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Frankenstein Quote Commentary Reading Journal Assignment...

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Frankenstein Nightly Reading Journal ENGL 261 themes: loneliness vs. connection (solitude), man’s relationship to nature

April 7th - Letters I-III “I desire the company of a man who could sympathise with me; whose eyes would reply to mine. You may deem me romantic, my dear sister, but I bitterly feel the want of a friend.” (pg. 20) Walton wants to experience feelings with another person on his journey, showing his deep love for expressing emotions and clearly romantic nature. However, he does not say that his success will be nothing without such a companion, only that he wants one to share it with. Additionally, he lists what he wants his friend to be like and it seems as if he wants a friend but only one tailored to his needs--not really a relationship of true connection. Furthermore, Walton calls his wish for a friend a “useless complaint” (21). A companion, to him, is not absolutely necessary or extremely desirable, or else he would be after one with the hungry ambition he exercises toward his others goals; rather, a companion is something extra that he would find comforting. If he actually had a friend, he would have to be a lot like Walton, because Walton talks about the two sharing his own feelings and nothing about the friend’s wants/desires.

“I have often attributed my attachment to, my passionate enthusiasm for, the dangerous mysteries of ocean…” (pg. 22) In the first two letters especially, Walton describes the sea with detailed language, in depth and expresses how comfortable he is with being on a ship and embracing the ocean. He acknowledges how “dangerous” and “mysterious” nature can be, due to it’s unpredictable and sometimes uncontrollable behavior, and explains how this aspect of nature inspires him. Walton is aquainted with nature yet seems to have a relationship in which he learns from it and is changed by it. April 12th: Letter IV - Chapters I & II “my fate is nearly fulfilled...nothing can alter my destiny; listen to my history, and you will perceive how irrevocably it is determined” (pg. 31) This quote reminds me of the Rime of Ancient Mariner because the Ancient Mariner was given the punishment of traveling to certain people and telling them his story in order to set himself free. Victor is now insisting he tells Walton his story. The letters at the beginning of the novel are partly there so that we get to know who Walton is and what his outlook on life is, showing what kind of person Victor’s story must be told to and why. Victor is a lot like Walton, an ambitious

wanderer always looking for something higher and desiring glory. However, he seems to have failed and needs to tell Walton his story before Walton makes the same mistakes.

“I have described myself as always having been imbued with a fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature. In spite of the intense labour and wonderful discoveries of modern philosophers, I always came from my studies discontented and unsatisfied” (pg. 41) Victor was educated as a child and in his early years he already had clear goals and strong ambition. However he is an example of how ambition can be a bad trait if it leads to unhealthy obsession. He describes himself as always looking for the secrets of nature and becoming the “disciple” of famous philosopher’s works and teachings. Also, when his dad tells him to stop wasting his time with Cornelius Agrippa’s book he disobeys his father and does not put down the book because he did not get a sufficient explanation. Furthermore, when he gets no answers good enough to satisfy his need for the secrets of the world, Victor decides that “nothing would or could ever be known” and “gave up” on this quest only at the age of fifteen (pg.43). Perhaps the failure to discover answers that he had a strong hankering for and the acceptance that they would never be found (at a young age) influenced his dark outlook of life later.

April 13th: Chapters III-IV “Such were the professor’s words - rather let me say such the words of the fate - enounced to destroy me...more, far more, will I achieve” (pg. 49) When M. Krempe expresses to Victor that he doesn’t agree with the teachings of the nature philosophers that Victor studies but M. Waldman accepts what Victor studies and encourages him, Victor chooses to work with M. Waldman, because although many tell Victor the old scientists are full of failed and impossible promises, he is stubborn. Victor calls M. Waldman’s words “words of fate” that would “destroy” him because M. Waldman talks of the great feats which scientist have achieved and looking back on this moment, the achievements of previous scientists were what taunted Victor and his strong ambition. They’re what made him strive to achieve “more, far more” and not stop until he did so, which destroys his life and his being; therefore, the words of the professor did destroy him, however it was not by fate which this happened. I think Victor is just blaming this happening on fate because he could have exhibited free will - he had choices of what science to follow and whom to listen to - but due to his own flaws of over ambition and stubbornness he ended up destroying his life.

