Frankenstein Quotes - Gothic
'The remains of the half-finished creature, whom I had destroyed, lay scattered on the floor, and I almost felt that I had mangled the living flesh of a human being.' - Victor
+ 'almost felt' - scathing, he still does not consider the Creature to be human + he technically has, as she was constructed from dead body parts - even before her life, he had projected a persona onto her + the disposal of the body echoes the death of Clerval
'Towards morning, I was possessed by a kind of nightmare; I felt the fiend's grasp in my neck, and could not free myself from it; groans and cries rung in my ears.' - Victor
+ A02: preposition of 'in' suggests that the Creature lives within him, rather than being an external force + adds to the doppelganger argument
'This noble war of the sky elevated my spirits; I clasped my hands and exclaimed aloud, 'William, dear Angel! this is thy funeral, this thy dirge!' As I said these words, I perceived in the gloom a figure which stole from behind a clump of trees near me .. Nothing in human shape could have destroyed that fair child. HE was the murderer! I could not doubt it.' - Victor
+ Gothic introduction between Victor and his Creature - note that the Creature always appears at some tumultuous or liminal period in the sky/weather, either thunder, rain or moonshine + immense prejudice from Victor; ironically (and technically) the Creature is made in the shape of man, and the Creature goes on to prove that he is just as capable of expressing the same emotions as man - Victor judges the outside before looking in
'I collected bones from charnel-houses and disturbed, with my profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human frame. In a solitary chamber, or rather cell, at the top of the house, and separated from all the other apartments by a gallery and staircase, I kept my workshop of filthy creation.' - Victor
+ Gothic taboo acts, a sense of trespassing, acting as the over-reacher + the position of his workshop is also important - it is separate, indicating isolation, and its position at the top of a staircase mimics the ascension to the heavens; he is trying to assume God's position on earth
'..at this time I knew nothing of the science of words or letters.' '[language] was indeed a godlike science.' 'the science of letters..' - the Creature
+ for him, language and human interaction has the same attraction and intrigue that science has for Victor
'I was their plaything and their idol, and something better - their child, 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.. With this deep consciousness of what they owed towards the being to which they had given life .. it may be imagined that during every hour of my infant life I received a lesson of patience, of charity and of self-control.' - Victor
+ IMPORTANT: this exemplifies everything that Victor knows is good parenting, yet he ultimately neglects his own responsibility to his own creation + note the use of 'helpless creature' in association with 'innocent' (indicative of the Creature's later plight of goodness) and also the reference to the choice of the adult to guide their child to either 'happiness or misery' - direct echo of Victor's decision + lots of 'tabula rasa' here
'I beheld the wretch.. He might have spoken, but I did not hear; one hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me.. [all to] announce the approach of the demoniacal corpse.. The horror of that countenance..' - Victor, of his Creature
+ Victor does not listen to his Creature and forms his opinion/evaluation of him based on appearance and surmises + he doesn't see it as living or human, a distinct change from the ideal specimen that he had wished to create
'He is eloquent and persuasive; and once his words had even power over my heart: but trust him not. His soul is as hellish as his form, full of treachery and fiendlike malice.' - Victor, of the Creature
+ Victor's appraisal of the Creature is somewhat unfair, ascribing him only the negative aspects of man and taking no responsibility of his part in the events + he does however finally admit that the Creature has a soul...
