Whole-text quotations, 'Frankenstein' and 'Never Let Me Go'

Miss Emily talks to Kathy and Tommy about hope:

“You’ve thought carefully. You’ve hoped carefully” p253

Kathy is hopeful as ‘veterans’ leave the Cottages:

“the spring came on”

“It did feel like they were headed for a bigger, more exciting world” p183

what chapter is the Judy Bridgewater tape first mentioned?

6

the tape bringing back memories:

“it brings back memories of that afternoon in Norfolk every bit as much as it does our Hailsham days” p167

What is the Judy Bridgewater album called?

"Songs After Dark” - symbolic of hope

Kathy going solo:

“Let her go off by herself” p165 → Victor?

in what chapter do Chrissy, Rodney, Kathy, and Tommy go to Norfolk?

15

golf-course idyll:

“left the Rover in a car park beside a mini-golf course full of fluttering flags” p146

hazy window idyll in Norfolk:

“I watched them through one of the big misty windows, shuffling about in the sunshine, not talking looking down at the sea” p153

3 repeated imagery of leaning and crossing boundaries in Norfolk:

workers “leaning on a partition”

“the Portway studios”

“we crossed at a pelican to the sunnier side”

Tommy’s temper tantrums:

“I’m not sure when the temper tantrums started” p21

Tommy’s persecution p21:

“when we were thirteen - that was when the persecution reached its peak” p21

Ruth calls Tommy an animal:

“Mad animal” p21

Tommy’s tempers after adversity:

“he claimed to me they only began after the teasing got bad”

Tommy’s furies:

“wild furies” p11

Ruth’s control p47:

“I accepted the invisible rein she was holding out”

Ruth’s p47 rein AO3:

Catherine Earnshaw of ‘Wuthering Heights’ - “she chose a [horse] whip”

Here, Ruth echoes a larger literary tradition, of whips as a means of childhood control. Catherine Earnshaw of ‘Wuthering Heights’ requests a whip whips/reins as a means of control against larger, societal forces against them.

But Ruth’s is ironised - it is entirely imaginary! → the scientific society she rebels against is inexorable.

Ishiguro has noted the Brontes as inspiration

Human Tissue Act

2004 → sorted out logistics for organ donation

UN declares that human cloning should be banned

March 2005

Who were Kazuo Ishiguro’s favourite singers?

• Bob Dylan

• Leonard Cohen

• Joni Mitchell

• Kazuo and his friends argued and critiqued each other’s songs - like the clones and art

Proust + Kafka

Proust → memory + objects! The Search of Lost Time (1913) → memory’s unreliability and emotional resonance → Kathy’s retrospective and homodiegetic narration undercuts the story with an absence of hope

Franz Kafka → narrative’s calm tone masks existential horror

claustrophobic + institutional control → The Trial (1925) AND The Castle (1926) → the futility of hope → K + T’s hope is denied by the system

galvanism / ‘animal electricity’ dates and people:

Luigi Galvani → 1780s → revitalised dead frogs…

Giovanni Aldini galvanism:

Giovanni Aldini → 1803 → reanimated a corpse using electrical currents at Newgate Prison

Anatomy Act

1832 → allowed unclaimed bodies for dissection → before this, they were criminals (time of Frankenstein!!)

Tommy’s rage subdues → what makes him human is eradicated

“ Then it all stopped, not overnight, but rapidly enough”

Creature is hopeful about the hut:

“But I was enchanted by the appearance of the hut”

“divine a retreat a Pandaemonium appeared to the daemons of hell”

Creature has a hopeful soul:

“I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity” p71

the world gave Creature hope:

“it had then filled me with a sublime ecstasy that gave wings to the soul” p68

Creature’s isolation → hovel:

“it was indeed a paradise compared to the bleak forest” p76

Creature’s hope is extinguished in V2 C3:

“I remember, a stronger light pressed upon my nerves, so that I was obliged to shut my eyes. Darkness then came over me” p72

Victor’s solitude after William’s death:

“solitude was my only consolation - deep, dark, death-like solitude” p63

Victor’s isolation in Scotland:

