Frankenstein quotes and themes

Question 1

“I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend”

Answer 1

• Nature vs nurture - are people inherently good / bad or is it their upbringing that changes them
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau said that humans are inherently good and they are corrupted by nature - noble savage, a character that is uncorropted by society
• Hobbes said that humans were born blank slates - tabula rasas, without any rules
• “Benevolent” - the creature is articulate and clever

Question 2

“I kept my workshop of filthy creation”

Answer 2

• Juxtaposition - filthy and creation
• “Filthy” - pejorative language. Moment of realisation for Victor that he has caused chaos

Question 3

“Shall I not hate them who abhor me”
“My hatred and revenge burst all bounds of moderation”

Answer 3

• Said by the creature-1
• Said by Victor-2
• Shows similarities between Victor and the creature
• Nature vs nurture

Question 4

Theme of ambition

Answer 4

• Frankenstein is also known as the “modern Prometheus”
• In Greek mythology, Prometheus stole fire from the God’s and so was condemmed to eternal torture. Like Prometheus, Victor stole from the God’s (the ability to give life) and so was condemmed to eternal torture
• In another version of the myth, Prometheus animates a clay sculpture to life, effectively stealing life
• Victor had a “passion which afterwards ruled my destiny” - Romantic genius, a person whose talents were driven by forces beyond their control
• Victor / Shelley is warning about the power of ambition. Walton’s ambition gets them stuck in ice - Dante’s Inferno, people in the ninth circle of hell are shown to be trapped in ice because they have betrayed god
• Shelley is highliting Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s theory and stating the dangers of unchecked ambition

Question 5

Theme of power and control

Answer 5

• Victor has complete control of the narrative - he “corrected and augmented” the story (Walton spoke about Victor)
• Victor is unreliable and untrustworthy narrator
• Shelley is showing that Victor decides how the creature is presented - voices of the marginalised are reduced

Question 6

“It was the secrets of heaven and earth which I desired to learn”

Answer 6

• Victor is trying to make the creature using alchemy
• The use of the adjective “secrets” emphasises how unknown alchemy was at the time
• The appearance of the creature is symbolic of the horrors of defying nature
• Growing his knowledge is his downfall
• Shelley is trying to show the dangers of the enlightenment - galvanism and alchemy
• Nature is an escape from society - the sublime

Question 7

The monster has no name

Answer 7

• Victor is so digusted by his creation he cannot even give it a name
• The monster is not allowed the dignity / respect of having a name
• A name is an identity - the monster doesn’t have one

Question 8

“I will never consent”

Answer 8

• Said by Victor when rejecting the monster of a companion
• Victor lacks empathy
• Use of “consent” shows arrogance in Victor, which constrasts the humble language of the monster

Question 9

“He muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his cheeks”

Answer 9

• The monster is trying to make contact with Victor
• Victor abandons the monster at his most vulnerable point
• “Grin” and “wrinkled” shows innocence and naivity as the monster is a baby

Question 10

“But it is true that I am a wretch. I have murdered the lovely (…) I have strangeled the innocent”

Answer 10

• Repetetive use of “I” symbolises that the monster takes responsibility for his actions and has come to terms with his identity
• Juxtaposition between of evil and innocence in phrase like “murdered the lovely” and “strangeled the innocent” shows the inner conflict and guilt that the monster is experiencing
• Shows complexity of the monsters emotions

Question 11

“I shall no longer see the sun or stars, or feel the winds play on my cheeks”

Answer 11

• Monster’s final words are poetic and moving
• Noble plans to “sacrifice” his “wretched self” if cannot experience love and/or friendship
• Semantic field of nature mimics the ideals of the Romantics and is deliberately placed at the end of the novel to leave a lasting impact on the 19th century reader

Question 12

Why does Shelley want the reader to feel empathy for the monster?