'The mere presence of the idea was an irresistible proof of the fact... Alas! I had turned loose into the world a depraved wretch, whose delight was in carnage and misery ... I considered the being that I had cast among mankind .. my own vampire, my own spirit let loose from the grave, and forced to destroy all that was dear to me.' - Victor
+ Victor's xenophobia is undeniable here, the very presence of thought being proof - very uncharacteristic of a scientist; it is an impulse more akin to something the Creature + more Gothic scaremongering, assuming that it is in pursuit of all that is precious to him; either he is incredibly self-centered or he is aware that the Creature has cause to pursue vengeance
'His eyes have generally an expression of wildness, and even madness..' 'From this time a new spirit of life animated the decaying frame of the stranger.' 'How can I see so noble a creature destroyed by misery, without feeling the most poignant of grief?' - Walton
+ Victor, the once refined, composed and collected scientist described as a madman - full circle transformation - HE is described as the 'creature' + elements of the Gothic doppelgänger as his characterised as having a 'new' spirit but a 'decaying' body, similar to that of the Creature + the last is a direct reference to the Creature, and in essence is what separates Walton from Victor; Walton pities his weaker captive, Victor does not (although would Walton have done the same as Victor's parallel if he had discovered the Creature WITHOUT Victor's narrative?)
'- more, far more, will I achieve: treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation.' - Victor
+ a complete reversal of his earlier resolve + he has re-assumed his original destructive position as an unwanted demi-God on the quest for glory
'But where were my friends and relations? No father had watched my infant days, no mother had blessed me with smiles and caresses; or if they had, all my past life was now a blot, a blind vacancy in which I distinguished nothing.' - the Creature
+ a direct contrasting reference to the idyllic upbringing experienced by Victor + similarly to Victor, he also views his past as something far off and distant/detached - building their intimate emotional connection
'Devil!', 'vile insect', 'daemon', 'abhorred monster' - Victor, on first sight of the Creature
+ abusive, crude and coarse + contrasted sharply with the eloquence of the Creature
'I was firmly convinced in my own mind that Justine, and indeed every human being, was guiltless of this murder.' 'During the whole of this wretched mockery of justice I suffered living torture.' - Victor, of Justine's detention and trial
+ again, Victor is isolating the Creature from the "elevated" title of human + harsh critique of justice and a testament to Victor's own cowardice as he remains silent + the first murdered character of the novel is William, a child, the symbol of innocence; Justine, whose name means 'justice' is the second to die: Shelley is picking apart society with their deaths
'I was more deeply smitten with the thirst for knowledge' 'The world was to me a secret, which I desired to divine. Curiosity, earnest research to learn the hidden laws of nature ... are among the earliest sensations I can remember.' '[I had] a fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature.' 'But here were men who had penetrated deeper and knew more.' 'It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn.' - Victor
+ again, Victor is the trespasser, taking secret knowledge for his own + Victor's 'penetration' has often been linked to the representation of nature as pursued female, making his act of creation essentially a bypass or rape of nature herself
'With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet.' - Victor
+ again, more imagery of labour + like a god, he gathers his materials and creates something from nothing
'Chance - or rather the evil influence, the Angel of Destruction, which asserted omnipotent sway over me from the moment I turned my reluctant steps from my father's door ...' - Victor
+ again, shifting the blame of his actions to a supernatural/external force + reference to the creation story that is subverted and deconstructed in the novel + he is being a little disingenuous here ... he did want to leave for university ..
