Appearance in Frankenstein: St. Bernard's Well is mentioned alongside Arthur's Seat in Chapter 2, Volume 3, during Victor and Clerval's Edinburgh visit. While Clerval finds these sites fill him "with cheerfulness and admiration," Victor remains detached and "impatient to arrive at the termination of my journey" to the Orkney Islands where he will create the creature's mate.

Historical Context: St. Bernard's Well is a small neoclassical temple structure built in 1789 over a natural mineral spring in the Water of Leith valley, just outside Edinburgh's center. The temple features a statue of Hygieia, the Greek goddess of health and hygiene. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, mineral springs and wells were extremely fashionable throughout Britain and Europe for their supposed curative and restorative properties. Wealthy tourists would "take the waters" as both a health treatment and social activity. St. Bernard's Well, with its elegant classical architecture, represented the Enlightenment marriage of reason, classical aesthetics, and natural healing. It was a must-see attraction for visitors to Edinburgh.

Literary Significance: St. Bernard's Well carries heavy irony in the novel. The site is dedicated to health and healing (embodied by Hygieia), yet Victor - who is spiritually, morally, and increasingly physically sick - cannot receive its benefits. The well represents everything Victor has rejected: natural healing, balance, and harmony between human endeavor (the classical temple) and nature (the spring). That Clerval notices and appreciates it while Victor dismisses it demonstrates how far Victor has fallen from healthy human responses. The Enlightenment ideals the well represents - reason, order, health - are precisely what Victor's Romantic overreach has violated. No amount of healing water can cure Victor's existential corruption.

Klaas, Stefan. St. Bernard's Well. July 27, 2017.