Quotations
English Lit: AQA GCSE Frankenstein, topic 6.1.2
The Monster - Key Quotations
The Monster displays intelligence and empathy for other humans. But his mistreatment by all those he meets eventually leads him to seek violent revenge on Victor and his family.
Description
- 'His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes.' (Chapter 5).
- Shelley's colour imagery presents the Monster as inhuman, focusing on his jaundiced (yellow) skin and the darkness of his lips.
- Not all of the Monster's features seem so grotesque: he has glossy hair and bright white teeth.
- These contrasts highlight the composite (having many parts) nature of the Monster.
The Monster's own narrative
- 'Believe me, Frankenstein: I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity: but am I not alone, miserably alone?' (Volume Two: Chapter 2).
- Shelley aims to shock us with the Monster's eloquence and intelligence.
- Rather than use violence and threats, the Monster attempts to persuade Victor using reason and impassioned pleading.
- This undermines the image of the Monster that Victor creates in the first Volume of the novel.
The Monster's perspective on his creation
- 'I was a poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, I sat down and wept.' (Volume Two: Chapter 3).
- As the Monster retells the beginning of his life from his own perspective, the reader is presented with a very different picture to that created by Victor.
- The narrative encourages the reader to feel sympathy for a being who is abandoned and cast out into a world about which he knows nothing.
- The image of him weeping is reminiscent (a reminder) of a neglected child.
The Monster - Key Quotations 2
The Monster displays intelligence and empathy for other humans, however his mistreatment by all those he meets eventually leads him to seek violent revenge on Victor and his family.
Self-questioning
- 'My person was hideous and my stature gigantic. What did this mean? Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was my destination?' (Volume Two: Chapter 7).
- The Monster's repeated self-questioning encourages the reader to feel sympathy for him.
- Without the guidance of a parent or creator, the Monster is unable to understand his place or role in the world.
Regret
- 'When I run over the frightful catalogue of my sins, I cannot believe that I am the same creature whose thoughts were once filled with sublime and transcendent visions of the beauty and the majesty of goodness. But it is even so; the fallen angel becomes a malignant devil.' (Walton, in continuation).
- By the end of the novel, the Monster feels regretful for all of the terrible deeds he has committed.
- He reflects on his development from a pure and innocent being to a creature of evil and compares himself to Satan.
Test yourself on Quotations
Which of the Monster's features are NOT so grotesque?
What undermines the image of the Monster that Victor creates in the first Volume of the novel?
Why is the Monster unable to understand his place or role in the world?