| a countenance of angelic beauty and expression | Safie’s beauty. Is he judging by appearances again? Awakening of romantic desires. Religious language. (a…expression) |
| played some airs so entrancingly beautiful that they at once drew tears of sorrow and delight from my eyes. | His reaction to Safie’s guitar playing, forming part of his emotional intellect as it grows. Like the fire, and like language, he’s aware of the oxymorinic multiplicity of simultaneous pleasure and pain. (played…eyes) |
| ‘my friends’ ‘my protectors’ | What the Creature likes to call the De Laceys. |
| My days were spent in close attention, that I might more speedily master the language; and I may boast that I improved more rapidly than the Arabian | The Creature’s keenness to learn language recalls Victor’s obsessive scientific undertakings. He also boasts in a similar way, and shows warning signs of an inclination towards domination. (My…Arabian) |
| Was man, indeed, at once so powerful, so virtuous, and magnificent, yet so vicious and base? He appeared at one time a mere scion of the evil principle, and at another of all that can be conceived as noble and godlike | From Volney, the Creature learns with surprise of the various manifestations of human motives. Expresses similar ideas to Byron in Manfred (half deity, half dust, alike unfit to sink or soar). Like fire, and language, and song, they are capable of massively diverging results – and like, in the long run, him. Potential moralist reading. (Was…godlike) |
| the strange system of human society… immense wealth and squalid poverty; of rank, descent, and noble blood | The Creature learns about society, and its injustices. Seems rather a radically liberal political statement on the part of Mary Shelley. (the…society…immense…blood) |
| doomed to waste his powers for the profits of a chosen few! | The Creature, sounding rather like or Marxist – or if not, definitely like William Godwin – laments the injustice of the fate of the poor. Slavery. Predetermination, like Victor. But because of birth, like him.(doomed…few!) |
| I knew that I possessed no money, no friends, no kind of property. | The Creature has none of the endowments necessary for success in the human world. Asyndetic tricolon stresses all that he lacks. (I…property) |
| Was I, then, a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled and whom all men disowned? | The Creature’s impressive logic, as he gains in wordly understanding, now has the negative consequence of forcing him to a hateful self-definition. He realises that he cannot escape the kind of identity Frankenstein gives him. Repetition stresses the totality of his rejection, while ‘disowned’ reminds us of who should be his owner. (Was…disowned?) |
| sorrow only increased with knowledge. Oh, that I had forever remained in my native wood, nor known nor felt beyond the sensations of hunger, thirst and heat! | Echoing both Rousseau’s ideas of the Noble Savage and Victor in the Alps, the creature laments man’s attuned sensibilities. Exclamative expresses forceful emotions. (sorrow…heat!) |
| Other lessons were impressed upon me even more deeply… how the father doated on the smiles of the infant… which bind one human being to another in mutual bonds. | The most important lessons the Creature learns are to do with relationships and attachment. Pointed reference to parenting inculpates Victor. Encapsulates what he wants from life – but instead of ‘bonds’ he gets only ‘bondage.’ (Other…ly…how…infant…which…bonds) |
| What was I? The question again recurred, to be answered only with groans. | Thinking of himself and who he is affords the monster misery. Vast contrast to Victor’s early smug satisfaction. (What…groans) |
| The injustice of his sentence was very flagrant; all Paris was indignant; and it was judged that his religion and wealth, rather than the crime alleged against him, had been the cause of his condemnation | Hints at a corrupt and tyrannical French system of government, allowing for interpretations of revolutionary allegories in this field. Racism – suffers prejudice similar to the Creature. (The…condemnation) |
| his horror and indignation were uncontrollable | Felix’s strong Romantic emotion combines with a sense of compassion and duty, creates unbridled passion and determination akin to Victor’s. (his…able) |
| possessed a treasure | Safie seen as a possession worth winning. (p…ure) |
| taught her to aspire to higher powers of intellect, and an independence of spirit, forbidden to the female followers of Mahomet | Safie is instructed in female empowerment by her mother, much as Shelley was by Wollstonecraft’s writings. (taught…Mahomet) |
| spared no pains to detect and punish his deliverer | The despotic, harsh, unjust government of France takes revenge on Felix, with harsh plosive ps and ds. (spared…deliverer) |
| the treacherous Turk | Shelley’s – perhaps bigoted? – indictment of the church, with pleasing and disdainful alliteration. (the..Turk) |
| Safie resolved in her own mind the plan of conduct that it would become her to pursue | Safie thinks for herself, and makes her own plans. (Safie…pursue) |
