Quotes for various themes
Key
● Blue = Victor
● Purple = The monster
● Red = Walton
● Green = Elizabeth
● Orange = Justine
● Pink = De Laceys
Ambition
● “I preferred glory”
● “inestimable benefit” - infinity
● “secret of the magnet” and “secret of life”
● “avoid ambition”
● “another may succeed”
● “pour a torrent of light into this dark world”
● “ruled my destiny”
● “if the study … has a tendency to weaken your affections … then that study is
certainly unlawful”
● “one thought, one conception, one purpose” - anaphoric tricolon
● “no father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should
deserve theirs” - the word “deserve” suggests entitlement
● Victor compares himself to the “archangel that aspired to omnipotence”
● “bore me onwards, like a hurricane”
● “animated by an almost supernatural enthusiasm” - “enthusiasm” is
etymologically related to divinity and god
Prejudice and Physiognomy
● “heaven sent”
● “a distinct species”
● “fairer than a pictured cherub” - natural is superior to the artificial (Romantic)
● “lifeless and inanimate”
● “pale and distorted features”
● “bridal bier” - oxymoronic
● “who can describe their horror and consternation on beholding me”
● “I became fully convinced that I was in reality the monster that I am”
● “unearthly ugliness”
, ● “miserable deformity”
● “equal in deformity and wickedness”
● “yellow skin”
● “lustrous black”
● “pearly white”
● “my person was hideous and my stature gigantic” - distances himself from his
appearance
● “one glance from Justine could dissipate [ill humour]”
Relationships between characters
● “my friend, my benefactor” - anaphora
● “my more than sister”
● “and looked upon Elizabeth as mine - mine to protect, love and cherish” -
tricolon emphasises Victor’s duty towards her
● “my love, my wife” - anaphora
● Victor feels “parched with horror” when seeing Clerval’s dead body
● “I was the slave, not the master” and “you are my creator, but I am your master”
● “my tyrant and tormentor” - alliteration - Satan calls God a tyrant in Paradise
Lost
● Victor calls the monster’s hypothetical children a “race of devils”
● “we are enemies” and “my enemy” - allusion to Satan (Satan means enemy in
Hebrew)
● “my parents were possessed by the very spirit of kindness and indulgence”
● “my mother’s tender caresses”
● “my father’s smile of benevolent pleasure”
● “innocent and helpless monster bestowed on them by Heaven”
● “every feature and every muscle was relaxed from anguish to pleasure”
● “nothing could exceed the love and respect” shown by the cottagers
● “he rewarded [the cottagers] by his benevolent smiles”
Loneliness
● “I felt that I had no right to share their intercourse”
● “solitary chamber”
● “my heart yearned to be known and loved by these amiable creatures”
● “I was dependent on none and related to none” - epistrophe
● “Satan had his companions but I am solitary and abhorred”
● “one of those whose joy-imparting smiles are bestowed on all but me”
● “no Eve soothed my sorrows nor shared my thoughts”
● “I had never yet seen a being resembling me”
, ● “injustice and ingratitude of their infliction” - repetition of “in” sound
emphasises resentment
● “I desire the company of a man who could sympathise with me”
Natural goodness
● “I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend”
● “I am malicious because I am miserable”
● “I had begun life with benevolent intentions”
● “I do not destroy the lamb and the kid to glut my appetite”
● “I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity” - the monster is
humane but still rejected by humanity
● “was once filled with sublime and transcendent thoughts” - past tense
● “the fallen angel becomes a malignant devil”
Revenge
● “kindness and gentleness … gave way to hellish rage and gnashing of teeth”
● “I vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind”
● “revenge remains - revenge henceforth dearer than light or food!”
● “I will watch with the wiliness of a snake”
● “I declared everlasting war”
● “I was possessed by a maddening rage”
● “let the cursed and hellish monster drink deep of agony”
● “let him feel the despair that now torments me”
● “I devote myself … to his destruction”
● “I was hurried away by fury; revenge alone endowed me”
Sadness
● Feels “despondence and mortification” when he sees his reflection -
“mortification” is etymologically related to death - he feels dead when he sees
himself and was made from dead things
● “I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel”
● “who am miserable beyond all living things!”
