Frankenstein

1
Frankenstein

• Chapters 13-14

2
Chapter 13

• Characterization
• I now hasten to the most moving part of my
  story. I shall relate events that impressed me
  with feelings which, from what I had been, have
  made me what I am (104).
• He was not made this way
• That which was imposed upon him made him the evil
  creature he has become

3
Chapter 13

• Irony
• in the countenances of my friendsI began to
  comprehend most of the words uttered by my
  protectors (106).
• Sees the humans as allies
• They cease to know he exists

4
Chapter 13

• These wonderful narrations inspired me with
  strange feelings. Was man, indeed, at once so
  powerful, so virtuous and magnificent, yet so
  vicious and base? He appeared at one time a mere
  scion of the evil principle and at another as all
  that can be conceived of noble and godlike.

5
Chapter 13

• To be a great and virtuous man appeared the
  highest honour that can befall a sensitive being
  to be base and vicious, as many on record have
  been, appeared the lowest degradation, a
  condition more abject than that of the blind mole
  or harmless worm (107).
• realizes the duality of man
• Ironic b/c he, too, will have another side to him
  caused by the evil side of man

6
Chapter 13

• Self-realization
• And what was I? Of my creation and creator I
  was absolutely ignorant, but knew that I
  possessed, no money, no friends, no kind of
  property. I was, besides, endued with a figure
  hideously deformed and loathsome I was not even
  of the same nature of man. I was more agile than
  they and could subsist upon coarser diet I bore
  the extremes of heat and cold with less injury to
  my frame my stature far exceeded theirs.

7
Chapter 13

• Self-realization
• When I looked around I saw and heard none like
  me. Was I, then, a monster, a blot upon the
  earth, from which all men fled and whom all men
  disowned?
• I cannot describe to you the agony that these
  reflections inflicted upon me I tried to dispel
  then, 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! (108).

8
Chapter 13

• Self-realization
• Realizes the difference between him and humans
• Has none of the things that humans do
• He is hideous and deformed compared to them
• He is more powerful and self-sufficient than man
• Brings him pain and sorrow
• The beginning of his end

9
Chapter 13

• Isolation/ Alienation
• But where were my friends and relations? No
  father had watched my infant days, no mother had
  blessed me with smiles and caresses or if they
  had, all my past life was now a blot, a blind
  vacancy in which I distinguished nothing. From
  my earliest remembrance I had been as I then was
  in height and proportion. I had never yet seen a
  being resembling me or who claimed any
  intercourse with me. What was I? (109)

10
Chapter 13

• Isolation/ Alienation
• Victor abandoned him and left him to fend for
  himself
• Feels sadness for the loss of childhood
• Will fester into anger as he is further isolated
  and rejected

11
Chapter 14

• De Lacey Family
• Elements of Romanticism
• Descended from nobility
• Safies father
• Turkish merchant
• Mom was Christian Arab
• Father Upset French government and jailed
• Felix at trial and upset by political injustice
• Met father and fell in love with Safie
• Engaged and helps father escape jail

12
Chapter 14

• French government finds out, takes money and
  property and exiled
• Safie taken to Constantinople
• Returned to be with Felix

13
Chapter 14

• Meaning for Creature
• Realization that crime is a distant evil
• Romantic view
• Goodness is natural and evil is a result of
  institutions of mankind

14
Frankenstein

• Chapters 15-16

15
Chapter 15

• Monsters Perspective
• As yet In looked upon crime as a distant evil,
  benevolence and generosity were ever present
  before me, inciting within me a desire to become
  an actor in the busy scene where so many
  admirable qualities were called forth and
  displayed (116).
• Romantic view
• Goodness is natural
• Evil is result of the institutions of man

16
Chapter 15

• Intellect
• Goethe Sorrows of Werter
• I applied much personally to my own feelings
  and condition. I found myself similar yet at the
  same time strangely unlike to the beings
  concerning who I read and to whose conversation I
  was a listener (117).
• Brings forth feelings of despair and depression
• Equates it with his own situation an experiences

17
Chapter 15

• Intellect
• Plutarch Lives
• I felt the greatest ardour for virtue rise in
  me, and abhorrence for vice, as far as I
  understood the signification of those terms,
  relative as they were, as I applied them, to
  pleasure and pain alone (118).
• Creates positive thoughts and feelings
• Only applies to pleasure and pain
• Foreshadows that he will understand their
  relevance to other aspects as well

18
Chapter 15

• Intellect
• Miltons Paradise Lost
• It moved every feeling of wonder and awe that
  the picture of an omnipotent God warring with his
  creatures was capable of excitingLike Adam, I
  was apparently united by no link to any other
  being in existence but his state was far
  different from mine in every other respect. He
  had come forth from the hands of God a perfect
  creature, happy and prosperous, guarded by the
  especial care of his Creator he was allowed to
  converse and acquire knowledge from beings of a
  superior nature, but I was wretched, helpless,
  and alone. Many times I considered Satan as the
  fitter emblem of my condition, for often, like
  him, when I viewed the bliss of my protectors,
  the bitter gall of envy rose within me (118).

