‘Quote
‘Frost and desolation; it ever
presents itself to my
imagination as the region of
beauty’
‘Heavenly bodies …
undiscovered solitudes …
eternal light’
‘I voluntarily endured cold,
famine, thirst, and want of
sleep’
‘I bitterly feel the want of a
friend’
‘My mother’s tender caresses
and my father’s smile of
benevolent pleasure’
‘Their child, the innocent and
helpless creature bestowed on
them by Heaven’
‘My more than sister’
‘The saintly soul of Elizabeth
shone like a shrine-dedicated
lamp in our peaceful home’
‘Natural philosophy is the
genius that has regulated my
fate’
‘A new light seemed to dawn
upon my mind, and bounding
with joy’
‘As the dazzling light vanished,
the oak had disappeared, and
nothing remained but a
blasted stump’
‘So worthy of my creation’
‘Thus strangely are our souls
constructed, and such slight
ligaments are we bound to
prosperity or ruin’
‘Elizabeth was saved, but the
consequences of this
imprudence were fatal to her
Chapter Explanation
Letter 1 – Walton Juxtaposition between each
other
Romantic imagery =
traditionally gothic
Letter 1 – Walton Heaven and religious imagery
Gothic
Starting to leave the religious
era at the time but still
important in everyday
Victorian life
Letter 1 – Walton Psychological and physical
journey
Suffering for discovery
Romanticism
Letter 2 – Walton Idea of loss
Idea of loneliness
Chapter 1 – Victor How much they influenced his
life
Contrast with creatures first
memory being pain and hatred
Chapter 1 – Victor Enormous ego from childhood
Shows how Victor then begins
to become God and makes life
Chapter 1 – Victor Awkward noun phrase
Dysfunctional relationship
Possessiveness
Chapter 2 – Victor Victor treats Elizabeth as if she
were divine
Surrounded by angelic diction
Chapter 2 – Victor Science = attending spirit
Themes of science vs religion
Guided him through his entire
life to this outcome
Chapter 2 – Victor Enlightened by the idea of
creation
Light vs dark contrast
Chapter 2 – Victor Transition from pseudoscience
to real science
Power of lightning and
Galvanism
Chapter 2 – Victor Egotistical mindset
Chapter 2 – Victor Heavy use of foreshadow =
dual effect
Adds suspense to the novel,
reader knows Victor has no
hope and he is doomed by his
own ambition
Chapter 3 – Victor Ironic
Care from Victor’s mother
causes her to get sick as she is
preserver’
‘The actual bitterness of grief
commences’
‘I was now alone’
‘With a repulsive physiognomy
and manners’
‘To examine the causes of life,
we must first recourse to
death’
‘The blooming cheek of life’
‘Until from the midst of this
darkness a sudden light broke
in upon me – a light so brilliant
and wondrous’
‘When I found so astonishing a
power place within my hands’
‘It was with these feeling that I
began to creation of a human
being’
‘Like a hurricane. In the first
enthusiasm of success’
‘I saw the dull yellow eye of
the creature open; it breathed
hard, and a convulsive motion
agitated its limbs’
‘But now that I had finished,
the beauty of the dream
vanished, and breathless
horror and disgust filled my
heart’
‘I started from my sleep with
horror; a cold dew covered my
forehead, my teeth chattered,
and every limb became
convulsed'
‘The miserable monster whom
I had created’
rash in helping
Links to death of Mary’s
mother
Chapter 3 – Victor Loss of innocence
Chapter 3 – Victor Turning point of the narrative
Alone = vulnerabilities
Chapter 4 – Victor Judging and repulsed by
Krempe’s facial expressions
Chapter 4 – Victor Corruption of death, life can
only be life with death
Obsession with life and death
Chapter 4 – Victor Floral imagery surrounding his
mother, saw his mother decay
to the corrupt state of death,
obsession with creating life
ROMANTICISM
Chapter 4 – Victor Dark = antithesis to light, light
is a discovery
Discovery how to create life
from death
Chapter 4 – Victor God-like
The Modern Prometheus
Chapter 4 – Victor Many critics see Victor as
helpless, arrogant father figure
who abandons his creations
But, at first describes his work
as ‘human’, show that his
motives start with innocent
and good intentions
Chapter 4 – Victor Storm imagery, exciting and
beautiful but destructive
Chapter 5 – Victor In pain to move
Eyes = windows to the soul,
complex question to whether
the monster has a soul
Sets up monster to be evil by
Víctor’s description
Chapter 5 – Victor Finally understands the
consequences and is overcome
with guilt
Chapter 5 – Victor Lack of sleep = psychological
analytical reading would say
due to guilt
Madness?