'I thought Werter himself a more divine being than I had ever beheld or imagined.' 'Plutarch taught me high thoughts; he elevated my above the wretched sphere of my own reflections..' 'But Paradise Lost excited different and far deeper emotions.' - the Creature
+ good for context, lots of allusions to famous works, with Romantic slants + Paradise Lost is particularly important, and its resonance with the Creature is symbolic of his current struggle and ominous in respect of the outcome of the novel
'I am malicious because I am miserable. You, my creator, would tear me to pieces, and triumph; remember that, and tell me why I should pity man more than he pities me? .. Have a care: I will work at your destruction, nor finish until I desolate your heart..' - the Creature
+ alludes to the constant war between God and his creations - Shelley takes this idea but plays with the dynamics: this point marks a transition point as Victor and the Creature meet at a middle ground between God and Satan + he says that he will desolate Victor's heart, but doesn't mention how - could be used to argue that the Creature is the darker part of Victor's psyche, warning that if he does not indulge in his more 'base' emotions that he will become a torn man
'Clerval called forth the better feelings of my heart; he again taught me to love the aspect of nature, and the cheerful faces of children... A selfish pursuit had cramped and narrowed me, until your gentleness and affection warmed and opened my senses; I became the happy creature who, a few years ago, loved and beloved by all, had no sorrow or care.' - Victor, of Clerval
+ already, Clerval is set apart by Shelley as the alternative joy and jubilance that Victor could/should have been + it is through Clerval, a friend, that Victor feels happiness in life, something that the Creature is forced to do without - Victor becomes like the Creature when devoid of friendship + arrogant - believes that he is unequivocally adored
'The windows of the room had before been darkened, and I felt a kind of panic on seeing the pale yellow light of the moon illuminate the chamber. I saw at the open window a figure the most hideous and abhorred. A grin was on the face of the monster; he seemed to jeer as with his fiendish finger he pointed towards the corpse of my wife.' - Victor, of the Creature
+ an archetypal characterisation of evil and malice: a monster at the casement + the Creature again appears in moonlight, the antithesis of the golden sun and warm lantern light that is always associated with Elizabeth and Clerval
'But is is even so; the fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone.' - the Creature
+ and here we return to the real terror of the piece: the destructive affects of loneliness + more imagery, although it denotes that Victor returned to his original status of God at his death, ultimate in his eternal sleep
'She [Elizabeth] bloomed in their rude abode, fairer than a garden rose among dark-leaved brambles.' 'I looked upon Elizabeth as mine - mine to protect, love and cherish.. No word, no expression could body forth the kind of relation in which she stood to me - my more than sister, since till death she was to be mine only.' 'The saintly soul of Elizabeth shone like a shrine-dedicated lamp in our peaceful home.' - Victor, of his betrothed Elizabeth Lavenza
+ another instance of a 'soft' and pretty presence embodied in a woman; Victor values her visual worth before her intellectual worth and personality + his attachment to her could be seen as bordering on unhealthy, with a closeness that is uncomfortable and chilling, especially with a reference to her own death amongst his vibrant and colourful imagery + it could also be argued that his bond to her was even stronger than that of someone of his own blood, without any perverse intent (genuine affection)
'These wonderful narrations inspired me with strange feelings. Was man, indeed, at once so powerful, so virtuous and magnificent, yet so vicious and base? I could not conceive how one man could go forth to murder his fellow..' - the Creature
+ builds on the tabula rasa aspect of the Creature's upbringing + shows the dramatic character arc that the Creature undergoes
'I wandered like an evil spirit', 'now all was blasted', I was seized by remorse and the sense of guilt' - Victor
+ desolate imagery, the Sublime has lost its inspiring glow + echos the electrified tree at the beginning
'I bore a hell within me, which nothing could extinguish.' - Victor
+ directly repeated by the Creature during his narrative at the heart of the novel + adds to the 'dual personality' argument
'.. do I not deserve to accomplish some great purpose? .. I prefer glory to every enticement that wealth placed in my path.' - Walton 'But success shall crown my endeavours. Wherefore not? Why not still proceed over the untamed yet obedient element? What can stop the determined heart and resolved will of man?' - Walton, L.3
+ echo of arrogance that is characteristic of unchecked ambition and especially of Victor + implied that what actions have been taken are a result of fate, see the personification of 'wealth' + first mention of nature as something to be tamed and subdued - nature as the suppressed and hunted female
'a cold dew covered my forehead, my teeth chattered, and every limb became convulsed..' - Victor
+ echoes the creature's own birth, setting up the first of the many recurring links between them
'I expected this reception.. You, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to who thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us. You plan to kill me. How dare you sport thus with my life? .. I am thy creature, I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend.' - the Creature