Answer 12

• Shelley was disowned by her father when she eloped and married Percy Shelley
• She wants the reader to feel empathy for the monster as he is symbolic of the abandonment she felt

Question 13

“He gazed with a kind of wonder”

Answer 13

• An innocent child that is learning from his mistakes
• “Gazed” shows curiosity and naivity
• Reader feels bad for the monster as he is abandoned at such a vulnerable stage

Question 14

“I shall kill no albatross”

Answer 14

• Said by Walton in his letters
• The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
• Warning about the tale
• Victor is tortured because he hated and didn’t respect nature
• Mimics how the sailor was tortured for killing the albatross
• Victor is tortured by watching his family die while the sailor was tortured by watching his crew die
• Allegorical warning

Question 15

“Nothing remained but a blasted stump”

Answer 15

• Shows Victor the power of electricty
• Gives Victor the idea of galvanism
• Shows him that nature can create AND destroy

Question 16

“Phillosophers stone”
“The elixir of life”
“I could banish disease from the human frame”

Answer 16

• Chooses to pursue life over wealth
• Victory is assuming the role of a deity
• Parallels the allegorical warning of the allbatross
• Victor is maniupulating nature

Question 17

“I dabbled among the unhallowed damps of the grave”

Answer 17

• “Dabbled” suggests he is unaware of what he is doing
• Drive to create life pushes him past the limits of what a human should do
• Defying nature completely
• Doesn’t respect nature
• Emotive adjective “unhallowed” represents his unholiness and sinning

Question 18

“This was the reward of my benevolance!”

Answer 18

• Exclamatory clause
• Use of the noun “reward” emphasises the monsters sarcasm and frustration at humans
• He is shot instead of being praised for saving the young girl

Question 19

“His yellow skin, hair of a lustorous black, teeth of a pearly whiteness”

Answer 19

• Use of asyndetic listing breaks up each characteristic from the other
• Amplifies the effect of each deformity
• Shows the overwhelming disgust Victor feels when looking at the monster

Question 20

“I could have torn him limb from limb”

Answer 20

• Draws pathos from the reader
• The only thing that the monster has above the humans is his increased strength. He doesn’t use this strength which shows the his innate goodness

Question 21

“When I thought of him, I gnashed
my teeth, my eyes became inflamed”

Answer 21

• Victor mimics the animalistic and monstorous expressions of the creature
• Victor is a doppleganger of the monster
• Victor has become the thing that he hates the most

Question 22

“I begin to love him as a brother”

Answer 22

• Walton feels love and compassion towards Victor when he tells him his story
• Although we are told the Victor wished to kill the monster and he even acts on these inclinations when he destroys the monsters only chance at love by killing his companion
• Society completely judges people on their looks over their actions
• Monster does good but looks bad, Victor does bad but looks good = society favours Victor

Question 23

“Paradise lost”

Answer 23

• The monster reads his favourite book
• Shelley has chosen this book on purpose
• In the book, Satan is misjudged and vows hatred and revenge
• The monster relates to Satan as he too becomes a victim of judgement
• Interetextual references

Question 24

“I vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all of mankind”

Answer 24

• Mimics Satan in Paradise Lost
• The verb “vowed” has lexical connotations of religion, as Christians vow to serve God
• Ironic use of “vowed” to relay her anger towards Christianity
• Society would frown on the book as it was morally wrong
• Readers would believe the monster to be a product of Satan as he is not created by God - paralleled the monster with Satan

Question 25

“I could not consent to go and hear that little conceited fellow”

Answer 25

• Shows how judgemental and egotistical Victor is
• Doesn’t listen to the lecturer based only on his appearance - prolepsis to him abandoning the monster
• “Consent” and “conceited” shows Victor’s arrogance and egotistical nature

Question 26

“I turned with loathing from the woman”

Answer 26

• Said by Victor when accused of murdering Clerval
• The abstrat noun “loathing” highlights the extreme reactions that Victor has towards people who are different to him or have different views to him: the nurse is of a lower class
• When in prison, Frankenstein admits that he “called [himself] the murderer of William, of Justine and of Clerval” = even more emphasises his judgemental nature