Frankenstein as cautionary tale for medical humanities? A brief coda

Amidst the recent bicentennial celebrations of the first publication, in 1818, of Mary Godwin Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, little attention was given to the character Henry Clerval. Yet despite his few pages in the novel, Clerval’s role as a humanist foil for Victor Frankenstein is significant. This brief coda examines what contemporary readers might learn from Clerval when his character is read allegorically, and how his presence in the novel makes clear that it can serve as a cautionary tale not only for biomedical scientists, but also for medical humanists.