“a resistless, and almost frantic impulse, urged me forward; i seemed to have lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit...often did my human nature turn with loathing from my

occupation, whilst, still urged on by an eagerness which perpetually increased, I brought my work near to a conclusion” (pg.55-56) Victor begins to think of nothing other in life than his occupation. Of course while telling the story from a point of view that looks back on the events that happened, Victor recognizes how one needs a balance in life to live well, but here he does not maintain any balance of work and leisure. Victor’s ambition grows but at the same time a “frantic impulse” drives him forward his goal as if in a trance and he begins disobeying his own “human nature.” The creation and pursuit of generating life, itself is inhumane, and by working towards this absurd goal, Victor himself is becoming unlike a human, defying his own human nature and being overcome completely by his pursuit.

April 14th, Chapters V-VI “I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this I had deprived myself of rest and health...but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created...” (pg. 58) In a matter of seconds Victor’s dream turns into his worst nightmare. Even though the monster may be unpleasing to his sights and thoughts, he suddenly abandons all he has worked on and given his life up for. The “trance” that had overcome Victor in the last chapter suddenly no longer exists. It’s as if something in him snaps, completely changing his whole perspective. Victor’s character is unprepared and too ambitious to be aware of where his path is taking him. Clearly, he had not thought about what his life would be like once he created the monster and just plunged his whole life into the process of this great feat.

“Nothing could equal my delight on seeing Clerval; his presence brought back to my thoughts my father, Elizabeth, and all those scenes to home so dear to my recollection. I grasped his hand, and in a moment forgot my horror and misfortune” (pg. 61) Connection is what saves Victor from his living nightmare of the monster. Clerval helping him feel better and reminding him of home, is what brings Victor back to his self before the monster. Perhaps because for the two years he worked on his creation, Victor did not tell anyone about it and was going mad with ambition alone. From a place of pure loneliness and horror, Clerval rescues him with friendship. Also, there was never really a connection between Victor and his creation, not only because he despised it the moment it came to life, but because it was not comforting to him but harmful to his life.

April 15, Chapters VII-VIII “From the tortures of my heart, I turned to contemplate the deep and voiceless grief of my Elizabeth. This also was my doing! And my father’s woe, and the desolation of that late so smiling home - all was the work of my thrice-accursed hands!” (pg. 90) Victor recognizes that he is the reason that so many people around him are getting hurt yet he does nothing about it. Even Elizabeth, the “lamp” of his life, is suffering due to his cowardly silence on the truth of the subject. This shows how little Victor takes responsibility for his actions and the consequences of them and how careless he is. Not even when telling the story later in his life does he say something along the lines of “I should have confessed” or shown regret for not telling the truth, he still believes in the excuses he made back then and hasn’t improved as a person.

“for all the kindness which her beauty might otherwise have excited was obliterated in the minds of the spectators by the imagination of the enormity she was supposed to have committed” (pg. 83) Just like in his dream of kissing Elizabeth and turning her into his dead mother’s corpse, Victor is turning an innocent and beautiful thing into something dark and bad. His creation is what makes Justine’s beauty and innocence ruined by the horrible murder she is accused of. Also, it ruins Elizabeth, who despite the horrible events that have taken place always stayed a comforting and blessing light, now wants to die with Justine because she cannot bear the injustice that is being done to her. Victors cowardness and failure to recognize he needs to confess the truth, destroys the people around him, turning beautiful things to sorrow and darkness.