● “poor, helpless, miserable wretch”
● “no creature had ever been so miserable as I was”
● “Cursed, cursed creator!” and “Why did I live?” and “Great God!” and “Why did I
not then expire!” - parallels when the creature gets rejected by the De Laceys,
and Victor when Elizabeth dies
● “bore a hell within me”
● When thinking about monster’s threat, Victor bemoans “the apple was already
eaten” - a biblical allusion
Key
● Blue = Victor
● Purple = The monster
● Red = Walton
● Green = Elizabeth
● Orange = Justine
● Pink = De Laceys
Ambition
● “I preferred glory”
● “inestimable benefit” - infinity
● “secret of the magnet” and “secret of life”
● “avoid ambition”
● “another may succeed”
● “pour a torrent of light into this dark world”
● “ruled my destiny”
● “if the study … has a tendency to weaken your affections … then that study is
certainly unlawful”
● “one thought, one conception, one purpose” - anaphoric tricolon
● “no father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should
deserve theirs” - the word “deserve” suggests entitlement
● Victor compares himself to the “archangel that aspired to omnipotence”
● “bore me onwards, like a hurricane”
● “animated by an almost supernatural enthusiasm” - “enthusiasm” is
etymologically related to divinity and god
Prejudice and Physiognomy
● “heaven sent”
● “a distinct species”
● “fairer than a pictured cherub” - natural is superior to the artificial (Romantic)
● “lifeless and inanimate”
● “pale and distorted features”
● “bridal bier” - oxymoronic
● “who can describe their horror and consternation on beholding me”
● “I became fully convinced that I was in reality the monster that I am”
● “unearthly ugliness”
, ● “miserable deformity”
● “equal in deformity and wickedness”
● “yellow skin”
● “lustrous black”
● “pearly white”
● “my person was hideous and my stature gigantic” - distances himself from his
appearance
● “one glance from Justine could dissipate [ill humour]”
Relationships between characters
● “my friend, my benefactor” - anaphora
● “my more than sister”
● “and looked upon Elizabeth as mine - mine to protect, love and cherish” -
tricolon emphasises Victor’s duty towards her
● “my love, my wife” - anaphora
● Victor feels “parched with horror” when seeing Clerval’s dead body
● “I was the slave, not the master” and “you are my creator, but I am your master”
● “my tyrant and tormentor” - alliteration - Satan calls God a tyrant in Paradise
Lost
● Victor calls the monster’s hypothetical children a “race of devils”
● “we are enemies” and “my enemy” - allusion to Satan (Satan means enemy in
Hebrew)
● “my parents were possessed by the very spirit of kindness and indulgence”
● “my mother’s tender caresses”
● “my father’s smile of benevolent pleasure”
● “innocent and helpless monster bestowed on them by Heaven”
● “every feature and every muscle was relaxed from anguish to pleasure”
● “nothing could exceed the love and respect” shown by the cottagers
● “he rewarded [the cottagers] by his benevolent smiles”
Loneliness
● “I felt that I had no right to share their intercourse”
● “solitary chamber”
● “my heart yearned to be known and loved by these amiable creatures”
● “I was dependent on none and related to none” - epistrophe
● “Satan had his companions but I am solitary and abhorred”
● “one of those whose joy-imparting smiles are bestowed on all but me”
● “no Eve soothed my sorrows nor shared my thoughts”
● “I had never yet seen a being resembling me”
, ● “injustice and ingratitude of their infliction” - repetition of “in” sound
emphasises resentment
● “I desire the company of a man who could sympathise with me”
Natural goodness
● “I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend”
● “I am malicious because I am miserable”
● “I had begun life with benevolent intentions”
● “I do not destroy the lamb and the kid to glut my appetite”
● “I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity” - the monster is
humane but still rejected by humanity
● “was once filled with sublime and transcendent thoughts” - past tense
● “the fallen angel becomes a malignant devil”
Revenge
● “kindness and gentleness … gave way to hellish rage and gnashing of teeth”
● “I vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind”
● “revenge remains - revenge henceforth dearer than light or food!”
● “I will watch with the wiliness of a snake”
● “I declared everlasting war”
● “I was possessed by a maddening rage”
● “let the cursed and hellish monster drink deep of agony”
● “let him feel the despair that now torments me”
● “I devote myself … to his destruction”
● “I was hurried away by fury; revenge alone endowed me”
Sadness
● Feels “despondence and mortification” when he sees his reflection -
“mortification” is etymologically related to death - he feels dead when he sees
himself and was made from dead things
● “I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel”
● “who am miserable beyond all living things!”
● “poor, helpless, miserable wretch”
● “no creature had ever been so miserable as I was”
● “Cursed, cursed creator!” and “Why did I live?” and “Great God!” and “Why did I
not then expire!” - parallels when the creature gets rejected by the De Laceys,
and Victor when Elizabeth dies
● “bore a hell within me”
● When thinking about monster’s threat, Victor bemoans “the apple was already
eaten” - a biblical allusion
