Frankenstein: Key Quotations (Edexcel GCSE English Literature)

Frankenstein: Key quotations

The assessment objectives specify that you should be able to “use textual references, including quotations.” In other words, it is important that you back up points you make about Frankenstein with both direct and indirect references to the novel.

Having an extensive knowledge and understanding of the text will mean that you are able to answer any question that comes up in your exam to a high level, with quality evidence.

A good way to revise quotations is to group them by character or theme. This will help you to understand links between quotes, also helping to ensure that you have a solid understanding of character and thematic development.

Below you will find key quotations and analysis, organised according to the following themes:

• Ambition 

• Nature versus nurture 

• Power and control

• Science and nature

• Gender 

• Isolation and companionship 

Ambition

The theme of ambition is central to Frankenstein. By making the creature, Victor is presented by Shelley as trying to be God-like, giving life. He also has ambitions to defy nature through his scientific endeavours. 

“For when I would account to myself for the birth of that passion, which afterwards ruled my destiny,” – Victor, Chapter 2

“a modern system of science had been introduced which possessed much greater powers than the ancient, …” – Victor, Chapter 2

Meaning and context

• In the first quote, Victor suggests that it was his desire for scientific knowledge that led to his downfall

• The second quote details a conversation between Victor and his father, after his father called Agrippa’s theories “sad trash”:

  • It suggests that Victor would have stopped his scientific pursuits had his father fully explained the way in which modern science undermined Agrippa’s theories 

Analysis 

• Both of these quotes could be used together to argue that Victor does not consider himself ultimately responsible for his creation, or for his ambitions:

  • In the first quote, Victor personifies his ambition when he suggests that it “swelled” and “swept away” his “hopes and joys”: 

    • This creates the sense that Victor’s ambitions are an autonomous identity, outside of his control

    • It also infers that Victor has crafted the narrative to persuade the reader that he is subject to his ambition, rather than in control of it, perhaps to gain sympathy

    • Within the context of the Romantic focus on the power of nature, the simile that his ambition rose “like a mountain river” creates an intense sense that Victor perceives his ambition as overpowering

  • The second quote adds to the idea that Victor does not consider himself responsible for his ambition:

    • Victor criticises his father for only calling Agrippa “sad trash” rather than for explaining “that a modern system of science had been introduced which possessed much greater powers than the ancient”

    • Victor indicates that an understanding of modern science would have made him disengage with his scientific pursuits

“Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge...” – Victor, Chapter 4 

“Are you, then, so easily turned from your design?” – Victor, Walton in continuum

Meaning and context

• The first quote details Victor’s advice to Walton:

  • It suggests that Victor understands that his ambition was the key reason for his downfall

• In the second quote, Victor tells Walton’s crew that they should continue their voyage despite being trapped in ice

Analysis 

• The first quote suggests a degree of self-reflection, and perhaps that Victor is trying to position himself as a tragic hero:

  • Here, Shelley may be suggesting that humans would be better in a state of nature, as Rosseau argued:  

    • The sense of destruction in “how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge” juxtaposes with the desire for a peaceful life in “how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world”

    • The language contrasts with the vigour in, “are you, then, so easily turned from your design?”

    • This implies that Victor has not lost his ambitious traits and that there has been a lack of character development throughout the story

• The contrast between these two quotes suggests that Victor has not learned from his past mistakes:

  • The second quote is from a section of the text that Walton controls, not Victor, helping to lend it more reliability: 

    • This could be used to illustrate how the powerful are able to control others’ perception of events and are able to craft their own narratives

“I preferred glory to every enticement that wealth placed in my path.” –  Walton, Letter 1 

“A new species would bless me as its creator and source;” – Victor, Chapter 4

Meaning and context

• The first quote implies that Walton desired prestige over ease

• The second quote indicates that Victor wanted to make a creature in order to have control over a being that would always have loyalty towards him 

Analysis 

• Both quotes demonstrate that Victor and Walton desired prestige through their ambitions:

  • Walton’s says that he “preferred glory to every enticement that wealth placed in my path”: 

    • This suggests an intense desire for “glory” and prestige above all else

  • In a similar way, Victor is presented as valuing his own personal gains from his scientific development:

    • This reveals his desire for power over a “species” that will “owe their being” to him

• Together, these quotes imply that both characters desire personal gains from their ambitions:

  • This could be a criticism of individualism and the idea of the Romantic genius

“Sorrow only increased with knowledge. Oh, that I had for ever remained in my native wood..” – Creature, Chapter 13

