FRANKENSTEIN QUOTES

“We accordingly brought him back to the deck, and restored him to animation” – RW on VF.

“the first misfortune of my life occurred – an omen, as it were, of my future misery” – VF.

“...my father had taken the greatest precautions that my mind should be impressed with no supernatural horrors.” – VF on actually having a caring father, also, Gothicism.

“...my candle was nearly burnt out” – VF, a metaphor for his sanity.

“Could the demon... also in his hellish sport have betrayed the innocent to death and ignominy.” – VF. It was VF who betrayed the innocent, so surely then he is the demon?

IGNOMINY = public shame or disgrace.

“...deep, dark, death-like solitude” – VF.

“The rain depressed me” – VF, pure and simple pathetic fallacy.

“...the view of the tremendous and ever-moving glacier... it had then filled me with a sublime ecstasy” – VF on the sublime nature of his setting.

ROMANTIC SUBLIME

“All men hate the wretched” – M, proving himself different to humans.

“...you, my creator” – M, master/slave distinction, father/son distinction, self-awareness.

“I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel” – M is comparing himself to the devil. Whereas he should have been a perfect being, he became a fallen angel, like Lucifer for example.

LINK: “Awake, arise or be for ever fall’n.” – John Milton, Paradise Lost

“; my soul glowed with love and humanity” – M, until he realised he was not human.

“Cursed be the day... in which you first saw light!” – VF. Unlike convention, the symbolism of light here is negative.

“...the picture of an omnipotent God warring with his creatures” – M, familiar?

M vs. VF.

“Like Adam, I was created apparently united by no link to any other being in existence, but... he had come forth from the hands of God a perfect creature, happy and prosperous... I was wretched, helpless and alone.” – M links himself to Adam, realises he is not a perfect creature, or a human. He acknowledges his alienation, his loneliness.

LINK: “Adam, the goodliest man of men since born his sons” – John Milton, Paradise Lost

“Many times I considered Satan as the fitter emblem of my condition” – M is the fallen angel.

“This was then the reward of my benevolence!” – M saves a woman from drowning, and is shot in doing so. Again, it is his appearance, not his intention, that is seen by mankind.

“You, my creator, would tear me to pieces” – M, but actually, VF tears the female M to pieces.

“I do not destroy the lamb and the kid, to glut my appetite; acorns and berries afford me sufficient nourishment” – M; eco-criticism?

“But in Clerval I saw the image of my former self” – VF. Could it be that Clerval is the innocent, ambitious and excitable VF, and the monster is the corrupt and miserable VF?

“in his murder my crimes are consummated;” – M, upon seeing VF dead, believes justice has been done. He who abandoned him has suffered.

“in his murder my crimes are consummated;” – M, upon seeing VF dead, believes justice has been done. He who abandoned him has suffered.

“He was soon borne away by the waves, and lost in darkness and distance.” RW, not only is M lost in darkness, but so is the reader. What happens next? Does M really stay by his word? What comes of RW?