| Chapter 14: | -After some time, the monster’s constant eavesdropping allows him to reconstruct the history of the cottagers. -The old man, De Lacey, was once an affluent and successful citizen in Paris; his children, Agatha and Felix, were well-respected members of the community.-Safie’s father, a Turk, was falsely accused of a crime and sentenced to death. -Felix visited the Turk in prison and met his daughter, with whom he immediately fell in love. -Safie sent Felix letters thanking him for his intention to help her father and recounting the circumstances of her plight (the monster tells Victor that he copied some of these letters and offers them as proof that his tale is true). -The letters relate that Safie’s mother was a Christian Arab who had been enslaved by the Turks before marrying her father.-She inculcated in Safie an independence and intelligence that Islam prevented Turkish women from cultivating. -Safie was eager to marry a European man and thereby escape the near-slavery that awaited her in Turkey. -Felix successfully coordinated her father’s escape from prison, but when the plot was discovered, Felix, Agatha, and De Lacey were exiled from France and stripped of their wealth.-They then moved into the cottage in Germany upon which the monster has stumbled. -Meanwhile, the Turk tried to force Safie to return to Constantinople with him, but she managed to escape with some money and the knowledge of Felix’s whereabouts. |
| Chapter 15: | -While foraging for food in the woods around the cottage one night, the monster finds an abandoned leather satchel containing some clothes and books. -Eager to learn more about the world than he can discover through the chink in the cottage wall, he brings the books back to his hovel and begins to read. -The books include Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Sorrows of Werter, a volume of Plutarch’s Lives, and John Milton’s Paradise Lost, the last of which has the most profound effect on the monster.-Unaware that Paradise Lost is a work of imagination, he reads it as a factual history and finds much similarity between the story and his own situation. -Rifling through the pockets of his own clothes, stolen long ago from Victor’s apartment, he finds some papers from Victor’s journal.-With his newfound ability to read, he soon understands the horrific manner of his own creation and the disgust with which his creator regarded him.-Dismayed by these discoveries, the monster wishes to reveal himself to the cottagers in the hope that they will see past his hideous exterior and befriend him. -He decides to approach the blind De Lacey first, hoping to win him over while Felix, Agatha, and Safie are away. -He believes that De Lacey, unprejudiced against his hideous exterior, may be able to convince the others of his gentle nature.-The perfect opportunity soon presents itself, as Felix, Agatha, and Safie depart one day for a long walk. -The monster nervously enters the cottage and begins to speak to the old man. -Just as he begins to explain his situation, however, the other three return unexpectedly. -Felix drives the monster away, horrified by his appearance. |
Frankenstein: Chapter 14-15
February 20, 2020