Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Frankenstein Key Themes and Quotes 1
- Doppelgangers/doubles
- Victor and the creature
- Know where each other
are - painfully
inseparable - e.g.
honeymoon scene
- Idea of creature being the human
form of Victor's dark side
- "hideous wretch"
- "my own spirit let loose from
the grave...forced to destroy
all that was dear to me."
- Both salves to their impulses: the monster
behaves violently and destructively but
shows no remorse / Victor wants to
discover the depths of science but does not
want to face the consequences
- Birth & Creation
- Idea of Victor being in 'labour'
when bringing the monster to
life & vocabulary with womb-like
connotations
- "painful labour"
"midnight labour"
- "conceiving"
"workshop of
filthy creation"
- Victor may be revealing a fear
of the natural processes of
birth, echoing Shelley's own
feelings towards childbirth.
- First pregnant at 16, and almost
constantly pregnant for the
following 5 years, she lost most
of her children soon after they
were born.
- Victor takes on the role of God - in the
introduction Shelley suggests that this
is his main crime
- Perhaps the crime is not what he
does but what he fails to do -
nurture his creation.
- "...natural Lord and King" - the
monster referring to Victor.
- Travel
- Victor moves around a lot -
symbolising his mind
(unsettled, uncomfortable in
himself).
- The novel begins in the
North Pole (Walton), then
refers to Italy (Victor born),
Switzerland, Germany and
England - story gets closer to
England, scaring readers.
- Ingollstadt : place where
Victor thinks up and creates
the monster. He is isolated
from his friends and family -
the creation of the monster
consumes him.
- "I am about to proceed on a long and
difficult voyage" - Walton (foreshadowing)
- 91 locations mentioned in total
- Idea of journeying : Victor travels into the unknown
by creating the monster. Links to travelling to many
unknown places in the novel (e.g. The Antarctic
wasn't widely explored at the time)
- Victor always returns to family
- Females/feminism
- Women presented as 'passive' and
'disposable', only created to teach
male characters a lesson
- Agatha DeLacey : teaches the monster lessons
on healthy human relationships and love.
- Elizabeth : a possession of
Victor's but ultimately she is
used as a weapon of
heartbreak to the monster's
advantage.
- "I looked upon Elizabeth as mine -
mine to protect, love and cherish.
- Margaret : used a reason for Walton to be writinh letters and therefroe
retelling the novel to us. Only useful to the audience but we don;t get
to know her as a character.
- Critique of society
- Desire of monster for
female companion
- Only reason she is created is to live by and
for her male companion - no free will.
- "...one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me."
- Shelley killing off female characters
to show women of the time what
happens when you play into female
stereotypes
- Victor's mother (Caroline) who died of
Scarlet fever (disease usually affecting
children) - implies women being weak.