Tag: Frankenstein

‘I am in good spirits: my men are bold …nor do the sheets of floating ice…appear to dismay them.‘ (Walton of his quest to find the North Pole; this shows him as a sort of Romantic hero, obsessed by his ambition and not thinking of others – FLAWED)

 

‘What can stop the determined heart and resolved will of man?‘ (said by Walton but links to Frankenstein – both determined, obsessive…)

 

‘You seek for knowledge as I once did… you are pursuing the same course…exposing yourself to the same dangers [perhaps] you can deduce an apt moral from my tale.‘ (Victor tries to help Walton to learn from his mistakes)

 

‘Elizabeth…became…[so] much more [to me]’ (Romantic writing) ‘My passion for science‘ (Romantic obsession)

 

‘Nature’s rule over man was evident and she forbid herself to give up her secrets. Man would have to take rather than receive.’ (said by Frankenstein but also
see Walton above!)

 

‘I would use this path of chemistry to…unfold the mysteries of creation itself.’ (challenges God)

 

‘I vowed that it would be I who would break nature’s grasp.‘ (ambition)

 

‘At a sacrifice of family and friends.‘ (the typical tragic romantic hero)

 

‘When I found so astonishing a power placed in my hands, I hesitated concerning the manner in which I should employ it.’ (morality / conscience?)

 

‘A new species would bless me as its creator and I would be the father to a race of children.’ (arrogance / wants to be like God.)

 

‘It was on a dreary night of November… the rain pattered dismally against the panes as I stole lightning from the sky and channelled it into my creation.’ (Gothic style of writing setting up grim foreboding)

 

‘With an anxiety that amounted almost to agony.‘ (Romantic depth of emotion) ‘I had selected his features as beautiful…his hair was of a lustrous black, his teeth of a pearly whiteness, but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes…his dun white sockets…his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips.‘ (Transition from Romantic to Gothic)

 

‘…but now that I had finished, the dream vanished and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I rushed out of the room.’

 

‘The immense mountains and precipices…. The dashing waterfalls… ruined castles… cottages peeping forth from among trees… formed a scene of singular beauty. But it was rendered sublime by the mighty Alps…‘ (Typical descriptions in the Romantic style/ contrast this with the earlier one about November – they show how Shelley employed both styles in her writing to appeal to a mixed audience.)

 

‘Begone you are not a being worthy of life.‘ (whose fault? Does the creature not deserve compassion? Has it got a soul? What kind of man is Victor really?)

A    Time

    Starts almost at the end and then presented in flashbacks with change of narrator. At the end the three narrators are united.

    Effect of this technique is to show the influence of the past on the present. Victor and the monster inseparable. Both guilt ridden.

    Chinese box narration – a story within a story –within a story – many levels and three different viewpoints therefore sympathy / allegiance of reader changes with the narrator.

 

B    Contrasts

    Indoor / outdoor settings. Characters occupy enclosed spaces: workshop, hut, cabin, Walton’s cabin, Justine’s barn…symbols of mental imprisonment as well.

    Then characters are seen as travelling across vast expanses, distances – symbolise their separation from other beings.

 

C    Journeys

    Story moves in cycles; characters separate, meet up, separate again…

 

D    Parallels

    Many of the chapters mirror each other:

1 and 11 concerned with the childhoods of Victor and the monster

2 and 12 focus on the curious minds of Victor and the monster

8 and 21 Victor finds himself in the same position as Justine

5 and 20 show the difference in attitude of Victor towards creating the two creatures

9 and 18 reveal Victor’s solitude, self-absorption and guilt

18 and 23 two female companions are destroyed but the tables are turned

12 and 16 show how the monster’s bright hopes have turned to dark despair and revenge

2 and 24 show how the Victor’s bright hopes have turned to dark despair and revenge

    Shelley uses this device to show either how the characters have been changed by the events or how the characters have not changed but are faced with a different situation.