Literature: Quotes and key moments from Frankenstein (and their meaning) (WIP)

The Creature is just like m

“You are my creator - but I am your master - obey!” -the Creature

This happens when the Creature confronts Victor

“In his murder my crimes are consummated.” - the Creature

Consummated = come to a close

“I had no choice but to adapt my nature to an element which I had willingly chosen.” - the Creature

The Creature

The Creature describes himself as a “slave”

This refers to his impulse for revenge, unable to resist

The Creature confronts Victor, and he laments “I ought to be thy Adam.”

He uses this allusion to the biblical story of Creation to compare himself to Adam.

Victor associates the Creature with the words “devil”, “vile insect”, “daemon”, “abhorred monster”, “fiend”, “wretched devil”, “diabolically”, and “hell”

Victor uses infernal imagery

“All men hate the wretched.” - the Creature

the creature

The Creature says that if he (Victor) will not agree to his terms, he promises to “glut the maw of death”.

To glut the maw is to overfill or satiate a ravenous mouth, a metaphor for feeding a destructive force (death)

“…Remember, that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but thou drivest from joy for no misdeed…Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.” - the Creature

the creature

“(I fear that he) has turned loose into the world a depraved wretch, whos delight was in a carnage of misery.” - Victor

this reflects Victor’s fear of his own creation, but also reflects his arrogance

At one point, when talking about the Creature, Victor says he is “my own” monster.

Victor is bitter in his descriptions. He symbolises Victor’s guilt

“(his) tale was not one to announce publicly, its astounding horror would be looked upon madness.” - Victor

this symbolises

“spoke of a power mighty as omnipotence” - Victor

omnipotence = all-seeing, all-knowing

“Was I then a monster…a blot upon the earth?” - the Creature looking at his reflection in the pool

He questions his identity after rejection

“I collected bones from charnel-houses; and disturbed, with profane fingers, the tremendous secrets of the human frame.” -Victor

Victor is not just enamoured deeply with the act of creating a new lifeform

“A fatal prejudice clouds their eyes.”

imagery

The Creature clinging to the knees of the elder, blind Delacey

He supplicates himself to the old man.

“I shall collect my funeral pile and consume to ashes this miserable frame.” - the Creature

the creature is svicidal

“I declared everlasting war against the species of mankind.” -the Creature

The Creature’s pinnacle of his negative emotions reaches its climax as he declares war on man.