edexcel Alevel blog new spec : Frankenstien Quotes

FRANKENSTEIN QUOTES

‘Did I request thee, Maker, from clay

To mould me Man, did I solicit thee

From darkness to promote me?’

– Adam

Where: Title page (quoted from Paradise Lost)

Theme: Unwilling genesis

Context: An extraction John Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’, where Adam bemoans his fallen condition. The creature conceives himself a tragic figure, comparable to Adam and Satan of ‘Paradise Lost’. Like Adam, the creature has been shunned by his creator and must reproach Frankenstein for his unfortunate genesis. These rhetorical questions epitomize the creature’s animosity towards Frankenstein, casting him into a world where he inspires horror and hostility from mankind.

‘What may not be expected in a country of eternal light?’

– Walton

Where: Volume 1, Letter 1 (pg. 1)

Theme: Dangerous knowledge

Context: Light is a symbol for knowledge and discovery and Walton’s quest to reach the northernmost part of the world parallels Frankenstein and his quest for the secret of life. Both seek ultimate knowledge through the abandonment of the known in their respective pursuits. Walton’s sentiment epitomizes 18^th century scientific rationalists’ optimism about knowledge as a form of pure good.

‘You seek for knowledge and wisdom, as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been.’

– Frankenstein

Where: Volume 1, Letter 4

Theme: Dangerous knowledge

Context: Frankenstein expresses the tragic consequence of his obsessive pursuit for knowledge. He acknowledges that he has transgressed the realm of the known and perverted science for his own immoral human gain. Frankenstein knows that the quest for knowledge can lead to self-destruction, having once possessed the hubris of Walton and his desire to leap beyond the boundaries of man in anticipation for fame and recognition. The word ‘serpent’ has biblical connotations, inferring that Frankenstein has succumbed to the sinful act of creation – an act in defiance of his role as a mortal human being.

‘My more than sister, since till death she was to be mine only.’

– Frankenstein

Where: Volume 1, Letter 4

Theme: Dangerous knowledge

‘Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world.’

– Frankenstein

Where: Volume 1, Chapter 4 (p. 55)

Theme: Science, unchecked intellectual ambition

Context: Frankenstein is trying to be a modern Prometheus. Light symbolizes knowledge, discovery and enlightenment. The world is ‘dark’, filled with secrets of the unknown that must be illuminated with the powers of science. Fueled by a desire to bring light to civilization, Frankenstein proves willing to test mortal limits, ultimately violating immutable laws in his pursuit of knowledge. By probing into the secrets of life and death, he is revolting against the Gods responsible for death and creation. Frankenstein’s sentiment on ‘life and death’ appearing to be ‘ideal bounds’ reflects the danger of man’s intellectual ambition when divorced from a moral framework. Mary Shelley warns of man ‘playing God’ as science cannot create humanity. Frankenstein typifies scientific rationalists, likewise estranged from his creator, usurping the powers of God and irresponsibly tinkering with nature, full of benign purpose and malignant results.

‘If no man allowed any pursuit whatsoever to interfere with the tranquility of his domestic affections, Greece had not been enslaved, Caesar would have spared his country, America would have been discovered more gradually, and the empires of Mexico and Peru had not been destroyed.’

– Frankenstein

Where: Volume 1, Chapter 4 (p. 54)

Theme: Science, unchecked intellectual ambition

Context: Passages such as this one suggest the possibility that Shelley is writing about the potentially disastrous consequences of not only human ambition, but also a specific kind of masculine ambition. The point of view here may be that of a nineteenth-century woman offering a feminist critique of history.

‘I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation’

– Frankenstein

‘Now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.’

– Frankenstein

Where: Volume 1, Chapter 4 (p. 55)

Theme: Science, unchecked intellectual ambition

Context: Frankenstein reaches a moment of clarity, having previously been blinded by the sole pursuit of creation. His illusions of grandeur – that a new species would bless him as creator – culminates in the realization of the monstrosity of his creation. Frankenstein’s conception of his creation is incompatible with the creature that lies before him, exposing the fallacy of his ‘dream’.

‘One hand stretched out, seemingly to detain me’

– Frankenstein

Where:

Theme:

Context:

‘My own vampire, my own spirit let loose from the grave’

– Frankenstein

Where: Volume 1, Chapter 7 (pg. 78)

Theme: Doppelganger, gothic, creature/creator

Context: The creature as a projection of Frankenstein’s evil, as God created man in his image. Creature and creator are mythically woven into one by the popular mind.

‘Rely on the justice of our laws’

– Alphonse Frankenstein

Where: Volume 1, Chapter 7 (pg. 82)

Theme: Justice

Context: The route to eradicating moral injustice is the law, a judiciary system that Frankenstein father, a syndic whose personal affiliations with the legal enforcement, espouses: ‘If she is, as you believe, innocent, rely on the justice of our laws’. His faith in the judicial system is harmful, for the pre-Enlightenment conception ‘that ten innocent should suffer than that one guilty should escape’ renders Justine guilty unless proven innocent – a proof of innocence that Frankenstein fails to produce under the notion that ‘such a declaration would have been considered as the ravings of a madman’. Frankenstein’s passivity at the face of blatant injustice is pusillanimous in contrast to Elizabeth’s astute criticism of the judicial system in the 1818 version: ‘the executioners, reeking with the blood of innocence, believe they have done a great deed.’ Elizabeth’s indictment of the judicial system is reminiscent of Godwin’s anarchistic denunciation of ‘positive institutions’ like the law and government as the catalyst to moral enslavement.

‘Solitude was my only consolation – deep, dark, deathlike solitude.’

– Frankenstein

Where: Volume 2, Chapter 1 (pg. 93)

Theme: Solipsism

Context: Being isolated, whether self-imposed or forcefully imposed, is an affliction that consumes Frankenstein, the Creature and Walton. Solitude proves destructive as Frankenstein's isolation separates him from the forces that are capable of dampening his dangerous creative ambitions whilst the Creature's inability to 'exchange sympathies', as required of a sentient being, catalyzes the development of hatred and revenge. Walton's solitude owes to his sense of intellectual superiority, which can only be matched by Frankenstein.

‘My heart, which was before sorrowful, now swelled with something like joy.’

– Frankenstein

Where: Volume 2, Chapter 1 (pg. 93)

Theme: Nature

Context: Nature is a restorative agent for Frankenstein. Frankenstein’s first intimate encounter with the creature since its creation inscribes future associations between the creature and the natural setting, acting as a symbolic backdrop for Frankenstein’s primal struggle with the creature, as well as offering an opportunity for spiritual renewal.

‘I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend.’

– The Creature

Where: Volume 2, Chapter 2 (pg. 103)

Theme: Nature vs. nurture, noble savage

Context: The creature has been nurtured into evil.

‘My person was hideous and my stature gigantic. 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

Where: Volume 2, Chapter 2 (pg. 103)

Theme: Self identity, language

Context: In learning language, the creature realizes that he has few words to describe himself. The creature’s emerging self-consciousness leads to a crisis of identity. The creature is symbolic of modern man, estranged from his creator, sometimes believing his own origins to be meaningless and accidental, and full of rage at the conditions of his existence.

‘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.’

– The Creature