“The greatest benevolence”
- Volume One
- Chapter 3
- Waldman is very kind and encouraging, unlike his colleague Krempe and Victor’s father.
“His person was short but remarkably erect”
“His voice the sweetest”
“The terms of which I shall never forget”
- Volume One
- Chapter 3
- Describing Waldman in a positive way, has made a positive impact on Victor and his studies. Describes him well because he is not like Victor’s father, it is idealisation.
“Elixir of life is a chimera”
- Volume One
- Chapter 3
- Gives the ability to live forever, has medieval medicine in mind, the ideology that he will test certain limits that modern science at the time was not able to reach.
“But these philosophers… have indeed performed miracles”
- Volume One
- Modern scientists have low expectations, but hey achieve them. They set realistic targets to achieve, but medieval scientists did have high expectations, but rarely achieved. Victor has a similar mindset.
“They penetrate into the recesses of nature, and show how she works in her hiding places”
- Volume One
- Chapter 3
- Science is presented as masculine and Mother Nature as feminine. Nature is seen as something to conquer and throughout the novel has sexual innuendos towards nature and wanting power over it. This can contradicts the writing’s of Shelley’s mother.
“Command the thunders of heaven”
- Volume One
- Chapter 3
- Victor is starting to see himself as God, is set on creating a being. Is going to shift the Divine Order and cause chaos.
“Such the words of the fate”
- Volume One
- Chapter 3
- Isn’t real
- There are powers in force that are shaping Victor and is again putting blame on some thing else external.
“Keys were touched”
- Volume One
- Chapter 3
- There I a lexical field of pianos/ machines.
“Keys were touched”
“mechanism”
- Volume One
- Chapter 3
- There I a lexical field of pianos/ machines.
- “Mechanism” There is a mixture of scientific and romantic culture.
Is a romantic reference/ neo-classical reference and human anatomy is still new.
“My internal being was in a state of insurrection and turmoil”
“I had no power to produce it”
“My yesterday’s thoughts were as a dream”
- Volume One
- Chapter 3
- It is as if a part of himself can’t control and isn’t a conscious decision.
- His unconscious self is making the decisions.
“Mystery”
“Observe the natural decay and corruption if the human body”
“Seat of beauty and strength”
- Volume One
- Chapter 4
- Trying to figure out various secrets, especially of the human body.
“Cowardice and carelessness”
- Volume One
- Chapter 4
- Presented as brave, but can be scared of what he is producing.
- Romantic idealisation that emotions are better at coinciding with human stability than science.
“My mind should be impressed with no supernatural events”
- Volume One
- Chapter 3
- Is becoming submissive and is not Gothic imagery.
“Forced to spend days”
- Volume One
- Chapter 4
- Victor is spending more time with his project.
- Is the start of his isolation and the negative effects.
“I saw how the fine form of man was degraded and wasted; I beheld the corruption of death succeed to the blooming check of life”
- Volume One
- Chapter 4
- Imagery of death, it is gothic and contradicts the romantic ideas.
- Contrasts between beauty and death, romanticism vs Gothicism.
“Sudden light broke upon me”
- Volume One
- Chapter 4
- Light is the antithesis of darkness, and it can be seen as the enlightenment.
- Victor is starting to see himself as God , which is not Gothic ideas. It can include the rejection of Romantic ideology because men shouldn’t be creating according to religion and Victor has created a new being.
“Bestowing animation upon lifeless matter”
- Volume One
- Chapter 4
- Victor sees himself as God, which is against Romantic ideology as it is tied with religion.
- It includes religious language, which suggests that Victor knows that he is increasing his own power through science and is becoming closer to a god status.
“My candle was nearly burned out”
- Volume One
- Chapter 5
- Metaphor for how he is ill, and about to have a nervous breakdown.
“By the glimmer of the half extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard”
- Volume One
- Chapter 5
- Suggests inhumanity, which contradicts page number 53.
- Has the enlightenment through scientific discovery, not religion. It is not what was expected.
- Uses black, white and yellow primarily to describe the creature, which shows that it is almost human, but not quite, it may be ill.
- “It breathed hard” is a sign of birth, further shows that Victor has created a being by himself, and the novel is a warning of.
“How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe…”
- Volume One
- Chapter 5
- He is driven by emotions, which is opposite of what a scientific person should do.
“Wretch”, Creature, monster.
- Volume One
- Chapter 5
- All three are different names for what Victor has created. It gives an ambiguity to the creature, as if it doesn’t deserve a name or isn’t quite human enough.
“These luxuriance only formed a more horrid contrast with his eyes”
“Straight black lips”
- Volume One
- Chapter 5
- One minor thing makes everything else not look good.
- His looks are important to Victor and society as they may not look like that in real life. Contradicts romantic ideas.
“The beauty or the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.”
- Volume One
- Chapter 5
- Science promises beauty but is let down as they are skeptical.
“They became livid with the hue of death”
- Volume One
- Chapter 5
- This is contrasted with the creation of life by Victor.