“I was determined to visit some remote sport of Scotland, and finish my work in solitude”

Victor flees after creating the creature:

“Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room” p37

Victor’s anger after he “concluded my narration”

"my present situation was one in which all voluntary thought was swallowed up and lost" p152

The Creature - “the wild beast” - does not control his anger after the De Lacey’s see him for the first time

“The feelings of revenge and hatred filled my bosom, and I did not strive to controul them” p101

Creature cannot inspire love, so will cause hate:

“if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear; and chiefly towards you my arch-enemy” p107

"fearful of the world around us, and – no matter how much we despised ourselves for it – unable to quite let each other go"

Kathy frames courage as emotional endurance and attachment rather than rebellion in Never Let Me Go

"I might infuse a spark of being into a lifeless thing"

Victor’s Promethean ambition frames courage as boundary-breaking scientific creation in Frankenstein

"it was like we were each clinging to our essay, the last task from Hailsham"

The clones’ quiet courage is shown through memory and attachment to Hailsham rather than resistance

"continual food for discovery and wonder"

Victor idealises ambition as heroic courage driven by Enlightenment curiosity

"my chosen topic was Victorian novels, I hadn't really thought about it much"

Kathy’s backward-looking mindset contrasts with Victor’s future-driven ambition and heroic aspiration

"like a hurricane, in the first enthusiasm of success"

Victor describes ambition as overwhelming and destructive, exposing the danger of transgressive courage

"Life and death appeared to my ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world"

Victor explicitly frames courage as heroic transgression of natural limits

"when I'm driving around, I suddenly think I've spotted some bit of it"

Kathy’s repeated return to Hailsham shows courage through memory rather than progress

"I feel my heart glow with an enthusiasm which elevates me to heaven"

Walton mirrors Victor’s romanticised notion of courageous ambition

"Remember, that I am thy creature: I ought to be thy Adam but I am rather the fallen angel"

The Creature courageously articulates his suffering and moral injustice

"Listen to me, Frankenstein"

The Creature asserts narrative authority, linking courage to speech and being heard

"destroy the work of your hands"

The Creature demands moral responsibility from Victor as an act of courageous confrontation

"I accepted the invisible rein she was holding out"

Ruth’s quiet domination shows courage as articulated control rather than passive obedience

"Oh my God, look at that one. You'd think they'd at least try to come up with something new"

Ruth’s rejection of postmodern advertising shows critical, vocal rebellion

"The injustice of his sentence was very flagrant"

The Creature demonstrates intellectual and moral courage in critiquing the French justice system

"it was judged that his religion and wealth, rather than the crime alleged"

Shelley links courage to clear-eyed social criticism and political awareness

"I don't really expect you to forgive me ever"

Ruth shows moral courage through confession and accountability near death

"But I'm going to ask you to all the same"

Ruth’s request foregrounds courage as vulnerability and responsibility

"When I found so astonishing a power placed within my hands"

Victor frames his actions as accidental, revealing moral cowardice rather than courage

"his jumbled swear-words continued uninterrupted"

Tommy’s incoherence contrasts with Kathy’s controlled, emotionally restrained courage

"I must pause here for it requires all my fortitude to recall the memory"

Victor claims courage while avoiding full accountability through narrative control

"there was a lot of support for our movement back then, the tide was with us"

Miss Emily reveals a larger-scale, political courage hidden from the clones

"seek happiness in tranquillity, and avoid ambition"

Shelley critiques heroic ambition and redefines courage as moderation

"that awful television, for instance"

Ruth’s critique of consumer culture shows moral awareness and resistance

"a being formed in the very poetry of nature"

Clerval represents Romantic courage grounded in empathy and nature

"Then a few years later came the Saunders Trust"

Ishiguro presents collective, vocal courage outside Kathy’s awareness

"we challenged the entire way the donation programme was being run"

Courage is shown as political resistance rather than individual rebellion

"Study had before secluded me from the intercourse of my fellow-creatures"

Victor admits ambition isolated him, undermining his claim to courage

"he again taught me to love the aspect of nature"

Clerval restores humane, relational courage

"Look at this art! How dare you claim these children are less than human"

Art becomes a courageous assertion of clone humanity

"in a scene of beautiful and heavenly"

Romantic sublimity frames emotional courage through nature

"Immense glaciers approached the road"

The sublime landscape mirrors the scale and danger of Victor’s ambition

"Mont Blanc, the supreme and magnificent Mont Blanc"

Shelley uses Romantic sublimity to question heroic self-aggrandisement

Letter 1: Walton → “Do I not deserve…”

“Do I not deserve to accomplish some great purpose?”

