Frankenstein Flashcards
first victim
“The first hapless victim to my unhallowed arts.”
strength of destiny
“Destiny was too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction.”
true murderer/worm
“But I, the true murderer, felt the never-dying worm alive in my bosom.”
Victor tortured over Justine
“The tortures of the accused did not equal mine; she was sustained by innocence.”
blot upon this earth
“Endued with a figure hideously deformed and loathsome was I then a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled and whom all men disowned?”
archangel/hell
“Like the archangel who aspired to omnipotence, I am chained in an eternal hell.” (Victor, Chapter 24)
spirit/iron
“For an instant I dared to shake off my chains and look around me with a free and lofty spirit, but the iron had eaten into my flesh”
emaciated
“My cheek had grown pale with study, and my person had become emaciated with confinement.”
creature - curious about identity, unique and different
“I had never yet seen a being resembling me…What was I?”
Victor’s advice to Walton
“Seek happiness in tranquillity, and avoid ambition, even if it be only the apparently innocent one of distinguishing yourself in science and discoveries.” p220
Adam
“I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel”
desired to divine
“The world was to me a secret which I desired to divine.”
sacrifice life for knowledge
“One man’s life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of knowledge.”
fear of the creature’s children
“a race of devils would be propagated upon the earth.”
Victor and parents, a helpless creature
“I was…their child, the innocent and helpless creature bestowed on them by Heaven.” (Victor about his parents)
Elizabeth, rose
“fairer than a garden rose among dark-leaved brambles.”
Creature wants female monster
“You must create a female for me, with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being.”
Victor’s possession of Elizabeth
“til death she was to be mine only.”
Elizabeth, angelic features
“a distinct species, a being heaven-sent, and bearing a celestial stamp in all her features.”
creature about reading books
“this was indeed a godlike science, and I ardently desired to become acquainted with it.” (the Creature about reading books)
penetrate nature
“I have always been imbued with a fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature…I always came away from my studies discontented and unsatisfied.”
pursue nature + prometheus
“I pursued nature to her hiding places…to animate the lifeless clay” – prometheus
gnashed (and say when)
“Gnashed his/my teeth” (Letter 4, repeated Chapter 8) - Freud
desired to divine
“The world was to me a secret which I desired to divine.”
acquisition of knowledge
“I ardently desired the acquisition of knowledge.”
apple (too late)
“But the apple was already eaten, and the angel’s arm bared to drive me from all hope”
Satan, bitter gall of envy
“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.”
creature’s solitude contrasting satan
“Satan had his companions, fellow devils, to admire and encourage him, but I am solitary and abhorred.”
Victor liking solitude after Justine’s death
“Solitude was my only consolation - deep, dark, deathlike solitude.”
creature, appearance matching his soul
“His soul is as hellish as his form, full of treachery and fiend-like malice.”
early description of the creature once alive
“Its gigantic stature, and the deformity of its aspect, more hideous than belongs to humanity, instantly informed me that it was the wretch, the filthy demon to whom I had given life.”
curiosity/compassion
“determined to listen to his tale. I was partly urged by curiosity, and compassion confirmed my resolution.”
Victor sometimes feeling compassion towards the creature
“His words had a strange effect upon me. I compassionated him and sometimes felt a wish to console him”
lightening, lake on fire
“vivid flashes of lightning dazzled my eyes, illuminating the lake, making it appear like a vast sheet of fire”
blasted tree
“But I am a blasted tree; the bolt has entered my soul”
oak tree on fire (from lightening)
“Streams of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak.”
Victor thinking of Elizabeth like an animal
“While I admired her understanding and fancy, I loved to tend on her, as I should on a favourite animal”
Victor describing the monster, himself from the grave
“my own spirit let loose from the grave…forced to destroy all that was dear to me”
Victor, heart and hands
“My heart often sickened at the work of my hands”
great crime but guiltless
“I felt as if I had committed some great crime…I was guiltless, but I had indeed drawn down a horrible curse upon my head”
Victor, Elizabeth mine, rule of 3
“mine to protect, love and cherish”
Elizabeth letter p91
“brother and sister…without desiring a more intimate union” and “do you not love another?”
creature malicious miserable
“I am malicious because I am miserable”
creature, obey!
“you are my creator but I am your master. Obey!”
