Frankenstein Quotes
The pole is the seat of frost and desolation
Centre point of danger and isolation - Walton's ambition, but also how he's more level headed than Victor/
"devouring blackness overcast the approaching sunshine
Foreshadows the end of Frankenstein's life. - Devouring, connotations of hunger, satisfaction from consuming Victor's life.
A long time before I learned to distinguish between the operation of my various senses
Monster learning how to even process whats going on Inherent child-like, naive behaviour
"And what was I? Of my creation and creator I was absolutely ignorant, but I knew i possessed no money,no friends, no property.
What, rather than the personal who dehumanises the monster - Now aware of his disconnect from man
'Struck violently with a stick', 'Greviously bruised by... missile weapons
Attacked by mankind, shapes him
I was like the Arabian who had been buried with the dead and found a passage to life, aided only by one glimmering and seemingly ineffective light.
Comparing Victor's fixation at creating the monster, with the same degree of dedication one has when trying to escape certain death in a tomb.
The innocent and helpless creature bestowed on them by heaven, whom to bring up to good, and whose future lot it was in their hands to direct to happiness or misery, according as they fulfilled their duties towards me.
Deification reference - 'Guarine angel' - Caroline, - Depiction of Elizabeth a heaen and the monster as hell
Surrounded by mountains of ice
Disconnection of any familiarity or warmth - Devoid of life - Surrounded by danger
I felt sensations of peculiar and overpowering nature: they were a mixture of pain and pleasure.
Emotion expressed by the creature during his time observing the De Lacey family represents his admiration of mankind and demonstrates his desire for human contact. Shows how he sees others as above him, as he is an 'ugly wretch'
'I am going to unexplored regions, to 'the land of mist and snow,' but I shall kill no albatross;therefore do not be alarmed for my safety or if I should come back to you as worn as woeful as the 'Ancient Mariner''.
Essentially Walton saying how he will not doom himself to bad luck, like the Mariner Allusion by Shelley helps reinforce the message that Walton is careful, unlike the Mariner.
I reflected... I discovered.... I uncovered
Inquisitive, curious nature of the creature and how he parallels with the rational mind of Victor.
"I thrust my hand into the live embers, but quickly drew it out again with a cry of pain"
Natural element of fire - Duality of fire, can bring warmth and happiness, but also pain and destruction. Parallels with Victor creating the monster, where the creature only lightly played with fire resulting in pain, Victor crosses the gravest boundaries by creating life itself, dooming himself.
He cried with sad and solemn enthusiasm
Oxymoronic nature of the monster's thoughts of suicide shows how he will find solace in death, and has accepted that this outcome is the only one he can pursure
Yes, he had followed me in my travels; loitered in forests, hid himself in caves, or taken refuge in wide and desert heaths; and he now came to mark my progress, and claim fulfilment of my progress.
Path of revenge mirrors path of isolation - Creature only takes refuge in nature
Nature decayed around me, and the sun became heatless; rain and snow poured around me; mighty rivers were frozen; the surface of the earth was hard and chill, and bare, and I found no shelter.
Pathetic fallacy, as the Creature has been abandoned by humanity, nature also leaves him cold. Mirrors the decay of his heart. (nature...less) The creature is an unnatural being made of death, and is a sin against nature, crossing nature's boundaries.
"Soon these burning miseries will be extinct. I shall ascend my funereal pile triumphantly, and exult in the agony of the torturing flames. The light of that conflagration will fade away; my ashes will be swept into the sea by the winds."
Purifying nature of flame, as well as motifs of rebirth show how through a trial by fire, the monster will atone for his previous crimes by subjecting himself to 'agony'.
'Who shall conceive the horrors of my secret toil as I dabbled among the unhallowed damps of the grave or tortured the living animal to animate the lifeless clay?'
Shelley uses the myth of Prometheus to highlight that while Prometheus tampered with nature and gave fire to the humans, it was done so as he had grown fond of humanity. Victor on the other hand, was never so benevolent and created man for 'esteem amongst [his] peers'
Darkness had no effect upon my fancy,and a churchyard was to me merely the receptacle of the bodies deprived of life... Forced to spend days and nights in vaults and charnel-houses
Shows lack of respect of religion - church juxtaposed against death - extent to wish he wishes to fulfillh his own ambitions.
no Eve soothed my sorrows nor shared my thoughts; I was alone.
Sibilant longing for a mate, like Adam had. Followed by blunt sentence,
It became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived'
Stating that the creature was so terrifying that not even the author of the modern depiction of hell itself could have imagined it.
The path of its departure still is free... Nought may endure but mutability!
The poem's construction in iambic pentameter, with constant alternation between stressed and unstressed syllables has a lulling effect on the reader. In turn can be paralleled against Victor's lull in judgement at this state in the novel, causing the death of Justine and unwilling to confess. Inclusion of the novel highlights Shelley' warning that relentless ambition may in fact, cloud one's judgement and mind in the process.
How dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow.
Usage of shifting narrative to warn the reader -Warning against pursuit of knowledge, Enlightenment ideals
'Like one, on a lonesome road who, Doth walk in fear and dread... Because he knows a frightful fiend, Doth close behind him tread'
Victor feeling terrified after creating the monster and running away, alone. Allusion to the horror of the poem, where the horror that the Mariner feels at the ghosts of his former crewmates are paralleled against Victor's horror at creating the monster.
'My heart palpitated in the sickness of fear, and I hurried on with irregular steps, not daring to look about me' - Vic
Victor feeling terrified after creating the monster and running away, alone. Allusion to the horror of the poem, where the horror that the Mariner feels at the ghosts of his former crewmates are paralleled against Victor's horror at creating the monster.
I loved my brothers, Elizabeth and Clerval; these were 'old familiar faces,'
Victor stating how he's leaving his close family and friend behind for his studies Allusion foreshadows how like Lamb, Victor will eventually lose touch with his friends and family, through death. Perhaps a warning by Shelley, that neglecting one's friends and family will only cause oneself personal anguish and self deprivation.
The die is cast; I have consented to return.... Thus are my hopes blasted by cowardice and indecision: I come back ignorant and disappointed. It requires more philosophy than I possess, to bear this injustice with patience
Walton's level-headed and balanced nature; despite his desire to 'satiate [his] ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before visited', shows how despite his disappointment, Walton is willing to turn back to save the lives of himself and his crew.
He sprung from the cabin window, as he said this, upon the ice-raft which lay close to the vessel. He was soon borne away by the waves, and lost in darkness and distance.
Window motif - Monster is crossing the boundaries of mankind from the last time. Gothic imagery of 'darkness and distance' leaves the fate of the monster uncertain; perhaps yet to return should mankind yet again violate the laws of nature.