+ eloquent and composed, the epitome of manners and decorum that Victor so praises in others such as Elizabeth: Victor is clouded by the judgement of his eyes + reference to the fall of Adam (Bible) and also Paradise Lost (Milton) which placed Lucifer as the protagonist of the piece + the destructive affects of misery, which all three versions of Victor (except from Clerval) suffer from
'Thus I relieve thee, my creator.. thus I take from thee a sight which you abhor. Still thou canst listen to me, and grant me thy compassion.' - the Creature
+ emotionally perceptive and aware + symbolic removal of sight from the corruption of judgement; what Victor fails to do
'There was a show of gratitude and worship in his attachment to my mother... he strove to shelter her.. and to surround her with all that could tend to excite pleasurable emotion in her soft and benevolent mind.' - Victor, of his father Alphonse
+ first mention of a man and wife relationship, and is characteristic of a protective man with a kind but ultimately ineffectual wife + Caroline is not portrayed as having a mind here, only emotion
'he saw a wildness in my eyes for which he could not account; and my loud, unrestrained, heartless laughter, frightened and astonished him.' - Victor, of Clerval's reaction to him
+ first sign of Victor's madness, and moreover its affect on others + the precursor to his later state of hopeless helplessness and dejection
'[if] I first became a master of their language, the knowledge of which might enable me to make them overlook the deformity of my figure.' 'I should first win their favour, and afterwards, their love.' 'My cottagers ...' - the Creature
+ he assumes, idealistically, that their eyes would not be clouded - as a reader we know that some mishap befalls the Creature, hence his ideal seems to be a distant and destroyed one + use of 'my' indicates his familial attachment to them
'[The female Creature may] delight, for its own sake, in murder and wretchedness.. she was to become a thinking and reasoning animal... She might also turn with disgust from him to the superior beauty of man.' - Victor
+ he has forgotten the tale of the Creature, and has resumed his original prejudiced view of his creations + note that he does not refer to her as human, also echoing his initial stance on the Creature when he refuses to even refer to him as having a 'human form' + just because he views beauty as the pinacle of humanity, he conceives that it must be the downfall of 'lesser' life forms such as the Creature
'Persecuted and tortured as I am and have been, can death be any evil to me? .. Alas why did they preserve so miserable a life? .. For I was a shattered wreck, the shadow of a human being... The cup of life was poisoned forever; I saw around me nothing but a dense and frightful darkness.' - Victor
+ he has lost his worldly resolve; with the death of Clerval came the death of Victor's joy - Shelley uses Victor's family and friends as personifications of Victor's life that he slowly loses + Victor has no intention of living life happily now, and by doing so he gives his inner Creature the free will to desolate everything else about him - this interpretation could suggest that the justice, embodied by Alphonse, and his salvation, embodied by Elizabeth, are not things that he truly desires ...
'.. and, forgetting my solitude and deformity, I dared to be happy. Soft tears again bedewed my cheeks, and I even raised my humid eyes with thankfulness towards the blessed sun which bestowed such joy upon me.' - the Creature
+ he is naturally returning to the innocent stance of Adam, the grateful and gracious aspect of his character
'And what was I? Of my creation and creator I was absolutely ignorant; but I knew that I possessed no money, no friends, no kind of property.. Was I then a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled, and whom all men disowned? - the Creature
+ he is painfully aware of his isolation, or at least in terms that society already has laid out + also sets up the Creature as a tragic figure - he is still the Adam figure at this point
'But my heart sank within me as with bitter sickness and I refrained.. Cursed, cursed Creator! Why did I live? .. I could with pleasure have destroyed the cottage and its inhabitants, and have glutted myself with their shrieks and misery... I, like the arch-fiend, bore a hell within me... I declared everlasting war against the species.' - the Creature, after his rejection
+ here he seems to embrace the darkness lurking within him + his pleas are echoed from Victor's own wishes earlier in the novel to 'expire' as a punishment for the deaths of William and Justine + a direct quote that Victor himself used: 'I bore a hell within me' - sets up the Gothic idea of both Creator and Created as doppelgängers `
'I thought (foolish wretch!) that it might be in my power to restore happiness to these deserving people.. [hence] the past was blotted from my memory, the present was tranquil, and the future gilded by bright rays of hope and aspirations of joy.' - the Creature
+ his exclamation suggests immediately that his efforts were unsuccessful - the reader hence feels a sense of sadness instead of hope when they read the rest of the Creature's tale + much like Victor's one year repose after the initial creation, when all nature seemed alive and hopeful, the Creature experiences an echoed joy, a parallel of Victor's own experience
'During my first experiment, a kind of enthusiastic frenzy had blinded me to the horror of my employment ... But now I went to it in cold blood, and my heart often sickened at the work of my hands... I looked towards its completion with a tremulous and eager hope.' - Victor, of the second creation
