Frankenstein- Mary Shelley Flashcards
Quotes of RW’s childhood and imagination (2)
RW- “This expedition has been the favourite dream of my early years”
RW- “My father’s dying injunction had forbidden my uncle to allow me to embark on a seafaring life”
Quotes of RW’s Ambition & knowledge (3)
RW- “may tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man”
what can stop the determined heart and resolved will of man?”
RW- “One man’s life or death is but a small price to pay for the acquirement of knowledge” - foreshadows VF’s future
Quotes of RW’s isolation and alienation (3)
“I have no friend Margaret […] I bitterly feel the want of a friend”
- “It is still a greater evil to me that I am self-educated”
“Brother of my heart” VS “stranger”: Walton clings to a companion LIKE Cr “I thought him as beautiful as the stranger”
Quotation about nature and the sublime (5)
RW- “I try in vain to be persuaded that the pole is the seat of frost and desolation; it ever presents itself to my imagination as the region of beauty and delight”
VF- “I pursued nature to her hiding place”- displays nature as a woman
VF- “Mont Blanc, the supreme and magnificent Mont Blanc”
VF- “maternal nature bade me weep no more”
“how the clouds, which sometimes obscure and sometimes rise above the dome of Mont Blanc”- obscurity a symbol of the sublime → “the lovely scene of waters, woods, and mountains, obscured in darkness”
VF - “my eyes were insensible to the charms of nature”
Quotations about dangers/risks of ambition and knowledge? (6)
Unhappy man! Do you share my madness? Have you drank also from the intoxicating draught?” : VF warns RW of the dangers of excessive desire
VF to RW- “you seek knowledge, as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine have been”
VF- “I saw how the fine form of man was degraded and wasted”- Foreshadows VF’s own future, which began in the graveyard with the creation of the creature
VF- “Often did my human nature turn with loathing from my occupation “
VF: “learn from me, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge”
Walton searches for the “elixir of life” but VF later states “the cup of life was poisoned for ever” : not just for RW or VF, but excessive desire of discoveries which go against nature are poisoned
Quotations about god-like role of RW and VF (2)
RW- “I also became a poet for one year and lived in a Paradise of my own creation” : Walton became a God, like VF
VF- “A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their beings to me. No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I could deserve theirs”
Quotations which give evidence of science fiction (3)
“Felix darted towards me, and with a supernatural force tore me from his father”- Supernatural power against the creature, that means no one can ever sympathise with him
“[The magistrate] heard my story with that half kind of belief that is given to a tale of spirits and supernatural events; but when he was called on to act officially in consequence, the whole tide of his incredulity returned”- Shelley puts the reader in the role of the magistrate: we can choose to learn nothing from the novel and treat it just as supernatural fiction, or we can believe it and learn from it”
Vf on Cr- “I should almost regard him as invincible” […] “as if possessed of magic powers”- Creature may not be human, but he is superior to humans!
Quotations of doppleganger (Gothic) (3)
“gnashes his teeth” VF and CR
RW on VF- “noble creature” […] noble creature”
“[Creature made] convulsive motion” vs “[VF] every limb became convulsed”
Quotations of ‘the uncanny’ (gothic) (2)
VF- “The country in the neighbourhood of this village resembled, to a greater degree, the scenery of Switzerland”
VF- “I could now almost fancy myself amongst the Swiss mountains”
Quotations of the liminal (gothic) (2)
VF- “[I] walked on the beach of the sea, which I almost regarded as an insuperable barrier between me and my fellow creatures”
Following Percy Shelley’s poem ‘mutability’, VF “arrived at the top of the ascent”- shows how his life really changes for the worst from here (about to meet the creature) (tautology of “TOP of the ASCENT”) for emphasis
Quotations on the revenant (gothic) (3)
“black mark of fingers”
“I felt the fingers of the monster already grasping my neck”
“I felt the fiend’s grasp my neck, and could not free myself from it”
Quotations on Romantic literary influence of Frankenstein (2)
RW- “there is a love of the marvellous, a belief in the marvellous, intertwined in all my projects”
VF: “thus not the tenderness of friendship, nor the beauty of the Earth, nor of heaven, could redeem my soul from woe”
Quotations alluding to the Rime of the Ancient Mariner (3)
RW- “but I shall kill no albatross, therefore do not be alarmed for my safety
"Like one who, on a lonely road, Doth walk in fear and dread, And, having once turned round, walks on, And turns no more his head; Because he knows a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread"
VF - “dreams that had been my food and pleasant rest for so long a space were now become a hell to me” parallels with the Mariner: “And I had done a hellish thing, / And it would work ‘em woe;’ “
Quotations alluding to the book of Genesis & Paradise lost (5)
VF to RW- “you seek knowledge, as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine have been”
“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” – reference to Lucifer falling from Heaven and of Adam, the first man
CR- “arch fiend”- Paradise lost reference
VF- “many times I considered Satan a fitter emblem of my image”
VF- “Like the arcangel who aspired to omnitopence, I am chained in an eternal Hell”
CR - “from that moment I declared everlasting war again the species, and more than all, against him who had formed me” - parallels with Satan who turns against God and led his fellow angels in a war against him
Quotations alluding to Hamlet (1)
“Thus spoke my prophetic soul, as torn by remorse, horror and despair”- Thus spoke my prophetic soul mirrors Hamlet after his father has come from the dead and told him who the murdered is; to which Hamlet responds by vowing revenge against the killer
Quotations of VF’s arrogance and inhumanity (2)
VF- “It would be very impertinent and inhuman of me to trouble you with any inquisitiveness of mine […] soon after this, he enquired” – shows inhumanity of VF
VF: “her countenance expressed all those bad qualities which often characterised that class”
Quotation showing Rw’s arrogance (1)
“your affectionate brother”- ironic as he is not very affectionate and only speaks of himself
Quotations about clerval (3)
Vf on HC- “I grabbed his hand, and in a moment forgot my horror and misfortune”- Clerval, acts like VF’s partner who looks after him and makes him feel better (GAY?!?)