April 16, Vol II: Chapters I-III “Before, I looked upon the accounts of vice and injustice, that I read in books or heard from others as tales of ancient days or imaginary evils; at least they were remote and familiar to reason than to the imagination; but now misery has come home, and men appear to me as monsters thirsting for each other’s blood” (pg. 95) The first chapter shows how Just Elizabeth is and makes me wonder why Victor, when he had the power to do so, would not help Justine and bring the situation justice. Elizabeth now has a dark outlook on the world and people. Her describing of men using the word “monsters” makes a direct connection to Frankenstein’s creation - it’s as if by giving this horrible monster life he has switch the once beautiful world into a world of monsters. Additionally, Elizabeth exclaims that, “now misery has come home,” showing the wretchedness which Shelley associates family with in this book.

“Remember, that i am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall be virtuous again.” (pg. 103) The monster makes an allusion to Paradise lost, deeming Victor as “God” by almost naming himself Adam, but rather calls himself the “fallen angel.” Like Satan was an angel for God, the monster is a creation from Victor, and as Satan led a war against God, the monster threatens his creator and goes against him. However, Satan seeks revenge against God, whereas Victors creation seems to just want affection and kindness. He is mad at Victor for abandoning him, leaving him to start his life with cold and hungry nights, but possibly just wants some connection with Victor which is why is leda him to his house to tell him his story - after all Victor is most likely the only human who not run from him.

April 20 - Vol II: Ch. IV-VI “‘I cannot describe to you the agony that these reflections inflicted upon me: I tried to dispel them, but sorrow only increased with knowledge. Oh, that I had forever remained in my native wood, nor known nor felt beyond the sensations of hunger, thirst and heat!” (pg. 123)

The monster has the same reflections and realizations about knowledge as Victor does. Just how Victor warned Walton about knowledge and how it destroyed him, before, the creature recognizes that the more he learns about planet earth and the more knowledge he gains, the sadder and more alienated it makes him. Additionally, there is no one for the monster to relate to, no one like him who knows what he’s going through, just as no other human but Victor knows about Victor’s creation and he has no one to talk about it with or feel a connection over it. Both Victor and the monster suffer a lack of connection in this way making them more easily connected to one and other and isolated from society.

“”My thoughts now became more active, and I longed to discover the motives and feelings of these lovely creatures; I was inquisitive to know why Felix appeared so miserable and Agatha so sad. I thought (foolish wretch!) that it might be in my power to restore happiness to those deserving people” (pg. 117) The monster suffers from the lack of a childhood and standard, proper parenting. It’s as if the people in the cottage are the creature’s parents, because (although they do not know it) they teach the monster how to talk, a basic sense of the world it lives in, and about themselves and their past. However, they are not ‘raising’ it conciously, so none of what they say connects to the

creature, it is solely basic information and facts. Still, no one has told the monster what it is and where it came from and the only real connection it feels is with the cottage people, who do not even know it exists. The lack of parenting or any “family” for that matter and an explanation of its existence makes the monster think it is its fault for the cottage people’s sadness and it turns to self-pity and anger at itself and the way it was created.

April 22 - Vol II: Ch. VII-VIII “Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust? God, in pity, made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image; but my form is a filthy type of yours” (pg. 133) By comparing Victor to God and claiming that Victor has not made him the way God has made Adam, the monster highlights how, although Victor has attempted to play the role of God, he has not fully succeeded. And thus, Victor is not like God and the monster not like Adam, which perhaps is why they have such a bad relationship. The monster questions why Victor created him just to turn against him, but what it doesn’t realize is how much time and devotion Victor put into it’s creation, and since it does not know of these details--along with the others of its creation--the monster compares itself to the first creation story it learns of in Paradise Lost . So looking at the other beautiful creations, the creature hates it’s creator for not making him like them.