+ his previous delusion has been exposed + some argue that it is because of the intent of his work (i.e to present the Creature with a wife and lover) that sickens him, not the actual creation itself
'..we are unfashioned creatures, but half made up, if one wiser, better, dearer than ourselves - such a friend ought to be - do not lend his aid to perfectionate out weak and faulty natures.' - Victor
+ idea of being only half formed and manufactured is first introduced + whereas at the beginning of the story, Victor believes that he can create a perfect man, now he realises that perfect, even in relation to humans, is not possible
'It moved every feeling of wonder and awe that the picture of an omnipotent God warring with his creatures was capable of exciting.. Many times I considered Satan as the fitter emblem of my condition; for often, like him, when I viewed the bliss of my protectors, the bitter gall of envy rose within me.' 'I remembered Adam's supplication to his Creator. But where was mine? He had abandoned me: and in the bitterness of my heart I cursed him.' - the Creature
+ illustrates the constant turmoil and conflict of identity within the Creature: whether to be Adam (as his natural yearning dictates) or become Satan (the driving force of power and revenge) + he still believes the cottagers to be his 'protectors' despite their ignorance of his existence + it is indeed misery that makes the Creature lose faith, or rather the exclusion from society or welcome/love
'My hatred and revenge burst all bounds of moderation .. I wished to see him again, that I might wreak the utmost extent of abhorrence on his head.' 'the beast that lurked in my heart.' 'sometimes the whirlwind passions of my soul drove me to seek, by bodily exercise and by change of place, some relief from my intolerable sensations.' - Victor, of the Creature
+ impulsive and rash: plosive alliteration of 'burst all bounds of moderation' suggests uncontrollable anger - his inability to remain in one place also characterises him in conjunction with the Creature + bursting the bounds - even in anger he breaks the boundaries
'Before, I looked upon the accounts of vice and injustice, that I read in books or heard from others, as tales of ancient days or imaginary evils .. but now misery has come home and men appear to me as monsters thirsting for each other's blood.' - Elizabeth Lavenza
+ in essence, Elizabeth is describing both Walton and the readers' reactions to Frankenstein's tale - verisimilitude is hence very important to make the reader sympathise with Elizabeth + visceral description of man and the evils of men
'Thus spake my prophetic soul, as, torn by remorse, horror and despair, I beheld those I loved spend vain sorrow upon the graves of William and Justine, the first hapless victims to my unhallowed arts.' - Victor
+ interesting that he ascribes their deaths to his arts, not himself or his Creature + again, blaming the outcome of his life on fate, that all his sorrow was preordained
'I foresaw obscurely that I was destined to become the most wretched of human beings. Alas! I prophesied truly, and failed only in one single circumstance, that in all the misery I imagined and dreaded, I did not conceive the hundredth part of the anguish I was destined to endure.' - Victor
+ interesting that he says the most wretched of 'human beings' - could be excluding/admitting that the Creature is also wretched or attempting to claim a misery greater than his + dual messages: he says that he was able to predict his own demise, but still allays the outcome to fate - conflicted person
'I beheld a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak which stood about twenty yards from out house; and so soon as the dazzling light vanished the oak had disappeared, and nothing remained but a blasted stump. .. It was not splintered by the shock, but entirely reduced to thin ribands of wood. I never beheld anything so utterly destroyed.' - Victor
+ introduction of galvanisation + the tree itself is a metaphor for Victor himself: a life with so much potential that is destroyed by a singular incident - he constantly laments that he is done for but not allowed to 'expire' like this tree + resonates with the Creature as well, something with promise is reduced to penury and disgrace
'What may not be expected in a country of eternal light? .. I may satiate my ardent curiosity .. and may tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man.' - Walton, L.1
+ ironic use of bright and holy imagery to create the false association of knowledge and goodness that is later dismantled in the novel + sets up the theme of trespassing and discovery + destructive curiosity is present from the first page
'Nothing could exceed in beauty the contrast between these two excellent creatures.. the younger was slight and graceful and his features were moulded with the finest symmetry.' 'If such lovely creatures were miserable, it was less strange that I, an imperfect and solitary being, should be wretched.' - the Creature
+ like Victor, he at first associates goodness with exterior virtue + he values symmetry and order, things that he is not blessed with + the Creature has the innate ability to reason, giving rationale to his misery
'My protectors had departed, and had broken the only link that held me to the world... I learned from your papers that you were my father, my creator; and to whom could I apply with more fitness than to him who had given me life?' - the Creature
+ like a child, he desires someone to look after him and care for his life + interesting that he uses the noun 'father' before Creator...
