In chapter 8 of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the creature tells his life story to Victor Frankenstein, revealing the pain and isolation he has experienced since his creation. The following are some notable quotes from this chapter that capture the creature's emotional and psychological state:
"I am alone and miserable; man will not associate with me, but one as deformed and horrible as myself would not deny herself to me."
This quote reflects the creature's feelings of loneliness and rejection. Despite his desperate desire for companionship and connection, the creature is shunned and rejected by others because of his grotesque appearance.
"I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on."
This quote reveals the creature's deep sense of self-loathing and worthlessness. He sees himself as a monstrous and unwanted being, deserving of nothing but contempt and abuse.
"I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous."
In this quote, the creature suggests that his terrible actions and behavior are the result of the suffering and mistreatment he has endured. He believes that if he could find happiness and acceptance, he would return to being a good and virtuous being.
"I am content to suffer alone, while my sufferings shall endure; when I die, I am well satisfied that abhorrence and opprobrium should load my memory. Once my spirit was gratified with murder, and now, for their sakes, I will sacrifice my life!"
This quote shows the creature's willingness to accept his fate as a solitary and reviled being, as long as it means that others will be spared from his wrath. Despite the horrors he has committed, the creature still possesses some sense of moral responsibility and compassion.
Overall, these quotes from chapter 8 of Frankenstein highlight the creature's complex and multifaceted character, as well as the themes of loneliness, isolation, and the corrupting effects of suffering and mistreatment.
Frankenstein: Metaphors and Similes
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, as if possessed of magic powers, the monster had blinded me to his real intentions; and when I thought that I had prepared only my own death, I hastened that of a far dearer victim. The prospect did not move me to fear; yet when I thought of my beloved Elizabeth, of her tears and endless sorrow, when she should find her lover so barbarously snatched from her, tears, the first I had shed for many months, streamed from my eyes, and I resolved not to fall before my enemy without a bitter struggle. She was tranquil, yet her tranquillity was evidently constrained; and as her confusion had before been adduced as a proof of her guilt, she worked up her mind to an appearance of courage. A new species would bless me as its creator and source. While Victor failed miserably at his experiment and couldn't tolerate his own creation in the end, it raises the question for readers as to whether the creature was the monster or whether Victor himself was.
The ballots had been thrown; they were all black, and Justine was condemned. Best Quotes From 'Frankenstein ' Here are the best quotes from the incredible book by Mary Shelley. Most commonly the creature is understood as a metaphor that symbolizes the blank slate that each human is born as, and the influence that our experiences have on who we become. This also was my doing! If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other. I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If for one instant I had thought what might be the hellish intention of my fiendish adversary, I would rather have banished myself forever from my native country and wandered a friendless outcast over the earth than have consented to this miserable marriage.
From the tortures of my own heart, I turned to contemplate the deep and voiceless grief of my Elizabeth. But I — I have lost everything, and cannot begin life anew. Look at that castle which overhangs yon precipice; and that also on the island, almost concealed amongst the foliage of those lovely trees; and now that group of labourers coming from among their vines; and that village half hid in the recess of the mountain. She was alarmed by this account and passed several hours in looking for him, when the gates of Geneva were shut, and she was forced to remain several hours of the night in a barn belonging to a cottage, being unwilling to call up the inhabitants, to whom she was well known. The picture was then produced which the servant had found in her pocket; and when Elizabeth, in a faltering voice, proved that it was the same which, an hour before the child had been missed, she had placed round his neck, a murmur of horror and indignation filled the court. Oh, that some encouraging voice would answer in the affirmative! I could with pleasure have destroyed the cottage and its inhabitants and have glutted myself with their shrieks and misery.
The book is about a young scientist, Victor, who by scientific experiment creates life. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous. Kidadl has a number of affiliate partners that we work with including Amazon. We try our very best, but cannot guarantee perfection. She nursed Madame Frankenstein, my aunt, in her last illness, with the greatest affection and care and afterwards attended her own mother during a tedious illness, in a manner that excited the admiration of all who knew her, after which she again lived in my uncle's house, where she was beloved by all the family. Through her imaginative narrative, Shelley encourages readers to confront the dangers of playing God and consider the potential outcomes of scientific advances. This ice is not made of such stuff as your hearts may be; it is mutable and cannot withstand you if you say that it shall not.
Thus spoke my prophetic soul, as, torn by remorse, horror, and despair, I beheld those I loved spend vain sorrow upon the graves of William and Justine, the first hapless victims to my unhallowed arts. I never could survive so horrible a misfortune. I believe that I have no enemy on earth, and none surely would have been so wicked as to destroy me wantonly. I had often, when at home, thought it hard to remain during my youth cooped up in one place and had longed to enter the world and take my station among other human beings. This also was my doing! When they finally see him, they reject him as well. My spirit will sleep in peace, or if it thinks, it will not surely think thus.
No guilt, no mischief, no malignity, no misery, can be found comparable to mine. Return as heroes who have fought and conquered, and who know not what it is to turn their backs on the foe. It is so long before the mind can persuade itself that she whom we saw every day and whose very existence appeared a part of our own can have departed forever—that the brightness of a beloved eye can have been extinguished and the sound of a voice so familiar and dear to the ear can be hushed, never more to be heard. I walked up and down my room hastily and perturbed, while my imagination conjured up a thousand images to torment and sting me. Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone.
Anyone using the information provided by Kidadl does so at their own risk and we can not accept liability if things go wrong. That report, you say, is false; and be assured, dear Justine, that nothing can shake my confidence in you for a moment, but your own confession. He appeared at one time a mere scion of the evil principle, and at another as all that can be conceived of noble and godlike. Did the murderer place it there? She had been out the whole of the night on which the murder had been committed and towards morning had been perceived by a market-woman not far from the spot where the body of the murdered child had been afterwards found. It clings to the mind, when it has once seized on it, like a lichen on the rock. Read The Disclaimer Disclaimer At Kidadl we pride ourselves on offering families original ideas to make the most of time spent together at home or out and about, wherever you are in the world.
I shall commit my thoughts to paper, it is true; but that is a poor medium for the communication of feeling. The creature seeks revenge against Victor after being rejected by him and his society. I confessed, that I might obtain absolution; but now that falsehood lies heavier at my heart than all my other sins. Oh, surely, the spirit that inhabits and guards this place has a soul more in harmony with man than those who pile the glacier, or retire to the inaccessible peaks of the mountains of our own country. She perished on the scaffold as a murderess! I ardently desired the acquisition of knowledge. I have devoted my creator, the select specimen of all that is worthy of love and admiration among men, to misery; I have pursued him even to that irremediable ruin. Elizabeth saw even this last resource, her excellent dispositions and irreproachable conduct, about to fail the accused, when, although violently agitated, she desired permission to address the court.
41 Quotes From Frankenstein For Your Gothic Literature Studies
He compares Victor to God and rebukes him for casting him as the fallen angel instead of Adam. She was dressed in mourning, and her countenance, always engaging, was rendered, by the solemnity of her feelings, exquisitely beautiful. When shown the body, she fell into violent hysterics and kept her bed for several days. The appearance of Justine was calm. I could not sustain the horror of my situation, and when I perceived that the popular voice and the countenances of the judges had already condemned my unhappy victim, I rushed out of the court in agony.