Chapter 5 – Victor Lacks fatherly instinct, shows
how he is irresponsible and

‘A mummy again endued with
animation could not be so
hideous as that wretch.’
‘Morning, dismal and wet, at
length dawned’
‘I felt suddenly, and for the
first time during many months,
calm and serene joy’
‘I could not have a more kind
and attentive nurse than
himself’
‘I perceived that the fallen
leaves had disappeared and
that the young buds were
shooting forth from the trees
that shaded my window. It was
a divine spring, and the season
contributed greatly to my
convalescence.
‘A serene sky and verdant
fields filled me with ecstasy.’
‘William is dead! – that sweet
child’
‘O God! I have murdered my
darling child’
‘My journey was very
melancholy’
‘The filthy demon, to whom I
had given life’
‘During the whole of this
wretched mocker of justice I
suffered living torture’
possibly evil
Chapter 5 – Victor Victor’s adventurous
personality to blame
No consideration for the
monsters looks or how he his
feeling
Chapter 5 – Victor Pathetic fallacy, represents
Victor’s inner state
Semantic field of ‘dismal’,
‘wet’, ‘dawned’ = connotations
of despair and dissatisfaction =
GOTHIC
Chapter 5 – Victor Shows the consequences of
Victor choosing the wrong
path of isolation from friends
Chapter – Victor Emphasises the parallels
between him and Henry =
dramatic foil to Victor
Demonstrates how Victor
should have treated the
monster
Chapter 5 – Victor Seasons = symbolic
Spring = rebirth and liveliness,
cold subsides and warm takes
place
Victor = in dark cold place until
Henry came
Chapter 6 – Victor Views nature in the same way
a Romantic poet would
Sublime, impenetrable, free
from the burdens of human
life
Chapter 7 – Elizabeth Family bliss and innocence
now destroyed
Chapter 7 – Elizabeth Reaction = motherly
contradicts Victor’s personality
= Victor putting blame on the
monster
Chapter 7 – Victor Victor’s descriptions of nature
now turn dark, reflecting his
psyche
Chapter 7 – Victor Realises cost of arrogant
assault on nature
Realises monster is revenging
himself as he begins to lose
innocence
Chapter 8 – Victor Theme of torture =
foreshadow, tortured by the
pain of more people dying at

‘She fell into violent hysterics’
‘God knows’, she said, ‘I am
entirely innocent’
‘I have no power of explaining
it’
‘The tortures of the accused
did not equal mine’
‘How shall I ever again believe
in human goodness?’
‘The idea of this visit was
torture to me, yet I could not
refuse’
‘I do not fear to die’
‘The high and snowy
mountains were in immediate
boundaries, but I saw no more
ruined castles and fertile
fields’
‘While rain poured from the
dark sky’
‘All men hate the wretched’
‘But rather I am the fallen
angel'
‘When I was oppressed by
cold’
‘My spirits were elevated by
the enchanting appearance of
nature’
‘As the sun dissipates the
morning mists’
‘My friends’ ‘My protectors’
‘When I heard the details of
vice and bloodshed, my
wonder ceased and I turned
the hands of the monster
Tortured soul = forever guilty
by creating monster
Chapter 8 – Victor CONTEXT – relates to how
women = consistently called
‘hysterical’ in any outburst of
emotions
Chapter 8 – Justine Shelley showing the complex
idea of innocent people being
punished in the corrupted
justice system
Chapter 8 – Justine Juxtaposition
Greets circumstances with
dignity
Chapter 8 – Victor Consumed by guilt
Chapter 8 – Justine Body politic
Good vs evil
Chapter 8 – Elizabeth Torture, face to face with
demons
Stereotypical of female
helplessness
Chapter 8 – Justine Contrast with Victor
Chapter 9 – Victor Romantic literature
Power of nature
Chapter 10 – Victor Symbolic of inner conflict and
struggle
Chapter 10 – the creature Double meaning
Complexity of creature and
blurs lines between good and
bad
Chapter 10 – the creature Context – Paradise Lost
Mix of demon (fallen angel) in
both God (Victor) and Adam
(creature)
Chapter 11 – creature Isolation
Double meaning, both nature
and because he has been
abandoned
Chapter 12 – creature Natural imagery to display
rising hopes
Chapter 13 – creature Natural imagery
Romantic approach
Chapter 13– creature Naïve
Chapter 13 – creature ‘pure’ in a sense
L’Homme Sauvage theory by
Rosseau
away with disgust and
loathing'
‘Paradise Lost, a volume of
Plutarch’s Lives, and the
Sorrows of Werter’
‘I was dependent on none and
related to none’
‘Accursed creator! Why did
you form a monster so hideous
that even you turned from me
in disgust?’