'Unhappy man! Do you share my madness? Have you drank also of the intoxicating draught? Hear me - let me reveal my tale, and you will dash the cup from your lips!' - Victor
+ link later to 'the cup of life was poisoned forever' + knowledge, his once holy goal, is reduced to nothing more but a poison and a temptation of the devil + it is interesting that, even though Victor continually blames fate throughout his narrative, he suggests here that amendment lies within your own grasp
'I must also observe the natural decay and corruption of the human body.. Now I was led to examine the cause and progress of this decay, and forced to spend days and nights in vaults and charnel-houses.. the change from life to death, death to life.' 'I became myself capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter.' - Victor
+ link to the theme of moral decay, the conflict of what appears good but in reality is corrupt and hypocritical + liminal theme of life and death + Victor assumes his title of a 'life-giver', a self-given title that deteriorates over the course of the novel
'after so much time spent in painful labour', 'I found a passage to life', 'no one can conceive the variety of feelings which bore me onwards', 'unremitting ardour', 'midnight labours', 'who shall conceive the horrors of my secret toil?' - Victor, of the creation phase
+ lots of imagery associated with labour and giving birth + it is often argued that Victor's creation of the monster is a form of birth, an unnatural birth that neither requires women or God
'But I have one want which I have never yet been able to satisfy; and the absence of the object of which I now feel as a most severe evil. I have no friend.' - Walton, L.2
+ makes the connection between loneliness and the development of evil + all of the characters in the novel a type of loneliness, with the exception of Clerval perhaps, who is represents what Victor should have been
'I suddenly beheld the figure of a man..advancing towards me with superhuman speed. ... I felt a faintness seize me; but I was quickly restored by the cold gale of the mountains.' - Victor, first meeting the Creature
+ note that at the first meeting of creator and creation, Victor describes him as resembling a man, something that he has obstinately avoided since the beginning: the boundaries are starting to blur + some believe that the female presence of nature purposefully revives Victor at this point so that he is forced to face the consequences of his actions
'a being which had the shape of man, but apparently of gigantic structure..' - Walton, L.4
+ note that the first mention of the Creature is as a 'being' not a 'monster' or 'devil' + even then however, he is in man's image, not man himself - echo of the creation story (God made man in his own image)
'My courage and resolution is firm; but my hopes fluctuate and my spirits are often depressed.' - Walton
+ reminiscent of both Victor and Creature, who both strive for something dear to their hearts but ultimately find themselves isolated and bitter as a result
'[they] had already condemned my unhappy victim. The tortures of the accused did not equal mine.' 'The poor victim, who on the morrow was to pass the awful boundary of life and death, felt not as I did, such deep and bitter agony.' 'But I, the true murderer, felt the never-dying worm alive in my bosom, which allowed of no hope or consolation.' - Victor
+ self-centered pity - whether it is a consistent case of hyperbole or genuine emotion is unclear + Victor begins to take the murders upon his own head, a fact that links him inexorably to his 'demon' who set both William and Justine's deaths in motion
'Get well - and return to us. You will find a happy, cheerful home and friends who love you dearly. .. Justine you may remember was a great favourite of yours.. you once remarked that if you were in an ill-humour, one glance from Justine could dissipate it.' 'She is very clever and gentle, and extremely pretty.' - Elizabeth Lavenza, of Justine
+ sets up the domain of the home as an Eden from which Victor isolates himself to pursue his darker interests + the third woman that the reader has encountered in the novel, and she is still the epitome of grace, manners and beauty - idealised and valued for the appearance of grace
