Frankenstein Flashcards
quotes
“I pursued the path…
towards the destruction of the daemon” (victor, Christian righteousness)
“the fallen angel becomes…
a malignant devil… even that enemy of god had friends and associates… I am alone.” (creature, 24, religious allegory)
“Like an…
archangel who aspires omnipotence, I am chained to hell.” (victor, connects himself to the creature)
“and to perceive…
the boundaries of the radiant roof of light with canopied me.” (romanticism)
“it clings…
to the mind, when it had once seized on it, like a lichen on a rock.” (romanticism, subverted)
“these sublime and…
magnificent scenes afforded me the greatest consolation.” (victor, romanticism)
“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!”
“A new species…
would bless me as its creator.” proves his extreme god complex, removes the role of god and women, punished for his usurping.
“was disturbed…
by the wildest of dreams.” (kissing his mother’s corpse, gothic convention)
“such the words…
of fate, enounced to destroy me.”
“secret…
“I started…
toils”, Victor perverts the natural law, and succeeds, creating a fear of natural sexuality. proved by his nightmare of elizabeth turning into his mother, “…from my sleep with horror”, only to be met with the face of his creature.
Evolution + Darwinism - is it really okay to usurp the role of the woman? Shelley’s feminism.
“I shall kill…
no albatross.” - Rime of the Ancient Mariner reference, the albatross symbolises guilt and shame, a curse. He says he will not repeat the same mistake, symbolic of the disruption of nature. Possibly foreshadows that Walton does take the advice of Viktor and does not continue his voyage.
“I am malicious because I am…
miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind?” Shelley utilises rhetorical questioning to encourage active readership and euphony here, repeating m sounds creates a soft tone, thus enhancing pathos for the creature. context: due to her own mistreatment? is she the creature? Themes of society and identity.
“My papa…
is a Syndic - he is M Frankenstein - he will punish you.” shows righteousness because of elevated social class.
“If I cannot inspire love…
I will cause fear.” the creature
