Sunday, August 24, 2008

Laudanum

"ever since my recovery from the fever, I had been in the custom of taking every night a small quantity of laudanum; for it was by means of this drug only that I was enabled to gain the rest necessary for the preservation of life." (135)





Laudanum is an opium based pain killer that was popular during the Victorian Age. Frankenstein falls ill after traumatic events throughout the novel. This is his way of escaping the pain he is going through. Sleep and sickness does not rid him of his sins, but delays him from thinking about them.




~Harding, Stephen"Victorians and Laudanum" Victorian's Secrets. 2000. August 27, 2008. <http://drugs.uta.edu/laudanum.html>