Summary
Summary Frankenstein - quote analysis
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Analysis of quotes based off of lessons, there are some chapters that do not have any analysis as we did not do close textual study of those sections
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QuotesLetter 1
- ‘this expedition has been the favourite dream of my early years’ – telling her things she would
already know
Infatuation with himself and his identity as a man within science
Focused on his individuality – contrast to HMT where it is a female collective voice
Letter 3
- ‘what can stop the determined heart and resolved will of man’ – men think of themselves as the
highest being of society
Thinks he deserves his fate and ambition
Idea that no power can stop a person, especially a man, when they are determined
Parallel to victor
Letter 4
- ‘had the shape of a man, but apparently of gigantic stature’ – Frankenstein and creature are binary
opposites
Robert Walton – xenophobic
Talking about the creature – the foreign, the different, the unfamiliar
Trying to make the unfamiliar familiar – rationalizing
o Robert Walton – rational and needs to know things – judging on basis of appearance
- ‘but an European’ – white, colonized, civilized
Similar to R.W – ideal and superior
Chapter 1
- ‘my family is one of the most distinguished of the republic’ – superiority complex and thinks highly of
himself
Has very little equal to him
Has utmost power to do as he desires and do things that others would be judged for
- ‘I was their plaything and their idol’ – possessive of their children and seen as property of the parents
Children should be loved and cherished – they’re very important
Notions of children being pure, innocent and God-given
Capacity to build up or destroy a child
- ‘I was so guided by a silken cord’ – treated well but still controlled
Images of wealth
- ‘looked upon Elizabeth as mine – mine to protect, love and cherish’ – infantilising her and claiming
her as though she were an object
Like a one-way transaction – puts him in a position of power
Victor moulding Elizabeth into what he wants her to be to then go and marry her – following in
his father’s footsteps
o Effect of a male presence and male dominance in childhood
o Brought in to fulfil missing roles in family – social construction of gender roles
- ‘my more than sister, since till death she was to be mine only’ – possessive nature and lack of agency
for Elizabeth
Foreshadowing
Emphasis of incestuous relationship – toned down from original
o They were cousins – adopted in this version
o Cousin version – Percy Shelley’s revised edition, impact of men on literature
Chapter 3
, - ‘Elizabeth, my love, you must supply my place to my younger children’ – Elizabeth to become a
mother to the children of the family
Oedipus complex – Elizabeth responsible for Caroline’s death and so substitute mother and she
can now have access to Alfonse
o If Elizabeth become the mother of the children Frankenstein is essentially marrying his
mother
Chapter 4
- ‘a new species would bless me as its creator … no father could claim the gratitude of his child so
completely as I should deserve theirs’ – wants to raise a new species and be seen as a god
Language of ambition
Wants to change and save the world
Ego’s benevolence – doing it for whole of mankind
Wants to subvert nature and take control
His children will be grateful
Taking on the role of the female – if he can create life women are no longer needed in society
Chapter 5
- ‘I might infuse a spark into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet’ – goes from natural to man-made
Juxtaposition of natural v man-made – scientist trying to take over and punished as a result
Narrator is Frankenstein – playing god
o Link to Prometheus
Pathetic fallacy reflecting character’s feelings
Imagery of fire and electricity
- ‘my candle was nearly burnt out’ – foreshadowing that something will go wrong?
At night – supernatural and should not happen
- ‘dull yellow eye of the creature open’ – link to birth and moment of success
Dull – lack of hope?
Underwhelming
Contrast of experiment and life around it – dulling everything
- ‘I had selected his features as beautiful’ – man-made and mathematical
Does not want something ugly to look at – knows that the act itself is ugly and morally wrong and
wants to move away from that?
Contrasting colours – more grotesque
o Conveying sense of horror and physical disgust
- ‘traversing my bedchamber’ – archaic language
Cannot stand to be with it – instant regret
Scholarly – intentions for good rather than him being a murderer
o Taken more seriously? – presents himself as an intellectual
- ‘the tumult I had endured’ – effort he put in and acting as though he is not to fault
Had to suffer and persevere
- ‘bloom of health’ – point of fertility sexualised
In her prime – virginal
- ‘I beheld the wretch – the miserable monster whom I had created’ – focus on himself
Considers his story more important – invalidation and erasure of truth
Feels disgusted with creature even though he made it – blames the creature who he thinks to be
a monster
Assumes that it is evil
Chapter 8
- ‘this wretched mockery of justice’ – using justice to criticise the social conventions and institutions
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