key quotations

Question 1

“A new species would bless me…”

Answer 1

“… as its creator and source”

(semantic field of religion - “creator”, “source”)

Question 2

“I pursued nature to her hiding-places. …”

Answer 2

“Who shall conceive the horrors of my secret toil…?”

(“secret toil” - shameful and unlawful activity)

Question 3

‘mock the stupendous mechanism…’ (Mary Shelley’s Author’s Introduction, 1831)

Answer 3

‘…of the Creator of the world.’

Question 4

“Seek happiness in tranquility,…”

Answer 4

“… and avoid ambition.”

Question 5

“Are you then so easily…”

Answer 5

“…turned from your design?”

(noun ‘design’ emphasises that Victor views ambition as a part of ‘design’, something that cannot and should not be stifled and is innately human. this ultimately emphasises the idea that Victor never learns from his mistakes, and perhaps sees a justification in them.)

Question 6

Lodge ‘names are never neutral. They always…’

Answer 6

‘…signify, if it is only ordinariness’

Question 7

“I preferred glory to…”

Answer 7

“… every enticement that wealth placed in my path.”

(“glory”, religious connotations)

Question 8

“the inestimable benefit…” - Walton

Answer 8

“… which I shall confer on all mankind…”

Question 9

“he is thus noble…” (Walton about Victor)

Answer 9

“… and godlike in ruin!”

Question 10

“I am malicious…”

Answer 10

“…because I am miserable”

Question 11

“my own spirit…” (Victor on doubling w/ monster)

Answer 11

“… let loose from the grave”

Question 12

“men appear to me as…” (Elizabeth after Justine is executed)

Answer 12

“monsters thirsting for each other’s blood.”

Question 13

‘We saw many ruined castles standing on the edge of precipes, …’

Answer 13

‘… surrounded by black woods, high and inaccessible.’

Question 14

“Man, you shall repent…”

Answer 14

“… of the injuries you inflict.”

Question 15

‘… the tempest, …’

Answer 15

‘… so beautiful yet terrific’

Question 16

‘… in a scene so beautiful and heavenly… I was tempted to…’

Answer 16

‘… plunge into the silent lake, that the waters might close over me and my calamities’

Question 17

“All praises bestowed on her I received…”

Answer 17

“… as made to a possession of my own.” (Victor about Elizabeth)

Question 18

“No human being could have passed…”

Answer 18

“… a happier childhood than myself.”

Question 19

“Thus strangely are our souls constructed, and by…

Answer 19

such slight ligaments are we bound to prosperity or ruin.”

• describes humanity’s most beautiful sentiments and fatal flaws in a nutshell. how comforting yet concerning that we still face the same fears and pleasures of a time gone by now.

Question 20

the monster’s rapid and effortless violence

Answer 20

grasping William’s throat and ‘in a moment he lays dead’. choice of a child as the first victim of the monster makes this act even more heinous and terrifying (typically gothic and gruesome fashion)

Question 21

“my enemy is not…”

Answer 21

“… invulnerable” - this profound realisation leads to the oppressed overcoming the oppressor

Question 22

“Let me see that I excite the…”

Answer 22

“… sympathy of some existing thing” - beneath lofty rhetoric is a cry of pain that all readers can understand. Shelley activates her readers’ sympathy for an unlikely candidate of pathos, thereby fulfilling, beyond the page, the monster’s request.

Question 23

parallel syntax and pre-emptive phrasing

Answer 23

“I demand […] but it is all”
“It is true […] but on that account”
characterise the monster as a reasonable, composed character despite the emotional turmoil he feels within.

Question 24

progress and innovation being described in terms of light

Answer 24

‘country of eternal light’
Victor’s burst of insight as ‘a sudden light’