Analysis for quotes frankenstein Flashcards
‘No father had watched my infant days; no mother had blessed me with smiles’
Domesticity is frequently idealised throughout ‘Frankenstein’ and it is this affection that the Creature lacks and pines for. The home is represented as a paradise, with the presentation of the female as an angel.
‘You must create a female for me, with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being’
What is evident is the creatures need for a female companion. Victor’s removal of the female role from the reproductive process has had a negative effect on the creature’s behaviour and wellbeing.
Perhaps Shelley is suggesting the importance of females as providers of domestic affection (particularly as her own mother died during childbirth).
‘I am malicious because I am miserable’
Shelley’s use of sibilance puts particular harsh emphasis on the’s’ sounds which connote the creature’s anger at his misery. Simple truth seems to suggest that all humans need is love and companionship.
‘Mine to protect, love and cherish’
Instead of viewing Elizabeth as a companion he views her as a possession. Particularly the description of her as a present suggests that she can be given and received as desired.
‘I Pursued nature to her hiding places’
The use of the pronoun ‘her’ personifies nature as female. Therefore the scientific ‘penetration’ of nature is one dimension of a patriarchal echoing of the female as passive and possessable, a willing receiver of male desire.
