agrippa and tells him not to waste his time on such “sad trash”(22). The way Alphonse refers to the text his son is reading gives us reason to believe he may think such outdated works were the reason for Frankenstein’s illness.

I included the professors in the letter because they were the closest people to Frankenstein when he was at Ingolstadt. It seems like as a friend, Henry might have wanted to check up with them. The diagrams I have Clerval find could easily be earlier drawings that Frankenstein discarded because he was dissatisfied for whatever reason. In the novel it says Victor “raved incessantly concerning [the monster]” (41) while he was feverish, which gave me grounds for the muttering while sleeping I added in my letter and shows the extent of how troubled Victor appeared to be.

I have Clerval warn Alphonse not to bring up the reason of Victor’s illness because I think that allows for more possible scenarios later on, a reason for the letter, and because I think that would be a legitimate concern of a good friend. I don’t think that Clerval, who visibly loves Victor, would want him to be reminded of something that made him ill in the first place. In the letter I also have Clerval say that he will take great care of Frankenstein, which was exemplified in the novel. Frankenstein says: “Surely nothing but the unbounded and unremitting attentions of my friend could have restored me to life” (41). Through the quote, we see that Clerval was very attentive to his friend and cared for him very deeply.

Overall, I think my move adds another element because as far as we had known from reading, Clerval did not really have an idea about the monster. I think it is more likely that he would have some guesses in relation to Frankenstein’s illness and I think that some type of clue would have been likely to be in Frankenstein’s apartment. I wanted to show again how much Clerval cares about Frankenstein, while opening up more opportunities for my character.

Works Cited
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2007. Print.