‘But it vanished when I beheld
my person reflected in water
or my shadow in the
moonshine’
‘The winter advanced’
‘I could have torn him limb
from limb’
‘Cursed, cursed creator!’
‘The cold stars shone in
mockery’
‘I declared everlasting war
against the species’
‘The pleasant sunshine and the
pure air of day restored me to
some degree of tranquillity’
‘The feelings of revenge and
hatred filled my bosom’
‘Inflamed by pain, I vowed
eternal hatred and vengeance
to all mankind’
‘Nature decayed around me’
‘I gazed on my victim, and my
heart swelled with exultation
and hellish triumph’
‘No tortured shall ever extort a
consent from me’
‘Am I not shunned and hated
by all mankind?’
‘I demand a creature of
another sex, but as hideous as
myself’
‘The love of another will
destroy the cause of my
crimes’
Nature vs nurture
Chapter 15 – creature Intense emotions
Encouraged creature to act
dramatically?
Chapter 16 – creature Identity problems
Complexity of relationships
Isolation
Chapter 15 – creature Revenge
Anger
Chapter 15 – creature Power of outward appearance
Chapter 15 – creature Turn of nature = foreshadow
turn of events
Chapter 15 – creature Supernatural power
Chapter 16 – creature Hate
Chapter 16 – creature Stars = knowledge
Desperately wants innocence
back
Chapter 16 – creature Corruption of innocence
Evil
Chapter 16 – creature Romantic belief
Influence of man and nature
Chapter 16 – creature Isolation and rejection drives
him to violence
Chapter 16 – creature Innocence destroyed
Chapter 16 – creature Nature mirroring creatures
disposition
Chapter 16 – creature Joy from destruction and
death
Chapter 17 – Victor Refusal leads reader to
wonder how it would backfire
Chapter 17 – creature Trying to appeal to Vic
Shows Vic responsibility as
creature
Chapter 17 – creature Pity
Poor self esteem from human
trait of noticing appearances
Chapter 17 – creature A women will ease his troubles
Bible – Eve = root of evil with
apple
Foreshadow monster killing

‘The stars shone at intervals as
the clouds passed from over
them’
‘Oh! Stars and clouds and
winds, ye are all about to mock
me’
‘With a devouring blackness
overcast the approaching
sunshine’
‘I, a miserable wretch’
‘Here also we made some
acquaintances who almost
contrived to chest me into
happiness’
‘demon’s disappointment’
‘I am guiltless’
‘Its fair lakes reflect a blue and
gentle sky, and when troubled
by winds’
‘Which led me to consider the
effects of what I was now
doing’
‘Race of devils’
‘The wretch saw me destroy
the creature on whose future
existence he depended for
happiness’
‘Soon the bolt will fall which
spree when Victor destroys his
mate
Chapter 17 – Victor Pathetic fallacy
Mirrors how Vic emotions
changed = hopeful to horrified
Stars and light = metaphors for
knowledge and hope
Chapter 17 – Victor Stars = resemble fate + destiny
Subtle giveaway that the
product = inevitability and
disaster
Chapter 18 – Victor Nature expressing his
emotions
Fear through imagery of storm
Chapter 18 – Victor Blurs line between the two by
using same language to
describe them
Double meaning of ‘wretch’ =
miserable + evil
Chapter 19 – Victor Frank believes happiness with
friends is superficial
True happiness can only come
from nature and intellect
Chapter 19 – Victor Use of hellish/ demonic
imagery to remind the reader
that Vic views the monster as
outside God’s will
Chapter 19 – Victor Contrast Frank and Creature
Frank believes he is innocent
but his dejected state is the
result of his slavery
Wretch is rational and makes
his own decisions
Chapter 19 – Victor Contrasting ideas of nation
Personification of the subline
sense
Romantic
Chapter 20 – Victor Progression of his flawed
character but too late?