'This is what it is to live; now I enjoy existence! But you my dear Frankenstein, wherefore are you desponding and sorrowful?' '[Clerval] enjoyed a happiness seldom tasted by man.' 'He was a being formed of the "very poetry of nature". His wild and enthusiastic imagination was chastened by the sensibility of his heart.' 'But in Clerval I saw the image of my former self; he was inquisitive, and anxious to gain experience and instruction.' - Clerval, and Victor, of Clerval
+ sets up the stark transformation that Victor has undergone in contrast to his long time friend + Clerval seems able to indulge in more extremes of emotion and life than Victor, and hence could be seen to be embracing the more primal elements of his nature - he has no need to create a creature through which to vent his frustrated existence + again, Clerval is referenced as the rightful form of Victor
'I feel my heart glow with an enthusiasm which elevates me to heaven.' - Walton
+ something which all of the male protagonists in the novel share: Walton's love of the wild, Frankenstein's love of knowledge, Clerval's dreams of enterprise in the East and Creature's fleeting sense of family and and friendship + all the men feel/touch their respective heavens at some point in the novel, by way of the sublime or other means
'I should have wept to die; now it is my only consolation... Blasted as thou wert, my agony was still superior to thine; for the bitter sting of remorse will not cease to rankle in my wounds until death shall close them forever.' '[the Creature] was soon borne away by the waves and lost in darkness and distance.' - the Creature
+ still he bemoans his struggles - it does to an extent make sense; for a novel that dwells so much on the interplay between Victor and his destructive Creation, the plot only dwells on the Creature's suffering for a minimal amount of pages + the obscurity that the Creature seeps into is symbolic in two ways: firstly as he returns to the anonymity that he first arose from, and secondly (from the duality argument's perspective) he is no longer needed by Victor to vent his inner angers and insecurities
'I had selected his features as beautiful.. His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness.' 'Now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.' - Victor, of his Creature
+ the Gothic overtones are meant to instill horror in the reader, namely via a fear of the unconventional and different + stark contrast with the beauty he claims to have selected initially to the disgust which he now feels
'...[Safie] gently deplored her own fate.' '[her mother] spurned the bondage to which she was reduced .. and taught her daughter to aspire to higher powers of intellect, and an independence of spirit.' - the Creature, of Safie and her mother
+ the first sign of independent, educated and aspiring women in the novel + note that it is her 'own' fate, whereas people like Elizabeth are there mainly to serve as a 'lantern' or 'beacon' or 'comforter' to someone else's woes
'[the sailor] saw a boat with a single man in it' - bystander, of the Creature
+ the first time the Creature as been called a man in his own right + this marks the point at which the boundaries between Victor and the Creature begin to blur as they are mistaken for each other
'Of what materials was I made that I could thus resist so many shocks which, like the turning of the wheel, continually renewed the torture?' - Victor
+ the idea of fate being a wheel (reference to the ancient Goddess Fortuna who was blind and bound to a wheel) + he refers to himself in the same terms as he would usually use to describe the Creature: the field of existence between them is being levelled
'Wealth was an inferior object, but what glory would attend the discovery, if I could banish disease from the human frame, and render man invulnerable to any but a violent death!' - Victor
+ the initial impetus of Victor's studies + it is later questionable if this was his heartfelt intention from the first, as he references his delight in creating a race of human's that 'would all thank me as their father and creator' + ironically, his closest family and friends are subjected to violent deaths: William, Justine, Clerval and Elizabeth
'You are my creator, but I am your master - obey!' - the Creature
