FRANKENSTEIN
Volume 1
Chapter 2
- Victor and Elizabeth get on well and Victor is interested in the 'hidden laws of nature'
- brother is born (7 years younger)
- Henry Clerval - extremely intelligent/intrigued by many things; writes poems/plays particularly on heroes - 'he was a boy of singular talent and fancy'
- talks about childhood - heaven + earth - privileged (carefree childhood)
- great interest in Cornelius Agrippa - ancient science (father advises studying new science) - Victor continues/entranced by it - self-taught
- thunderstorm (Age 15) - 'curiosity and delight' - shows the magnificence of nature
- self-taught like Frankenstein --> child's vulnerability - fending for themselves
- enjoys memories of childhood; creature will not - emphasising supportive structure --> neglect/isolation - Victor's irresponsibility
- thunderstorm triggers Victor's interests - the wonders of the natural world + excitement to sudden fear/destruction - similar to awakening of creature - danger of light + the wonders of electricity (the way in which he sparks the creature to life - electricity animates)
- Victor is similar to Prometheus; over-reacher
- 'diversity and contrast that subsisted in our characters drew us nearer together'
- 'I feel exquisite pleasure in dwelling on the recollections of my childhood, before misfortune had tainted my mind'
- 'I was left to struggle with a child's blindness, added to a student's thirst for knowledge'
- 'the genius that has regulated my fate'
Chapter 3
Summary
- age 17, Victor is prepared to leave for Geneva (University of Ingolstadt)
- Elizabeth catches scarlet fever and passes it on to Caroline who passes away days later; her dying wish is that Victor and Elizabeth marry
- Victor goes to the University of Ingolstadt + meets the professor of natural philosophy (Mr Krempe)
- attends a lecture by Mr Waldman - inspires him to continue discovering the mysteries of creation
- putting interests ahead of general needs (order of priorities); Caroline putting self ahead of Elizabeth + Frankenstein becomes mad/exhausted producing the creature
- disregarding advice; Caroline does not stop looking after Elizabeth despite warnings + Victor is told that Cornelius Agrippa is dangerous/different
- 'from the midst of the darkness' - exhilarating/revelation; light can blind as well as illuminate - new interests/ideas but also new risks/dangers - can be dazzling (inability to see) - divinity
- Beauty + Beast; Krempe - 'repulsive countenance', squat, 'gruff voice', criticised, intolerant + Waldman - 'an aspect expressive of the greatest benevolence', idealised; sweet, musical voice, favourable
Key Quotes
- 'an omen, as it were, of my future misery'
- 'I closed not my eyes that night'
- 'thus ended a day memorable to me: it decided my future destiny'
Chapter 4
- Victor devotes himself to his studies - doesn't visit family for 2 years
- begins to create frame of a man out of pieces of corpses; hopes one day to bring the dead to life - destroys graves/tortures living animals
- Victor's obsession isolates him - he becomes mentally + physically ill
- Victor's father writes to express his concern at the lack of communication (Victor says the issue was that he rejected domestic life)
- ironic that the creature is labelled as a 'monster' but Victor is the one horrifically tearing up nature
- isolation; Victor trapped in own interest/enslaved - alienated from outer world (similar to how creature is isolated from normal life); aware of deliriousness
- paternity - Victor later isolates himself from the creature like he isolates himself from his father
- 'bless me as its creature and source' - ironic (creature is in despair that he has been created; unwanted + unloved
- guilt/paranoia - shameful/unnatural obsession - anxious, oppressed, nervous - crime against God and nature
- light and dark; light illuminates/enlightens BUT dark; death/corruption
- 'happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me'
- 'workshop of filthy creation'
Chapter 5
- Victor brings creature to life; horrified and disgusted - creature appears ugly and unnatural
- Victor rushes to bedchamber and falls asleep - dreams of Elizabeth, as he kisses her, she turns into the corpse of his dead mother
- awakens and sees the creature stretching out his hand at him - Victor runs away
- next day, encounters Henry Clerval (has come to the university to study) - Clerval sees that Victor is ill and nurses him through his fever
- Victor receives letter from Elizabeth
Analysis
