Pentland Hills

The Pentland Hills are a range of low hills near Edinburgh, Scotland, that appear in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein during the European tour Victor Frankenstein undertakes with his friend Henry Clerval. In the narrative, the hills function as part of the picturesque Scottish landscape that briefly offers Victor a respite from his consuming guilt and dread, while they provide Clerval with a source of genuine cheerfulness and admiration. Their presence in the story marks a fleeting interval of relative calm before the novel's tragic momentum resumes.

Location and Setting

The Pentland Hills are situated in the vicinity of Edinburgh, forming part of the scenic countryside that Victor and Clerval explore after leaving the city. When the two travelers visit Edinburgh, Victor describes the city's "romantic castle and its environs, the most delightful in the world," and specifically names "Arthur's Seat, St. Bernard's Well, and the Pentland Hills" as features that "compensated him for the change and filled him with cheerfulness and admiration." The hills thus belong to a cluster of natural landmarks that define the Edinburgh region's appeal, standing alongside the more famous Arthur's Seat as part of the area's celebrated topography.

Narrative Context and Significance

The Pentland Hills appear at a specific juncture in Victor's journey: after he and Clerval have spent time in London and Oxford, they travel north through England's Lake District and into Scotland. Victor is preoccupied with the monstrous task he has reluctantly agreed to perform—creating a female companion for the creature—and his mind is clouded by fear and self-loathing. Yet when he reaches Edinburgh and its surroundings, including the Pentland Hills, he registers the landscape's beauty even through his languor. The hills are not described in physical detail; rather, they are named as part of a catalogue of sights that Clerval, in particular, finds delightful. Victor notes that Clerval "did not like [Edinburgh] so well as Oxford, for the antiquity of the latter city was more pleasing to him. But the beauty and regularity of the new town of Edinburgh, its romantic castle and its environs, the most delightful in the world, Arthur's Seat, St. Bernard's Well, and the Pentland Hills compensated him for the change." This passage underscores that the Pentland Hills, while not the primary focus of the narrative, contribute to the overall impression of Scotland as a land of natural beauty that can, for a moment, distract even the most wretched observer.

Thematic Resonance

In the broader context of Frankenstein, the Pentland Hills exemplify the novel's use of landscape as a counterpoint to human emotion. Throughout the story, Victor's internal torment is often juxtaposed with sublime or beautiful natural scenes—the Alps, the glacier at Montanvert, the Rhine valley—that either console or mock him. The Pentland Hills, though less dramatic than the Swiss mountains, serve a similar function on a smaller scale: they represent a world of ordinary, accessible beauty that Victor can no longer fully inhabit. His inability to derive lasting comfort from such scenes underscores his alienation from humanity and from the natural order he has violated. For Clerval, by contrast, the hills are a source of uncomplicated pleasure, highlighting the divergence between the two friends' emotional states and foreshadowing the tragedy that will soon engulf them both.