VF- “his hope and dream was to be one among those names who are recorded in story”- Ironic foreshadowing as he is (romantic irony)
VF- “Has this mind, so replete with ideas, imaginations fanciful and magnificent, which formed a world, whose existence depended on the life of it’s creator; - has the mind perished?”
Quotations about the male and female relationship (2)
VF on his dad and mum- “He came like a protecting spirit to the poor girl”
“He strove to shelter her, as a fair exotic is sheltered by a gardener”
Quotations on the role of parenthood (4)
“I was their plaything and their idol, and something better- their child, the innocent and helpless creature bestowed on them by heaven”
VF- “guided by a silken cord”
AF to VF- “my dear Victor, do not waste your time upon this; it is sad trash.”- Dismissive of VF’s education
VF on HC- “Henry deeply felt the misfortune of being debarred from a liberal education”
Quotations on the mysteries of science (3)
VF- Curiosity, earnest research to learn the hidden laws of nature”
VF- “it was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn”
VF- “The change from life to death, and death to life, until the midst of this darkness a sudden light broke in upon me […] I became dizzy with the immensity of the prospect which it illustrated” chiaroscuro when describing the discovery: made him dizzy- underlying danger
Quotes on obsession (3)
VF- “Looked upon Elizabeth as mine- mine to protect, love and cherish”
“My more than sister, since till death was she to be mine only”
VF: “I seemed to have lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit”/ “The summer month passed while I was thus engaged, heart and soul, in one pursuit” - he put his “heart and soul” into his work but he ended up losing it - showing he put everything into it and lost everything
Quotes about the creature’s isolation and alienation (5)
CR- “I saw the figure of a man at a distance”
CR - “Satan had his companions, fellow-devils, to admire and encourage him; but I am solitary and abhorred”
CR - “no eve soothed my sorrows, nor shared my thoughts; I was alone”
CR - “I remembered Adam’s supplication to his Creator. But where was mine? He had abandoned me”
CR - “there was none among the myriads of men who could pity or assist me”
Quotes on ambitious desire (2)
Vf: “penetrate the secrets of nature”
VF- “I had desired it with an ardour that exceeded moderation”
Quotes in support that Frankenstein is a feminist text (5)
EL- “now men appear to me as monster thirsting for each other’s blood”
VF: “I loved my brothers, Elizabeth and Clerval”-
“You must create a female for me”- Objectification of women for the benefit of males
MS highlights the importance of women: “Elizabeth alone had the power to draw me from these fits”
Cr- “[I]am an abortion”- Female impact is still removed by man; aborts what a woman creates!
Quotes on the importance of lightning and the bolt (2)
VF: “thunderstorm”→ “as I stood at the door, on a sudden I beheld a streak of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak” → “I never beheld anything so utterly destroyed” metaphor for how the lightning that created the creature destroys VF’s life
→ Cr to Vf: “soon the bolt will fall which must ravish you from your happiness for ever.” The bolt that created the creature is what ravishes him from power
“A flash of lightening illuminated the object, and discovered its shape plainly to me” - the creation is associated with destruction and galvanism (suggests that science at the time was destructive?)
Quotes on the motif of the worm (3)
→“I saw how the worm inherited the wonders of the eye and brain”
→ “I saw the grave-worms crawling in the folds of the flannel”
→“But I, the true murdered felt the never-dying WORM alive in my bosom
common motif of the worm eating away at man (worm=excessive desire)
Quotes on Vf’s initial response to the creation of the creature (2)
“yellow skin” vs “hair was of a lustrous black” & “teeth of pearly whiteness” vs “black lips”- displays how the light of his discovery brought a lot of fear and evil
“candle was nearly burnt out” & “half-extinguished light”- The light begins to go out when the creature is born= fear and danger
Quotes on the importance of seasons and emotion (2)
“It was a divine spring; and the season contributed greatly to my convalescence.”
“the day, which was one of the first of spring, cheered even me by the loveliness of its sunshine and the balminess of the air”
“A serene sky and verdant fields filled me with ecstasy” (alliteration)
Quotes on the importance of dreams vs reality (3)
CR- “but it was all a dream; no eve soothed my sorrows”
VF: “The whole series of my life appeared to me as a dream; I sometimes doubted if indeed it were all true
VF- “ever since my discovery from the fever I had been in the custom of taking every night a small quantity of laudanum”- A hallucinogenic drug which distorts his perception of reality…