| As yet I looked upon crime as a distant evil; benevolence and generosity were ever present before me, inciting within me a desire to become an actor in the busy scene where so many admirable qualities were called forth and displayed | The influence the De Laceys have on the Creature, calling forth his noble motivations. The importance of education – Rousseau’s theories. Ominous suggestion of change. (As…displayed) |
| They produced in me an infinity of new images and feelings, that sometimes raised me to ecstasy, but more frequently sunk me into the lowest dejection | Reading produces in the Creature highly Romantic extremes of emotion. (They…dejection) |
| What did this mean? Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was my destination? These questions continually recurred, but I was unable to solve them | The Creature, with the voice of an 18th century philosopher, asks a series of rhetorical questions which have been plaguing mankind since time immemorial. In this way, he is on a level with the greatest of humanity. (What…them) |
| “The path of my departure was free”, and there was none to lament my annihilation. | The Creature quotes from Mutability by Shelley, echoing Victor. Lack of bonds. (“The…tion) |
| I felt the greatest ardour for virtue rise within me, and abhorrence for vice | On reading Plutarch’s lives, the Creature distinguishes between good and bad, using a Victorism, and with alliterative parallels. |
| Like Adam, I was 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, guarded by the especial care of his Creator… Many times I considered Satan as the fitter emblem of my condition; for often, like him, when I viewed the bliss of my protectors, the bitter gall of envy rose within me | Creature conducts a detailed comparison between himself and characters in PL. (Like…; but… He…Creator…Many…me) |
| Hateful day when I received life!’ I exclaimed in agony. ‘Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust? God, in pity, made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image; but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid even from the very resemblance. Satan had his companions, fellow-devils, to admire and encourage him; but I am solitary and abhorred.’ | The Creature laments his creation as much as Victor has done, and starts to curse his Creator, his God – the opposite of the effect a holy book like this should have. Victor’s inadequacies as a Creator are drawn out. (Hateful…abhorred) |
| sometimes I allowed my thoughts, unchecked by reason, to ramble in the fields of Paradise, and dared to fancy amiable and lovely creatures sympathising with my feelings and cheering my gloom; their angelic countenances breathed smiles of consolation | The Creature’s only experience of heaven and Eden are in his thoughts. He resorts to his dreams to support him, like Victor will in his final voyage. More celestial references. (sometimes…consolation) |
| no Eve soothed my sorrows nor shared my thoughts; I was alone. | Sibilant longing for a mate, like Adam had. Followed by blunt sentence, summing up his fate. (no…alone) |
| I remembered Adam’s supplication to his Creator, but where was mine? He had abandoned me, and in the bitterness of my heart I cursed him. | Drawing on PL, the Creature realises the injustice his Creator has done him. (I…him) |
| the utmost limit of my ambition | This is what the Creature directs towards human love and sympathy, not to any selfish goal of knowledge and glory. (the..ambition) |
| my life has been hitherto harmless, and in some degree beneficial; but a fatal prejudice clouds their eyes, and where they ought to see a feeling and kind friend, they behold only a detestable monster | The Creature assures De Lacey he is born good – Rousseau would agree – and emphasises sight, and the wrong impressions it can give. Fricatives for sympathy. (my…monster) |
| I am blind and cannot judge by your countenance, but there is something in your words which persuades me that you are sincere. | De Lacey explains his blindness. As a result, can he see clearer than the others, judging only on words? But do words allow us to judge clearly either? (I…sincere) |
| How can I thank you, my best and only benefactor? | The Creature’s extreme gratitude to De Lacey. Almost worshipful – what Frankenstein expected to have. Alliteration of plosive bs expresses strength of emotion. (How…or?) |
| I am also unfortunate; I and my family have been condemned, although innocent; judge, therefore, if I do not feel for your misfortunes. | De Lacey’s own suffering should unite him with the Creature – classical concept of a duty to help other sufferers. Invokes the idea of justice – and repetition of ‘fortune’ stresses how he sees it as a trick of fate – whereas in the Creature’s case it was decided in advance. (I…misfortunes) |
| I could have torn him limb from limb, as the lion rends the antelope. But my heart sunk within me as with bitter sickness | The Creature is tempted to give way to animalistic rage, like Victor – but abstains. Who is more human? (I…sickness) |
Frankenstein Quotes – Chapters 13 – 15
February 18, 2020