Frankenstein quotes Flashcards
The creature on solitude
‘Satan had his companions, fellow devils, to admire and encourage him, but I am solitary and abhorred’
The creature on his birth and victors feelings on him
‘yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy monster, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us’
Victor talking about creating a new species
‘a new species would bless me as it’s creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their beings to me’
The creature talking to victor about their relationship
‘Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel’
Walton on exploring the undiscovered
‘I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of the world never before visited and may tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man’
The creature on the De lacey’s struggles
'’It was poverty, and they suffered that evil in a very distressing degree’
The creature on being alone
‘Believe me Frankenstein; I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity; but am I not alone, miserably alone?
The creature on his past and present emotions
‘I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy and I shall again be virtuous’
Victor on the sublime views
‘These sublime and magnificent scenes afforded me the greatest consolation that I was capable of conceiving.’
Justine on why she falsely confessed
‘My confessor has besieged me, he threatened and menaced, until I began to think that I was the monster that he said I was. He threatened excommunication and hell-fire in my last moments if I continued to obdurate’
Victor on his feelings about Justine’s trial
‘During this whole wretched mockery of justice I suffered living torture’
Victor on the dangers and unhappiness of extreme ambition
‘how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow’
Victor judging Krempe by appearances
‘M. Krempe was a little squat man, with a gruff voice and repulsive countenance; the teacher therefore, did not prepossess me in favour of his pursuits’
Victor on destiny
‘Destiny was too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction’
Victor on his childhood
‘No human being could have passed a happier childhood than myself. My parents were possessed by the very spirit of kindness and indulgence’
Walton on the price of knowledge
‘One man’s life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought’
Victor to walton about ambition and the search for knowledge
‘you seek for knowledge and wisdom, 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’
Victor on Elizabeth
‘she presented Elizabeth to me as her promised gift […] looked upon Elizabeth as mine’
Walton on Glory
‘I preferred glory to every enticement that wealth placed in my path’
Walton on companionship
‘but I bitterly feel the want of a friend’
The creature on Justice’
‘the guilty are allowed, by human laws, bloody as they are, to speak in their own defence before they are condemned’
Gothic context from the David Punter article
- The central ground of the Gothic remains a series of novels written in Britain between roughly 1760 and 1830. Frankenstein appeared a little late in the period and is more concerned with science than the supernatural
- The central mood of the Gothic is fear and this mood always has something to do with the past and what comes back. It is a form of writing not wholly within the ‘mainstream’ The Gothic reminds us that we are mainly driven by our passions
-The Gothic questions how far scientific and technological development might enable people to extend themselves without threat of divine retaliation