Meaning and context

• Here, the creature highlights how his understanding of his role in society has caused a deep feeling of sadness and a desire to return to a natural state

Analysis 

• This suggests that living in a state of nature is the ideal, and that the desire for societal development causes distress and unhappiness:

  • The use of an exclamatory sentence and the disrupted speech at “Oh,” creates a sense of intensity: 

    • This implies that the creature has profound “sorrow” due to his attainment of knowledge

  • The very base senses of “hunger, thirst, and heat” suggest a primitive state:

    • His desire for this, emphasised by the exclamatory nature of the sentence, suggests a profound desire to return to a more natural state 

    • This conforms with Rousseau's view that people would be happier in a state of nature

Nature versus Nurture

“..it was poverty....I abstained and satisfied myself with berries, nuts, and roots which I gathered from a neighbouring wood.” – Creature, Chapter 12 

“I have strangled the innocent as they slept and grasped to death his throat who never injured me or any other living thing” – Walton in continuum 

 Meaning and context

• The first quote is when the creature realises that he has been causing suffering to the De Lacey family and resolves to stop this

• The second quote is from the creature’s speech to Walton right at the end of the novel, where he states his remorse and regret

Analysis

• In the first quote, the creature is presented as empathetic:

  • He would rather satisfy himself with “berries, nuts and roots” from a “neighbouring wood” instead of “stealing” from the De Lacey family’s “store” of food:

    • He understands that the De Lacey family are in “poverty”, suggesting that he has the ability and desire to be benevolent

• The second quote demonstrates how contrastingly the creature acted after his rejection by the De Lacey family:

  • Shelley uses intense violent imagery of the creature “strangl[ing] the innocent” and “grasp[ing] [them] to death”:

    • This vividly portrays the creature engaged in demonic acts after his rejection

“A grin was on the face of the monster; he seemed to jeer, as with his fiendish finger he pointed towards the corpse of my wife.” – Victor, Chapter 24

Meaning and context

• Victor has just walked in to see that Elizabeth has been killed by the creature

Analysis

• This evidences that, over the course of the text, the creature has become a fiend: 

  • The imagery of the creature “grin[ning]” and “jeer[ing]” suggests that the creature is mocking the death of Victor’s partner: 

    • This implies that the creature has no sympathy for Victor and that any kindness he once felt has disappeared

Power

“I saw around me nothing but a dense and frightful darkness, penetrated by no light but the glimmer of two eyes that glared upon me.”  – Victor, Chapter 21 

Meaning and context

• Here Shelley highlights Victor’s paranoia and sadness at the death of Clerval

• He believes he sees eyes that sometimes appear to be the creature’s, and sometimes Clerval’s

Analysis

• The word “penetrated” creates a sense of immediacy and intensity:

  • This highlights Victor’s paranoia due Henry’s death and the creature’s presence: 

    • Victor once had power over the creature as he crafted him

    • In this quote, the power dynamics between the two have clearly shifted

  • The deep sense of fear and sadness shows that Victor is plagued by his creation, just like Prometheus:

    • Prometheus’s creation led to his own downfall and into a figurative eternal hell 

“Frankenstein discovered that I made notes concerning his history; he asked to see them and then himself corrected and augmented them in many places, ...” – Walton, Chapter 24

Meaning and context 

• This quote suggests that Victor has modified the creature’s narrative in its entirety

Analysis 

• The phrase “corrected and augmented” leaves little doubt that Victor has altered the narrative:

  • The fact that Victor is presented as “principally in giving the life and spirit to the conversations he held with his enemy” underlines his position of control:

    • This suggests that Victor symbolises powerful society’s control of the marginalised

Science and creation

“I have described myself as always having been imbued with a fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature.” – Victor, Chapter 4

Meaning and context

• This underlines the intensity of Victor’s childhood ambition 

Analysis

• This quotation suggests that Victor’s desire is amoral:

  • The word “penetrate” has sexual connotations:  

    • This implies that Victor is violating nature

    • Due to the Romantic emphasis on the power and purity of nature, this creates a sense of disgust

    • Through this presentation, Shelley seems to be representing Galvanism negatively

“I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God!” – Victor, Chapter 5

Meaning and context

• Victor’s first description of the creature he has made

Analysis

• This highlights the grotesqueness of Victor’s scientific experiments:

  • The repetition of “beautiful” and the use of short, sharp sentences, such as “Beautiful! Great God!” creates a sudden and tense atmosphere:  

