Frankenstein Flashcards
Quote(s) for playing god.
“I imagine you may deduce an apt moral from my tale; one that may direct you if you succeed in your undertaking, and console you in case of failure. Prepare to hear of occurrences which are usually deemed marvellous”
-Letter 4 (p.24 - 25)
“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.”
-Chapter 5 (p.45)
Quote(s) for creation anxiety.
“How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form?”
-Chapter 5 (p.45)
“As I sat, a train of reflection occurred to me, which let me to consider the effects of what i was now doing. Three years before I was engaged in the same manner, and had created a fiend whose unparalleled barbarity had desolated my heart, and filled it for ever with the bitterest remorse.”
-Chapter 20 (p.126)
Context for Creation anxiety.
Just how Frankenstein feels creation anxiety about the creature he created and the one he nearly creates, Shelley herself felt anxiety about the novel she did create. She was afraid of what the public response to a novel written by a female writer might be and also afraid of what her father and husband might think.
Quote(s) for creation of the creature.
“His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips.”
-Chapter 5 (p.45).
Quote(s) for negative outcome of ambition.
“My present situation was one in which all voluntary thought was swallowed up and lost.”
-Chapter 24 (p.153)
“I was lifeless, and did not recover my senses for a long, long time. / This was the commencement of a nervous fever, which confined me for several months.”
-Chapter 5 (p.49)
“Last Monday (July 31st), we were nearly surrounded by ice, which closed in the ship on all sides, scarcely leaving her the sea-room in which she floated. Our situation was somewhat dangerous, especially as we were compassed round by a very thick fog. We accordingly lay to, hoping that some change would take place in the atmosphere and weather.”
-Letter IV (p.20)
Romantics and enlightenment context.
In the early 19th century, the enlightenment movement began, bringing ideals about scientific discovery. This lead to such scientific advances as that of Galvani using electricity to move dead animals. These discoveries and possibilities unsettled romantics who felt a strongly about maintaining a ‘natural order’.
Quote(s) for unnatural ambition.
“Remember, I am not recording the vision of a madman. The sun does not more certainly shine in the heavens, than that which i now affirm is true”
-Chapter 4 (p.41)
“I succeeded in discovering the cause of generation and live; nay, more, I became myself capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter.”
-Chapter 4 (p.41)
Quote(s) for consequences of defying natural law.
“This hour, when I momentarily expect my release, is the only happy one which I have enjoyed for several years.”
-Walton, in continuation (p.166)
Quote(s) for revenge.
“The child still struggled, and loaded me with epithets which carried despair to my heart; I grasped his throat to silence him, and in a moment he lay dead at my feet.”
-Chapter 16 (p.110)
“I felt as if I was about the commission of a dreadful crime, and avoided with shuddering anxiety any encounter with my fellow-creatures. At one time the moon, which had before been clear, was suddenly overspread by a thick cloud, and I took advantage of the moment of darkness, and cast my basket into the sea: I listened to the gurgling sound as it sunk, and then sailed away from the spot.”
-Chapter 20 (p.131)
“I saw the lifeless form of Henry Clerval stretched before me. I gasped for breath; and, throwing myself on the body exclaimed. ‘Have my murderous machinations deprived you also, my dearest Henry, of life?”
-Chapter 21 (p.135)
“That what I now held in my arms had ceased to be the Elizabeth whom I had loved and cherished. The murderous mark of the fiend’s grasp was on her neck, and the breath had ceased to issue from her lips.”
-Chapter 23 (p.149 - 150)
