Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus by Mary Shel centers on Victor Frankenstein, a scientist whose youth was spent obsessed with alchemy and adulthood was spent obsessed with chemistry, electricity, and biology. After the death of his mother, Victor becomes infatuated with discovering the secret to life. quote, "Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is, who believes his native town to be the world, than he ...