Letter 1: Walton → he wants to “tread a land…”

“tread a land never imprinted by the foot of man”

• symbolic of intellectual and unprecedented pursuits

Letter: Walton → “There, Margaret…”

“There, Margaret, the sun is for ever visible”

• symbolic of perceived permanent enlightenment

Letter 2: Walton → “I shall certainly…”

“I shall certainly find no friend on the wide ocean”

Letter 2: Walton → “What a noble fellow…”

“What a noble fellow! You will exclaim”

Letter 2: The last place of civilisation that Walton sees is…

Arkhangelsk = historically a major seaport but also a religious hub, with the 'Archangel Michael', as its crest -> city all about protection

Something that Walton is escaping!

Letter 4: Walton and his ship see the Creature → “which had the shape…”

“Which had the shape of a man, but apparently of gigantic stature, sat in the sledge”

Letter 4: Walton → “you seek for knowledge…”

“you seek for knowledge and wisdom as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may never by a serpent to sting you, as mine has been”

Letter 4: Walton, referring to Victor → “I never saw a more…”

“I never saw a more interesting creature: his eyes have generally an expression if wildness; and even madness”

Letter 4: Walton, the weather when they see the Creature → “encompassed by…”

“encompassed by a very thick fog”

C1: Victor, calls Elizabeth his “favourite”

“favourite animal”

C1: Victor, calling Elizabeth 2 more animals:

“insect” and “bird”

C1: Victor, on Elizabeth’s spectral figure → “her figure was…”

“her figure was light and airy”

C1: Victor → “My dreams were therefore…”

“My dreams were therefore undisturbed by reality”

C1: Victor → “The world was to me…”

“The world was to me a secret, which I desired to discover”

C1: Victor → “We were never…”

“We were never completely happy when Clerval was absent”

C1: Victor → “ I must not omit…”

“I must not omit to record…”

Victor feigns narratorial accuracy

what page does Victor see a lightning struck tree outside his house?

page 24

Victor + Clerval could be compared to…

Elinor and Marianne, Sense and Sensibility (1811)

both have an Enlightened v Romantic character, but share a connectedness

C1: Victor → “It is even possible, that the train…”

“It is even possible, that the train of my ideas would never have received the fatal impulse that led to my ruin”

• undeniably tragic!!

C1: Victor → “I entered with the greatest….”

“I entered with the greatest diligence into the search of the philosopher’s stone and the elixir of life”

C2: Victor → “the genius that…”

“the genius that regulated my fate”

Victor’s sheer intellect acts as a God in this tragic system

C2: Victor’s mother → Caroline Beaufort → “I will endeavour to resign…”

“I will endeavour to resign myself cheerfully to death, and I will indulge a hope of meeting you in another world” p26

A clone-like death!!

C2: Victor → “When grief is…”

“When grief is rather an indulgence than a necessity”

C2: Victor → “My mother was dead…”

“My mother was dead, but we still had our duties to perform”

Carer attitude from Victor??!!

C2: Victor → “I ardently desired the….”

“I ardently desired the acquisition of knowledge”

what page is Victor’s grumble about now being “alone” on??

page 26

C2: Victor’s perception of philosophers -? “ascend into…” and “they have acquired…”

“ascend into the heavens” and “they have acquired new and almost unlimited powers”

C2: Victor after attending a lecture, “it decided…”

“it decided my future destiny”

Victor is relentless in his attempts to push away the blame 😍

what chapter does Victor go to Ingolstadt in?

chapter 3

C3: Victor → “the stars often…”

“the stars often disappeared in the light of the morning”

stars = fate → Victor is blind to his fate when he gets engrossed in his work