Chapter 20 – Victor Demonic language to show
how he is outside God’s will
More concerned with religion
even though he has already
defied it (The Modern
Prometheus)
Chapter 20 – Victor Mirrors Vic and Elizabeth’s
relationship
Dooms happy endings for all
Chapter 20 – the creature Lightning = chaos and downfall
much ravish from you your
happiness for ever’
‘Like a restless spectre’
‘I called myself the murderer
of William, of Justine, and of
Clerval’
‘I was a shattered wreck – the
shadow of a human being’
‘I had a persuasion that I
should be supposed mad’
‘Elizabeth alone had the power
to draw me from these fits’
‘The seal to my fate’
‘Hellish intention of my
fiendish adversary’
‘If you knew what I have
suffered and when I yet
endure’
‘The sun sank lower in the
heavens’
‘The soft air just ruffled the
water’
‘But the wind was
unfavourable, and the rain fell
in torrents’
‘I lost sensation, and only
chains and darkness were the
objects that pressed upon me’
‘I was answered through the
stillness of night by a loud and
fiendish laugh’
‘The snows descended on my
head’
‘Despair had indeed almost
secured her prey’
‘His soul is as hellish as his
form’
Chapter 20 – Victor
Chapter 21 – Victor
Chapter 21 – Victor
Chapter 22 – Victor
Chapter 22 – Victor
Chapter 22 – Victor
Chapter 22 – Victor
Chapter 22 – Victor to
Elizabeth
Chapter 22 – Victor
Chapter 23 – Victor
Chapter 23 – Victor
Chapter 24 – Victor talking
about the creature
Chapter 24 – Victor
Chapter 24 – Victor
Chapter 24 – Victor
Ghost imagery to refer to
monster and his incomplete
life
Blurring lines between the two
Full responsibility
Guilt drives him mad
Roles of monster and Victor
swapped
Link with Hamlet, both faking
madness, making reader
question if they are actually
mad
Much how monster believed
he would be soothed by a
companion, but deprives
monster of this
Fate used as excuse to move
blamed Victor placed on
himself
Language relating to demons
used to dehumanise monster
Victor only seems to care
when it personally affects him
Egocentric character by
competing with how miserable
he is
Repetition of sun sinking
Romanticism
Nature brings tranquillity = a
warning of a major downfall
like at the end of chapter 6
Pathetic fallacy
Follows pattern on storm
representing Victor’s mood
Motif of chains = represent
how Vic sees himself as slave
to monster
Dark symbolises evil
Snow = metaphor for inner
turmoil and conflict
Vic = prey, innocence
Personification = give
animalistic descriptions
Ongoing themes of evil linking
with ugly
Face ugly = soul ugly
‘These desert seas’
‘A feverish fire still glimmers in
his eyes’
‘I have lost my friend’
‘Were now suspended by a
mixture of curiosity and
compassion’
‘A soon these burning miseries
will be extinct. I shall ascend
my funeral pile triumphantly
and exult in the agony of the
torturing flames’
He was soon borne away by
the waves and lost in the
darkness and distance’
Chapter 24 – Victor
Chapter 24 – Walton talking
about Victor
Chapter 24 – Walton to Victor
Chapter 24 – Walton about the
creature
Chapter 24 – Creature
Chapter 24 – Walton
Oxymoron
Represent Vic natural abilities
led him to desolate place
rather than calm
Symbolises his hubris pushing
him too far
Ongoing metaphor of fire =
desire/ambition/revenge
Short sentence to convey
death of protagonist and
narrator
Could show insignificance of
death
First sense of compassion
Draws attention to pain of
Creature
Fatal flaw = can experience
agony
Fire theme again
Dark to portray the Monster’s
coming death as darkness =
death
‘Lost’ = leaving the light of life

CRITICAL QUOTATIONS
CRITIC QUOTES THEME
Josh Trayneelis – ‘it seems like Shelley is not Science vs religion
ignoring religion and leaving it out, but arguing
against it’
Punter – ‘Frankenstein’s main sin is not his act Neglect
of creation, but his failure to take responsibility Isolation
for what he produces’
Williams – ‘The boundaries between the human Evil nature
and monster in Frankenstein remain
problematically blurred’
Punter – ‘the creature’s desire for Friendship/love
companionship is one of his most human
qualities’
Davenport – ‘ambition is evil in Shelley’s book’ Ambition
Cantor – ‘Frankenstein does God’s work, Evil
creating a man, but he has the devil’s motives;
pride and the will to power’
Anne K. Mellor – ‘Nature’s revenge is absolute; Power of nature
he who violates her secret hiding places is
destroyed’
Richard Norton – ‘The metaphysical theme of Ambition
the novel … focuses upon the Romantic image
of the over-reacher’
Criscilla Benford – ‘The creature is a ‘self Isolation
without society’