    • This sets a foreboding scene and tone, foreshadowing the horrifying appearance of the creature 

  • The use of colour imagery, such as in “black lips” and “dull white”, creates a sense of distortion and illness:

    • This suggests that the creature is unnatural

• The appearance of the creature seems to symbolise the horrors of playing God and distorting nature

Gender

“The appearance of Justine was calm.” – Victor, Chapter 8

“The tortures of the accused did not equal mine; she was sustained by innocence,...” – Victor, Chapter 8

Meaning and context

• In the first quote, Victor describes the appearance of Justine at her trial

• In the second quote, Victor describes his feelings as he watches Justine’s trial

Analysis

• These two quotes portray Victor’s sexism, which result in him being unable to empathise with Justine:

  • In the first quote, Victor is sees Justine as a vehicle for his own male gratification:   

    • The emphasis on her physical appearance suggests that he simply sees her as something to stare at longingly

  • The second quote emphasises the sense that Victor is unable to perceive this event as a tragedy: 

    • Victor is depicted as considering himself the victim in this situation, despite the fact that Justine is facing potential execution for the actions of his creation

    • Victor is portrayed as using violent language such as “fangs” and “tore”, which have animalistic connotations

    • This reinforces the suggestion that Victor is only able to see his own suffering 

“Elizabeth's heart-rending eloquence failed to move the judges from their settled conviction in the criminality of the saintly sufferer.” – Victor, Chapter 8

Meaning and context

• Victor reflects on the fate of Justine

Analysis

• This quote suggests that the jury were unable to consider the truth because Elizabeth was a woman:

  • The quote emphasises the sense that women are not listened to in Frankenstein, despite their intelligence and oratory skills:   

    • The use of the hyperbole in “heart-rending eloquence” emphasises the sense that Elizabeth’s speech was profoundly convincing  

    • The use of the biblical diction in “saintly sufferer”, coupled with the sibilance, which helps to generate an almost transcendent tone, suggests that Justine is an idealised character

    • Shelley contrasts her purity with a sense of injustice to highlight the fact that Elizabeth’s speech should have been listened to

    • This may indicate that women are intelligent beings and should be appreciated for their intellectual contributions 

    • In 1818, women were not allowed to testify in court, and Shelley may be trying to suggest that this should be changed

“I have a pretty present for my Victor — tomorrow he shall have it.” – Victor’s mother, Caroline, Chapter 5 

Meaning and context

• This quote is spoken by Victor’s mother, Caroline, before he is presented with Elizabeth

Analysis

• This quote depicts women as objects to be controlled and to give gratification:

  • The use of the metaphor “pretty present” suggests that Victor’s mother is dehumanising Elizabeth: 

    • This may suggest that Caroline has internalised the patriarchal views of society 

Isolation and companionship

“Shall I not then hate them who abhor me?” ­­– Creature, Chapter 17

Meaning and context

• This quote is spoken by the creature to Victor as he explains why his actions have occurred

Analysis  

• Shelley highlights that the creature is seen by society as an outcast:

  • This is emphasised by the demonic language used to describe him: 

    • Being considered a “fiend” and “devil” drives the creature to kill William and take revenge on those who “abhor” him

“In a solitary chamber, or rather cell, at the top of the house, and separated from all the other apartments by a gallery and staircase.” ­­– Victor, Chapter 5

“Clerval called forth the better feelings of my heart; he again taught me to love the aspect of nature, and the cheerful faces of children. Excellent friend!” ­­­– Victor, Chapter 6

Meaning and context

• The first quote describes the room where Victor creates the creature in isolation

• The second quote describes how Henry is able to bring joy to Victor after his illness

Analysis

• The contrast between these two quotes reveals that relationships, nature and beauty lead to happiness, not power and ambition:

  • The first quote symbolises the amorality and consequences brought about by pursuing personal ambitions: 

    • The use of language with criminal connotations, such as “cell”, suggests that Victor’s actions are amoral

    • The sense of separation is a common trope of Gothic literature, and this helps to create a sense of distance from society

  • The second quote suggests that Clerval managed to console Victor and transform his pain into pleasure:

    • The short sentence “Excellent friend” suggests that Clerval has managed to reinvigorate Victor from the pain of his illness and isolation

  • The sense that “nature” and “children” caused this reinvigoration implies that Romantic conventions will bring happiness:

    • The fact that his friend is able to evoke such joy signals that relationships are a route towards happiness and fulfilment