“they are the most excellent creatures in the world; but unfortunately, they are prejudice against me. I have good dispositions; my life has been hitherto harmless and in some degree beneficial; but a fatal prejudice clouds their eyes” (pg. 136) This quote brings forth the motif of physical appearance. The monster is a very kind monster, however the prejudice that human have against him is based on the way he looks and his physical make up. Just as characters in this story with a pleasing physical appearance (such as Elizabeth the lamp) are loved and venerated grately, the creature is treated horribly. This is due to the fact that Victor did not make the monster nicer looking or at least less odd or estranged looking. Once again, Frankenstein is turning something beautiful and good, bad because the monster is just and performs kid acts of duty, but all he receives in return is hatred due to his looks, and this hatred is what turns him evil.

April 23 - Vol II: Ch. IX & Vol III: Ch. I “I concluded that the justice due both to him and my fellow creatures demanded of me that I should comply with his request” (pg.150) I agree that it is just for Victor to create a mate for the creature, because it has endured so much hardship and lonliness that it deserves a companion and the love of this companion will make the creature happy and keep it out of trouble. So not only does Victor owe happiness to the monster for abandoning it and being the cause of its misery, he also needs to bring justice to the world. Victor was glad when the monster has escaped him and ventured into the world, when in reality he should have been more careful and concious of the damage it could do to people. Too many deaths have already been caused by his irresponsibility and it is time for Victor to finally act justly.

“My promise filled, the monster would depart forever. Or (so fond my fancy imagined) some accident might meanwhile occur to destroy him, and put an end to my slavery forever.” (pg.157) I think it is amusing that Victor calls himself a “slave” since he is choosing to make a mate for the creature and his abandonment of the creature is what causes the creatures need for a companion. Additionally, he is being quite dramatic here since he clearly is not in ownership of the monster. If anything the monster is finally urging Victor to do something just and finish the mess he started. Furthermore, it is interesting how Victor refers to himself as enduring “slavery,” as if he is an item of the monster’s and being commanded to do what the monster wishes, because the monster was originally going to be Victor’s “ plaything” and Victor was raised his whole life as a “plaything.”

April 26 - Vol III: Ch II-III “I was alone; none were near me to dissipate the gloom, and relieve me from the sickening oppression of the most terrible reveries” (pg. 171) These two chapters highlight the theme of connection. At the beginning of Ch II, Victor describes how he was miserable among new people and did not want to establish relationships with or be around anyone other than Cerval. And even after that, he moves away from Cerval to an isolated hut. But suddenly when he decides not to create another creature, Victor wants the connection of other humans, and at the end of the Ch III, it is no coincidence that he is happy to see civilization after getting lost on his boat, but is then treated poorly by the humans he meets. By deciding not to create another creature, Victor is also endangering the human race because it angers the monster. So it’s as if denying the monster it’s own creature to have connection with, Victor will be turning the human race on himself and erasing all human’s feelings of connection towards him.

“During my first experiment, a kind of enthusiastic frenzy had blinded me to the horror of my employment… but now I went to it in cold blood, and my heart often sickened at the work of my hands” (pg. 169) Before, ambition had blinded Victor and he worked to create the monster as if in a trance, but the second time he attempts to make life, he has a harder time finding the ambition to fuel his work. Perhaps it is because Victor already knows the outcome of his procedure of making life and as he constantly explained before: knowledge is what wrecked him. He reflects on how he wishes he was like Cerval, the “person he used to be.” For Victor, he would rather spend his whole life eager and over-ambitious to learn everything about his passion and find or do something never discovered before, than actually succeed in the supposed impossible. However, had he never discovered the knowledge and gone through his hardship, Victor would be ignorant of this mentality.

April 26 - Vol III: Ch IV-V “Why did I not die? Most miserable than man ever was before, why did I not sink into forgetfulness and rest?...of what materials was I made, that I could thus resist so many shocks, which, like the turning of the wheel, continually renewed the torture?” (181) In these two chapters, Victor thinks a lot about death. On many occasions he wants to kill himself to end all his suffering and pain be he does not. He’s very much like the monster, except the monster’s pain came from the rejection of human beings while Victor’s from the death of many of his loved ones...