- inescapable; Frankenstein cannot escape fear of encountering creature + creature cannot escape hideousness
- unawareness/neglect - lack of empathy and care for 'child'/Victor's distance to it
- separation - between Victor + creature and between Victor and father; does not seek to find him
- excitement/hope is dangerous
- 'I held the corpse of my dead mother in my arms' - unnecessary role as mother + dreams are buried -> repressive - socially unacceptable; morals within society -> internal parent
- sexuality frightens Victor --> death - kisses Elizabeth (other means of procreation) - unconscious incestuous desires
- Victor's hatred of death; 'grave-worms crawling' - divisions between the self and the 'other'
- 'one hand was stretched out' - pathos; Victor misinterprets creature's affection - leads to cruel treatment of creature (by Victor) vs. kind/loving treatment of Victor (by Clerval)
- 'convulsed limbs' - Victor's double - concludes nature of crime
- 'the demoniacal corpse to which I had so miserably given life' - importance of physical beauty + Victor's assumptions about the connection between appearances + inner worth
- pathetic fallacy; 'It was on a dreary night of November' - setting scene for catastrophe + linking to the monster 'by the dim and yellow light of the moon'
- supernatural = disturbed psychological states: 'I thought I saw the dreaded spectre glide into the room'
Chapter 6
Summary
- Victor receives letter from Elizabeth + she tells the story of how Justine Moritz came to be a servant in the Frankenstein household
- Victor describes his convalescence (cannot bear to think of scientific studies)
- Victor + Clerval go on a walking tour of the countryside around Ingolstadt and Victor begins to regain a sense of happiness + peace
- contrast between Justine's background + the Frankenstein lifestyle - different perspective on family life
- BUT she is another passive + idealised woman; mirroring/duplication between Justine, Caroline + Elizabeth
- therapeutic nature - happiness is 'restored' - 'sensations' --> echoed by monster V2 Ch.4 (p.118)
- irony that Victor turns to nature when actions are so unnatural - specifically 'inanimate nature' - shortly becomes a 'happy creature' with 'no sorrow or care'
Chapter 7
- Victor receives a letter from his father; his younger brother has been murdered
- Victor begins to journey home + visits the place where William has been killed; he catches a glimpse of the monster and is convinced the monster is the murderer
- Victor returns home to discover Justine has been accused of the crime - he meets Elizabeth who expresses hope he will prove Justine's innocence
Analysis
- idea of Victor's double; darker side/repressive self - 'calm and heavenly scene' + 'lovely' lake vs. 'dark mountains' and a 'vast and dim scene of evil' - sense of gloom near home
- Victor's anxiety of returning home prioritises rack of grief - 'irresistible accusation'
- lightning literally reveals the figure of the monster BUT metaphorically illuminates the darker side of Victor - pathetic fallacy links with Gothic nature; Victor's other self - a guilt-ridden murderer
- Victor labels the creature as the 'other' - immediately blamed as 'the filthy daemon', the 'devil' and the 'animal' - fixing a boundary between the human and the demonic/animalistic - assumptions - humans create monsters
Chapter 8
- Victor reports on the trial of Justine + the evidence against her APPEARS strong/circumstantial; the picture of Caroline stolen from William has been found in her pocket
- Elizabeth speaks in her defence at the trial + the court is moved by her speech but only to admire her loyalty; Justine now appears more ungrateful
- Justine condemned to death - confesses
- the true horror lies within (not in external forces) - our own darker desires; Victor sees himself as guilty: 'I bore a hell within me' - later echoed by creature burning down De Lacey home - both act as the devil
- excess of Victor's egotism + self-absorption revealed in describing his own anguish: 'the tortures of the accused did not equal mine' and 'I cannot pretend to describe how I then felt' - describing inner experience - Gothic
- power of language: Elizabeth begs 'I will melt the stony hearts of your enemies by my tears and prayers' and Justine says how her persuasion is pointless + this reflects the horror and cruelty of the male-dominated world: 'he threatened and menaced, until I almost began to think I was the monster that he said I was'
- satanic protagonists produced in both Victor and the creature - often viewed with little sympathy