Reading Journal, 'Frankenstein', Chapters 9 - 17

Chapter 9:

·         Victor is obviously guilty for his actions, yet instead of taking action to put things right, he wallows in self-pity – ‘I was seized by remorse and the sense of guilt’

·         He does not appear to try and ‘solve’ the problem, because Victor considers suicide – is this cowardly, or is he just out of his depth?

·         Victor has shown solitude in nature and even when considering suicide, nature is a part of it – ‘I was tempted to plunge into the silent lake that the waters might close over me and my calamities forever’. Nature gives Victor peace, yet could also end all his suffering.

·         ‘But now misery has come and men appear to me as monstrous thirsting for each other’s blood’ – this quote interests me, as I interpret this as Shelley making a social comment about social injustice – there is a blur between the boundaries between men and monsters. Are we all just the same? Why do some have more power in society over others, just because of their appearance, gender, status and financial situation? (Shelley was brought up as a feminist so this could be her way of speaking out about the inequality between men and women).

·         ‘He walks about the world free, and perhaps respected’ – questioning whether it is Frankenstein or the monster who is more atrocious.

·         Many more references to finding peace in nature – emphasises the Romantic elements of the novel. Is the novel more Romantic than Gothic? At this point in the novel, I believe it is Romantic with elements of the Gothic within.

·         ‘For a short space of time I remained at the window, watching the pallid lightnings that played about Mont Blanc.’ – Victor is almost expecting the monster to visit him, he just doesn’t know when – foreshadowing.

Chapter 10:

·         ‘Valley’, ‘summit’, ‘vast mountains’ – description of immense size. Shows how overwhelmed Victor is. He went against the laws of nature, yet it is the only consolation.

·         ‘Dark melancholy clouded every thought’ – Victor cannot rest physically or mentally, the monster is not with him, but still tortures him. (links to Macbeth’s sleep deprivation).

·         Can be compared to Wordsworth’s letters to Coleridge – Wordsworth found his peace, but for Victor, is it merely a temporary distraction.

·         ‘Causing me to forget the passing cares of life’ – Romantic elements change. As it is so fleeting, it cannot be truly Romantic.

·         ‘Thick mists’ – emphasise the barrier between man and divinity. Victor tried to create something, but it can never be perfect.

·         Victor describes beauty, but his descriptions make it sound painful: ‘ragged bare ravine’.

·         ‘Sublime’  is repeated many times, showing that Victor has a desperation, a want and a need for nature or anything else to have the effect he wants (to be relieved of the guilt), but because it is said so many times, it loses its effect and becomes meaningless.

·         Victor meets the monster – he calls him a ‘wretched devil’ and ‘abhorred monster’, yet the monster speaks with formality. Role reversal? Who is the real ‘monster’? We can sympathise with the monster, who is dignified, more than Victor.

Chapter 11:

·         The monster begins his tale, yet, in my opinion, I do not believe there is a big enough character difference between Victor and the monster in the way they communicate to the reader. I think that this is a huge flaw in the novel that Shelley could have completed a lot better. Without Victor introducing the monster’s story, it would have been difficult at the start to realise who was narrating. It could easily be a flashback by Victor.

·         The monster describes how he begins to question the world –he discovers pain and pleasure: ‘I thrust my hand into the live embers, but quickly drew it out again with a cry of pain’.

·         By meeting the De Lacey family, the monster learns about love. Through his descriptions of his learning experience, we understand how lonely and confused the monster is. Because of this we can sympathise with him. 

Chapter 12:

·         ‘I lay on my straw, but I could not sleep’ – we already know that Victor is having problems with his sleep, so this connects the creator and the creation. Possibly could argue that the monster is Victor’s alter ego.

·         The monster learns language through listening to the De Lacey family – the monster is a capable being – more human than we first are led to believe?

·         ‘The pleasant showers and genial warmth of spring greatly altered the aspect of the earth’ – Shelley’s use of pathetic fallacy emphasises that both Victor and the monster are coming to terms with their place in society.

Chapter 13:

·         Through Felix’s lessons to Safie about English, history, politics and religion, the monster learns more.

·         He wonders at the dual nature of man – ‘at once so powerful, so virtuous and magnificent, yet so vicious and base.’ Yet, this could also be Victor’s own view of the monster.

·         ‘What was I?...and I saw and heard of none like me’ – the monster realises he is completely alone and there is no one like him. With his exterior appearance, he knows he can never fit in with humanity as a whole. Could be foreshadowing the monster’s request to Victor to create another monster.

Chapter 15:

·         The monster learns the identity of his creator and approaches the blind father – his appearance will not interfere with the man’s judgement. However, when the rest of the family come home, Felix beats the monster with a stick.

·         Shelley could be here making another societal comment – that even the idyllic nature of the cottage is sustained by the only idea that nothing will threaten it from the outside.

·         When the creature finds the three books, he compares himself to Adam who was thrown out of the garden of Eden.

Chapter 16:

·         We now hear of a different side of the monster – he is full of rage. However, it could be argued that before, as he had no real understanding of emotion, he has felt rage all along, he just didn’t realise it. He acts upon this rage and burns down the De Lacey’s cottage.

·         On the other hand, the contact with humanity could be the turning point for the monster’s rage – after Felix beat him, it could have sparked his anger off, and thus showing that humanity is dangerous.

·         The monster further uses his knowledge to manipulate the law into making it look like Justine is guilty of murder.  

·         This could be Shelley trying to force us to consider how our personalities are formed, and what can transform a man into a monster.       

Chapter 17:

·         Victor agrees to create a second monster and then returns to Geneva.

·         ‘I am content to reason with you’ – the monster does not threaten Victor, but uses reason.

·         Victor still resents the monster and refers to him as a: ‘filthy mass that moved and talked’. We must question why he agrees to create another monster – is it a cowardly way out so he can escape his ‘problem’, or is it the monster’s power of persuasion. (similar to Lady Macbeth).