19
Chapter 15

• Intellect
• Moving and emotional for him
• Parallels his own existence
• He too was united to no other being
• He, however, cannot converse with others
• He is alone and helpless
• Satan as a symbol of his condition
• He too was rejected by his creator
• Cursed like Satan
• Provides an identity that the creator can relate
  to
• An identity of evil

20
Chapter 15

• Frankensteins Journals
• Reminder of complex narration
• It was in your journal of the four months that
  preceded my creation (118)
• Reminds reader creature is speaking to Victor
• Also will enable the creature to see his own
  creation and rejection

21
Chapter 15

• Monsters Existence
• Tone and Diction
• Everything is related in them which bears
  reference to my accursed origin the whole detail
  of that series of disgusting circumstances which
  produced it is set in view the minutest
  description of my odious and loathsome person in
  given, in language which painted your own horrors
  and rendered mine indelible (119).
• Words indicate the evil nature and being he is
  destined to become
• Ultimately, he will become this because of the
  institution and definition of man

22
Chapter 15

• Monsters Existence
• I sickened when I read. Hateful day when I
  received life! I exclaimed in agony. 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,
  more horrid even from resemblance. Satan had his
  companions, fellow devils, to admire and
  encourage him, but I am solitary and abhorred.
  (119).
• Realizes what Victor saw him as even though he
  created him
• Even worse that he somewhat resembles man- more
  horrid

23
Chapter 15

• M. De Lacey
• Do not despair. To be friendless is indeed to
  be unfortunate, but the hearts of men, when
  unprejudiced by any obvious self-interest, are
  full of brotherly love and charity. Rely,
  therefore, on your hopes and if these friends
  are good and amiable, do not despair (122).
• Deplores prejudice
• Praises brotherly love and charity
• Ironic considering what follows with Felix

24
Chapter 16

• Characterization
• Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live? Why,
  in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark
  of existence which you had so wantonly bestowed?
  I know not despair had not yet taken possession
  of me my feelings were those of rage and
  revenge (125).
• Goodness is natural
• Evil result of institutions of man and prejudice
  of mankind

25
Chapter 16

• Characterization
• I was like a wild beast that had broken the
  toils, destroying the objects that obstructed me
  and ranging through the wood with stag like
  swiftnessI was like the arch-fiend, bore a hell
  within me, and finding myself unsympathized with,
  wished to tear up the trees, spread havoc and
  destruction around me, and then to have sat down
  and enjoyed the ruin (125).
• Before he was a child of nature, human
  characteristics
• Reading, writing, emotions, sensitive, etc
• After a raging hate filled monster
• Characteristics of an animal, a destroyer

26
Chapter 16

• Characterization
• There was none among the myriads of men that
  existed who would pity or assist m and should I
  feel kindness towards my enemies? No from that
  moment I declared everlasting war against the
  species, and more than all, against him who had
  formed me and sent me forth to this insupportable
  misery (125-126)
• Prejudices of mankind caused him to become the
  evil monster they saw him as
• Declares war on mankind
• Vows vengeance against his creator

27
Chapter 16

• Downfall of the Creature
• For the first time the feelings of revenge and
  hatred filled my bosom, and I did not strive to
  control them, but allowing myself to be borne
  away by the stream, I bent my mind towards injury
  and death (127).
• He is now alone
• Self-realization
• The beginning of the end

28
Chapter 16

• Downfall of Creature
• But again when I reflected that they had spurned
  and deserted me, anger turned, a rage of anger,
  and unable to injure anything human, I turned my
  fury towards inanimate objects (127).
• Becomes angry and leads to his evil nature and
  destruction
• Already wants to harm humanity

29
Chapter 16

• Creature Seeks Vengeance
• although towards you I felt no sentiment but
  that of hatred. Unfeeling, heartless creator!
  You had endowed me with perceptions and then
  cast me abroad an object for the scorn and horror
  of mankind. But on you only had I any claim for
  pity and redress, and from you I determined to
  seek the justice which I vainly attempted to gain
  from any other being (128).
• Seek revenge on Victor
• Will take away from Victor what Victor took from
  him

30
Chapter 16

• Monsters Downfall
• If, therefore, I could seize him and educate
  him as my companion and friend, I should not be
  so desolate on this peopled earth (131).
• Only seeks to originally hurt Victor
• Seeks friend and companion through William
• Will see the hurt it will cause Victor
• Becomes the monster society has defined him as