+ the mid-way transition point on the mountainside has given way to a full inversion of their roles: the Creature is now the triumphant Satan and Victor the unwitting Adam
'I abhorred the face of man. Oh not abhorred! They were my brethren, my fellow-beings, and I felt attracted even to the most repulsive among them as to the creatures of an angelic nature.' - Victor
+ the quick change of thought and opinion suggest his torn and dual mind + for the first time, he does not reference his fellow men as 'humans' but uses the more vulgar noun of 'creatures' - his world is blurring with that of the Creature
'But I am a blasted tree; the bolt has entered my soul .. [I am] a miserable spectacle of wrecked humanity, pitiable to others, and intolerable to myself.' - Victor
+ the tree that sparked his initial interest in science has become a metaphor for his own existence
'I gazed upon my victim and my heart swelled with exultation and hellish triumph.' '.. a thrill of terror ran through me.' - the Creature, of William's death
+ there is a very quick change of mood/ambience when he goes from reverence of the world to disturbed and sadistic pleasure
'..the apple was already eaten, and the angel's arm bared to drive me from all hope. Yet I would die to make her happy... I would rather have banished myself forever from my native country, and wandered a friendless outcast over the earth.' - Victor
+ this affirms Victor's transitional status from God (the creator) at the beginning to helpless Adam (the servant) at the end + Gothic idea of the 'Wandering Jew' figure, doomed by tragedy to roam the earth devoid of love and a home
'What a glorious creature must he have been in the days of his prosperity when he is thus noble and godlike in ruin! He seems to feel his own worth and the greatness of his fall.' - Walton, of Victor's death
+ this is precisely Victor's problem: he always felt a self-importance that obscured him from true empathy or forethought + Victor is referred to as a creature rather than a person + reference to Paradise Lost ...
'I confess that it is the devouring and only passion of my soul. My rage is unspeakable when I reflect that the murderer, whom I have turned loose upon society, still exists. You refuse my just demand: I have but one resource and I devote myself, either in my life or death, to his destruction... How ignorant art thou in thy pride of wisdom! You know not what it is you say.' - Victor, of his vengeance
+ this passage has the same sentiment and format as the Creature's earlier plea to him; it is equally as eloquent and contains some of the same phrases ('my just demand') + he is slowly converging on the Creature's characteristics + Victor has now become the adversary of the knowledge that he idolised in his youth
'They penetrate into the recesses of nature and show how she works in her hiding places. They ascend into the heavens.. They have acquired new and almost unlimited powers; they can command the thunders of heaven, mimic the earthquake, and even mock the invisible world with its own shadows.' - Mr. Waldman
+ this speaks of everything that Victor is naturally drawn to and desires + his statement foreshadows what Victor will go on to do, that he will attempt to supplant the status of God
'In this mood of mind I betook myself to the mathematics and the branches of study appertaining to science, as being built upon secure foundations, and so worthy of my consideration.. [this change seemed to be] the immediate suggestion of the guardian angel of my life... but it was ineffectual. Destiny was too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction.' - Victor
+ turning point for Victor; he decides to abandon the 'uncertain' 'mysterious' world of natural philosophy and pursue the stable and 'secure' world of maths - he attempts to break his Gothic status as a trespasser + Victor still ascribes his downfall to an exterior force, despite being a man of science in which truth and accountability are the bedrocks of his art
'You seek for knowledge and wisdom, as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be the serpent to sting you, as mine has been.' - Victor
+ wisdom and knowledge are portrayed as the fruit of Eden, which melds with the serpent imagery + Frankenstein is portrayed as the 'Wandering Jew' like his counterpart the Creature, but is also associated with the Gothic status of the interloper and the digressor