English Commentary on Frankenstein

Joanna Martinez Ms. Tobenkin AP Literature, Period 4 07 November 2015 Frankenstein Quotations: Chapter 9-20 Chapter 9: "I was seized by remorse and the sense of guilt,which hurried me away to a hell of intense tortures, such as no language can describe." In this chapter, Frankenstein is overwhelmed with grief. There's a lot of self-loathing coming from Frankenstein.

Community in Frankenstein." Bloom 's Literary Reference Online [Facts On File News Services]. N.p., 2005. Web. 26 Apr. 2015.

The monster in anger puts forward a plausible and heart felt argument reasoning “shall each man …find a wife for his bosom, and each beast have his mate, and I be alone?” It is here that the theme of isolation can be detected. Isolation is imposed upon him by Frankenstein, who neglectfully abandons him. The sentence makes us aware of the monster’s longing for companionship and a need for love and affection that Frankenstein deprives him of. It could also be argued that the monsters words and action’s of violence are only a subsequent action of his awareness that he may never experience love as a normal human being. This can also be deduced from the words “I am malicious because I am miserable” spoken by the monster earlier on in the book (P. 119).

Frankenstein is a tale of an individual with many mixed identities. Often hearing the name of Frankenstein comes along with a monstrous spirit. Although in Mary Shelley’s novel, The monster is the horrible creation from the scientist, he just wanted a friend that was the same level of intelligence with him and one that he could be able to speak with and be friends with. Victor robbed body parts from graves and he was ready to for this construction. One stormy October night, he brought it to life. When Victor saw this creature reaching out to him, attempting for a smile, Victor began scared and ran from the

Just as Frankenstein witnessed a natural phenomenon that generates fear, he had to face his own fear in a similar setting (Shelley).

However, when Frankenstein realizes that he has just looked at the body as individual parts, for example the “pearly teeth”, “blue eyes”, “lustrous black hair”, but he had not looked at the body as a whole. When he did, he realized he had created an abomination, “Beautiful-Great God! His Yellow skin barely covered the work of arteries and muscles beneath!” When Frankenstein comes to this realization, he flees, “now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart”. Frankenstein regarded the creature as ugly, evil, inhuman, unflattering to the eye, and vulgar, like a monster.

Frankenstein knew that created his life would also destroy him. His life was not all that great, Frankenstein left him to suffer. He was new to this life and had no idea what to do. “How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavored to form?”(Page 55) He cannot explain what he had done, there was so much to go back and fix he did not know where to start.

Frankenstein’s and society’s rejection of the monster, however, drove him to an uneven passionate pursuit for a companion. He forced Frankenstein to create a female monster, and he provided motivation by killing Frankenstein’s loved ones and threatening to kill more of them. The monster recalls in this final scene of Shelley’s novel how his desire drove him to evil. “. . . do you think that I was then dead to agony and remorse?--He . . . suffered not more in the consummation of the deed;--oh! Not the ten-thousandth portion of the anguish that was mine during the lingering detail of its execution. A frightful selfishness hurried me on. . . .” (153) At that point in the novel, the monster has changed from good in nature to evil in nature. His own desires are more important to him than the well-being of others and he is willing to commit murder in order ensure the fulfillment of his desire.

Unfortunately, his thirst for eminence clouded his practical judgment and his morality. Frankenstein made a choice. A choice that resulted in a great fall from which he was “never, never again to rise” (Shelley, 188). He chose to sacrifice the world he had originally wanted to advance and abandoned his own creation in a hypercritical world and consequently lost his humanity. Meanwhile, his creation battled to understand the world around him. He hoped to gain many things from this beautiful world for he had nothing to lose besides curiosity and innocence. Sadly, the creation lost even his innocence and initial fascination and instead gained hate, anger, and vengeance on his creator. He gained an understanding of how people judge others by their appearances despite their true nature and well-intentioned actions. He realized that no one will accept him despite his efforts and so he lost the respect and compassion he had for humans and despised his creator for bringing him into such a hateful world. He was compelled to commit actions that defied his own morals and hence lost his will to be good. He once disclosed the pain he suffers when murdering humans. "Do you think that I was then dead to agony and remorse?… My heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy, and when wrenched by misery to vice and hatred, it did not endure the violence of the change without torture such as you cannot even imagine” (Shelley, 195). Eventually, Dr.

Frankenstein was doing work in the subject that he adored the most. “Unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation"(33). While reading, one can infer that this was not the creature Frankenstein had worked so delicately for. If Frankenstein had thought of all the consequences he could face during his experiment, he would have been prepared for the monster that awoke before him. From the aftermath of the horrid making of the monster, Frankenstein senses the danger to the human race, showing from the murder of his own brother. What once was a creation he was eager to finish, now became a mistake he wanted to escape and take

“...Hateful day when I received life!' Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?.... Satan had his companions, fellow devils, to admire and encourage him, but I am solitary and abhorred” (Shelley 119). The monster after discovering that his own creator is horrified by his existence, continues to lose hope about his position in the world. He is left alone with no one to care for him or show him love. “I was dependent on none and related to none….My person was hideous and my stature gigantic... These questions continually recurred, but I was unable to solve them”(Shelley 117). The quote expands on the idea of how the monster has expanded his knowledge from listening and reading literature on his existence and his place int the world. “Sometimes I allowed my thoughts, unchecked by reason, to ramble in the fields of Paradise, and dared to fancy amiable and lovely creatures sympathizing with my feelings and cheering my gloom;...”(Shelley 118). This quote continues on the theme of how the monster is expanding knowledge and becoming much more intelligent and aware of his place on earth. It shows how his thoughts are directly focused and stemmed on a few pieces of literature. It shows that he may be narrow-minded and needs to broaden his horizons to other possibilities and pieces of

William A. Walling goes on to say, “…still later, as the monster recalls the anguish he has endured because the life given him has fallen so short of his innate desires, he cries bitterly to Frankenstein”(Walling1)

“I had gazed on him while unfinished; he was ugly then; but when those muscles and joints were rendered capable of motion, it became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived.” -Frankenstein(56) After Frankenstein 's seemingly creation comes to life, he suddenly has feelings of remorse and regret. Even after devoting so much time to his work and basically working himself sick he is disgusted by what he has created.

Frankenstein's creation is a complex character whose true motives cannot be determined easily. Although one cannot excuse his actions, they should certainly not be viewed out of context. The creature is exposed to the painful reality of loneliness from the moment of his creation. "I had worked hard for nearly two years," Victor states, "for the sole

In Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, the monster which is created by Victor Frankenstein acts as a mirror to reflect and bring out Victor’s hidden thoughts. In a particular study called Frankenstein – A Critical Study from a Freudian Perspective, it argues that Victor on the surface seems to be a “healthy man” (Johnson 1). In fact, he unconsciously has many dangerous thoughts, and the creation of the monster brings out those thoughts and finally leads to his failure (Johnson 2). In specific, present paper will analysis Victor’s characters by examining his intention and decisions toward the monster he creates, and the paper is intended